A recent study has stated that antidepressants are not more effective in making people feel happy compared to not taking any medication at all. The analysis found that patients taking medication did not significantly enjoy a better quality of life compared to those with depression who did not take the pills.
Researchers looked at 17.5 million American adults with depression over a span of 10 years, with half taking medication and the other half not. The results showed a slight improvement in mental health in both groups, regardless of whether patients were taking antidepressants.
The recent study, published in the journal PLOS ONE, used data from surveyed individuals who underwent medical check-ups as part of another study, including all adults in the country diagnosed with depression who were not hospitalized. The average age was 48 years, with most being women (67.9 percent). More than half were taking antidepressants, while 43 percent were not on medication but still had a clinical diagnosis.
The researchers examined health-related quality of life scores. This measure is used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as an indicator of life quality, both mentally and physically, determined by patients answering survey questions about their health, which is divided into two areas: mental and physical health. Healthy individuals typically score around 90 on the scale.
Mental health scores increased in both groups over the two years, while physical scores decreased. For those taking medication, mental health scores rose by 2.9 percent from an average of 40.32 to 41.50. Their physical scores dropped by 1.5 percent from 42.5 to 41.85.
Meanwhile, those who did not receive antidepressants saw an increase in their mental health scores by 2.2 percent from 42.99 to 43.92. Their physical scores declined from 43.86 to 43.31 (1.3 percent).
Researchers from King Saud University in Saudi Arabia called for further long-term studies on patients taking antidepressants to assess their impact on quality of life. However, independent experts noted that strong conclusions from the study cannot be drawn because those who took the medications were generally more depressed initially, making the comparison unfair. They insisted that other clinical studies have shown that medications improve quality of life overall.
