Pharmacist questions `sugar pill' claim

A study that labelled most antidepressants as no more effective than sugar pills has been dismissed by a leading pharmacist, who says the research is old and narrow in its scope.

It was last week reported that selective seratonin re-uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, had been shown in a major study to be no more effective than dummy pills for mildly depressed people and only slightly better with those who were seriously depressed.

Prozac, Aropax, Cipramil, Zoloft and Luvox are common forms of the drugs.

Motueka-based Pharmaceutical Society president Chris Budgen has laid out his concerns in a memo sent to the region's pharmacists and supplied to the Nelson Mail.

In the memo, he said the study was taken from 1990s research.

"What it did show was that whilst the effectiveness of antidepressants in mild depression was small, as the depression increased in severity so did the effectiveness of SSRI antidepressants and indeed are considered essential in severe depression by expert opinion and there has been much further positive research since 1999," he said.

He claims the study only appeared to have followed patients for four to eight weeks, which was not long enough to evaluate the effect of antidepressants, where benefits could take months to appear.

The research only evaluated antidepressants in adults and could not be applied to children or adolescents on the drugs, he said.