Study: Benefits of Antidepressants Outweigh Risks

By John M Grohol PsyD
February 2, 2005

Despite recent controversy over the potential effects of antidepressants in young users, the lifesaving benefits of drugs such as Paxil, Prozac and Zoloft far outweigh their risks, a new study suggests.

A comprehensive review of decades of data from Europe and the United States reveals a close correlation between dramatic declines in suicide and the introduction of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) family of antidepressants into the marketplace.

“If these drugs were really causing suicide, the reverse should be happening,” said study author Dr. Julio Licinio, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California, Los Angeles, School of Medicine. (Here’s the press release as well.)

Of course, since a study like this can’t control external, environmental factors, one cannot really make causal statements about whether X is or is not causing Y. So while suicide rates have dropped overall, that could just as easily be related to any of a number of factors (Z), which the researchers did not examine (or eve know about). I’m not sure how a study like this ever makes it to publication with researchers making the claims they do that cannot be supported by the data. Correlation does not equal causation (and so, just because you find an inverse correlation relationship doesn’t mean you can draw conclusions about how or why that relationship ecists).

Dr. John Grohol is the CEO and founder of Psych Central. He has been writing about online behavior, mental health and psychology issues, and the intersection of technology and psychology since 1992.