Antidepressant, talk therapy fail to beat placebo

http://mobile.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE7BK1ZU20111221?irpc=932

Antidepressant, talk therapy fail to beat placebo
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK | Wed Dec 21, 2011

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Neither
antidepressants nor "talk therapy" were able to
outperform inactive placebo pills in a new
clinical trial on depression treatment -- though
there were hints that the effects varied based on
people's sex and race, researchers report.

The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical
Psychiatry, add to evidence that people
receiving "real" depression treatment in studies
-- from antidepressants to St. John's wort --
often do no better than people given a placebo.

A recent review found that a minority of
antidepressant users even fared worse than
placebo users.

In this latest study, researchers randomly
assigned 156 depression patients to either take
the antidepressant sertraline (Zoloft and other
brands) daily for 16 weeks; undergo a form of
psychotherapy called supportive-expressive
therapy (twice a week for four weeks, then
weekly for 12 weeks); or be in a placebo group
given inactive pills.

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