Antidepressant pills may help only most severe cases

Antidepressants such as those made by GlaxoSmithKline Plc may be no better than dummy pills for people with mild or moderate depression, according to a study that suggests 70 per cent of patients wouldn’t benefit from the drugs. In a review of six trials of antidepressants involving more than 700 patients published yesterday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers led by Jay Fournier at the University of Pennsylvania found the drugs helped only those patients with the most severe depression. Most trials excluded patients with milder forms of the disorder, the authors said. About 70 per cent of patients have a form of depression below the level at which they would benefit from medication, Fournier and colleagues wrote, citing a 2002 study. Almost 16 percent of people in the US had been diagnosed with depression at some time in their lives, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found in a 2006 survey of 35 states. Worldwide sales of antidepressants reached $20.3bn in 2008, according to IMS Health Inc.