Blues clues: SSRI antidepressants don’t work
Zoloft (sertraline) is the world’s most commonly prescribed antidepressant, with more than 37 million prescriptions written every year in the US alone—and it doesn’t work.
Researchers who carried out the trial, one of the first independent studies that wasn’t funded by the drug’s manufacturer, say they were left “shocked and surprised” by the results, which revealed the drug was only slightly more effective than a placebo, or sugar pill.
The discovery puts a big question mark over the whole family of SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) antidepressants, which were developed based on the controversial theory that depression is the result of an imbalance in serotonin, a
