A study published in _Psychological Medicine_ looks at self-reported experiences with antidepressants.
**Prof David Curtis, Honorary Professor, UCL Genetics Institute, University College London (UCL), said:**
“The study reports a number of weak associations with people’s answer to the question as to whether or not an antidepressant helped them “feel better”. The effect sizes are so small that they would not be useful to guide treatment. People might take an antidepressant for many different reasons and some of the reported associations presumably reflect this.
“The study should not be taken as evidence that antidepressants are effective. People think all sorts of things make them feel better, which is why health food shops are full of supplements which don’t actually have any proven benefits. The evidence that antidepressants are effective is very strong, but it comes from carefully conducted clinical trials, not people’s subjective impressions.”
**Prof Stella Chan****,** **Charlie Waller Chair in Evidence-based Psychological Treatment,** **University of Reading,** **said:**
“Based on a large dataset, this study provided evidence that a clear majority of individuals have found antidepressants helpful. This is in great contrast with most clinical trials which concluded a relatively low remission rate. This discrepancy is largely due to this study using a single binary (Yes/ No) self-reported response. The key advantage is that it captured antidepressant users’ subjective experience. Potential drawbacks arise, however, as the ‘Yes’ response was phrased as ‘Yes – at least a little’ and that ‘Do Not Know’ or ‘Prefer not to answer’ were excluded from analyses. The findings therefore could not differentiate between the kind of clinical improvements that sustain over time and the more transient relief of symptoms. One big challenge in depression treatment development is to improve effectiveness in reducing relapse / recurrence rates. Building on this research, an important next step would be to further research on perspectives around whether, and to what extent, antidepressants help them sustain their mental health over time. Furthermore, as UK Biobank has a relatively restricted age range (40-69); given the increasing rates of depression in adolescents and younger adults, it would be important to extend this research into the younger age group. The headline here is that it’s good news to know that many have found antidepressants helpful, but more research is needed to identify factors that are associated with short-term versus long-term improvements.”
**‘****Sociodemographic, clinical, and genetic factors associated with self-reported antidepressant response outcomes in the UK Biobank****’ by Michelle Kamp _et al._ is published in _Psychological Medicine._**
**Declared interests**
**Prof David Curtis:** None
**Prof Stella Chan:** None