[firemonkey]

Psychiatric drugs are as effective as medicines used to treat many physical health problems, according to a major review published this month (February).

Researchers from the Technische Universität Munich in Germany looked at 33 meta-analyses of 16 different drugs to treat psychiatric disorders (including schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, Alzheimer’s disorder and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder), and 94 meta-analyses of 48 drugs to treat medical diseases (including cardiovascular disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, chronic asthma, type 2 diabetes and hepatitis C).

A meta-analysis is a “trial of trials” where all properly conducted clinical trials of a particular treatment are studied to calculate the true benefits of that intervention.

The research team, led by Professor Stefan Leucht, compared the effect sizes of the different drugs. An effect size of 0.2 is considered significant but low, and an effect size of 0.8 or above is considered high.

Some general medicine drugs had very high effect sizes, for example an effect size of 1.39 for proton pump inhibitors to treat reflux oesophagitis (commonly known as acid reflux), and an effect size of 2.27 of interferon to treat hepatitis C. But many commonly used general medicine drugs, such as statins and aspirin to prevent cardiovascular disease and stroke, had small effect sizes (0.12 for aspirin for secondary prevention of cardiovascular events and 0.15 for statins for cardiovascular events).

Overall, the effect sizes for the psychiatric drugs were found to be in the same range as the general medicine drugs. For example, antidepressants used as ‘maintenance treatment’ to prevent patients having a relapse of major depressive disorder had an effect size of 0.64, and antipsychotics used to prevent relapse in schizophrenia had an effect size of 0.92.

Taking all diseases, the mean effect sizes were only of medium size for both psychiatric and general medicine drugs.

Professor Leucht said: “We believe our study puts the effectiveness of psychiatric drugs and general medical drugs into perspective. There is a deep mistrust of psychiatry, fostered by reports suggesting that the efficacy of psychiatric drugs is very small. Psychiatrists, patients, carers and the media are often unsettled by these findings, and some may think that psychiatric medication is not worth the bother.

“There are reasons why people should be critical about psychiatric drug treatment, such as a lack of diagnostic tests, commercial conflict of interest, unclear mechanism of drug action and side-effects. But our study shows that the psychiatric drugs were not generally inferior to those used in other medical specialties, and the effectiveness of psychiatric drugs is supported by randomised controlled trials.”


http://www.onmedica....39-393021100847

[Universal Credit]

Did they factor in life expectancy when on these drugs or is that ignored for people like us?

[ramboself]

they'd say life expectancy with a lot of illnesses is curtailed

[Universal Credit]

ramboself, on 01 February 2012 - 08:22 PM, said:

they'd say life expectancy with a lot of illnesses is curtailed

I still recall one of the side effects of one my meds was risk of sudden death. I guess they hide a lot in the 'it's just the illness' category.

[toffee]

also depends what they measure as success - for instance bipolar meds that limit mania are conisdered a success even if htey ahe no effect on the depression and leave hte person zombified

[eyewashere]

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[firemonkey]

I would hazard a guess that the life span of those who do not take medication and end up on the streets is even lower.
To make an accurate estimation of the negative impact of medication on life span one would need to tease out how much the lifestyles of people with severe mental illness shorten life span and separate that from medication effect.

[Universal Credit]

Meds are OK at the level where they work. Trouble is some folks think they are to be used as sleepers and at elevated levels they then DO shorten lifespan.

[ramboself]

I was saying to my sister that my mother phoned and she seems on these drugs to now be symptom free, my sister said it's a better quality of life as she's not constantly crying, i wonder if i have a better quality of life despite my moans about been borderline to the benefit system etc, i also wonder about my quality of life after welfare reform, maybe the charitys will provide

To be nasty is my mother not crying constantly more a comfort for my sister and those around her

[manic666]

I lived my life at 100 mph when younger, i think i burned myself out an needed meds to stabise as all my 9 lives had been used. I could not have survived at the speed i was liveing , my body an mind would have imploded . I need meds has i havent a young mans strenth anymore, an there not enough fight left in me to live at that pace my brain commands without meds. Sure i will die younger ,but hey i should be dead now so this bit is a bonus.

[eyewashere]

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