New Study Claims Long-term Benefits of Taking Antidepressants Like Paxil
According to information provided by the National Institute of Mental Health, almost 7 percent of adults in America are suffering from depression that lasts a year or longer. Of those people, 30 percent, or 2 percent of the population, are suffering from severe depression. According to a new paper, antidepressants like Paxil and Effexor can have long-term benefits to patients who take them, but should it be believed?
Older studies tracked data which covered periods of weeks or months when looking for benefits. This new study is the first one that claims look at long-term benefits for people using antidepressants. The most common class of drugs prescribed for depression is SSRIs like Paxil, Effexor, Zoloft and Prozac. As with all medications, these drugs have negative side effects associated with them that have caused people to experience symptoms like suicidal thoughts, aggressive behavior and even suicide. Now many people think that the benefits outweighs the risks when they are finally on the right medication — which, admittedly, can take much trial and error to find. It is that trial and error process that is scary. Often, patients suffer from those harsh side effects before the right dosage can be found. By that time, it is too late. It makes you wonder if the guess work is worth it.
This new study claims that it was able to show that only 29 percent of the people who had severe depression took an antidepressant at first. However, with this particular study these people ended up feeling better and functioning better than those who didn’t take medications early in their depression. The study also claimed that those people were less likely to still be taking antidepressants eight years later.
So far, these findings haven’t been confirmed with corroborating studies, making it easy to cast doubt. More studies will have to be conducted and more information has to be considered; any of these could change or affect the outcome in people with depression. Some of those factors could include other mental health issues and anxiety disorders. The difficulty here is that there are always studies that claim a potentially harmful drug is safe. Studies have already been conducted that prove that many patients may in fact, be better off not taking any antidepresants drugs as they are no more effective than a placebo. In the end, it may turn out that the risks will outweigh the benefits with SSRI medications like Paxil.
