Claims of Poor Efficacy of Psychiatric Drugs Mostly Unfounded?

Experts say that drugs used for treatment of mental health disorders are as effective as those drugs used for other medical conditions like hypertension and asthma, after meta-analyses of large number of clinical trials concerning the drugs. The study is based in Technische Universitat Munich in Germany.

Many individuals, including some experts, foster deep mistrust to psychiatric drugs. They either say that the efficacy of such drugs is very small, or they don’t work for most cases.  Many psychiatrists are also unfamiliar with the effectiveness of commonly used drugs. This problem is compounded by several prominent cases of fraud among drug-making companies and reports of suicide, homicide and over-drugging in the media.

 

Effectiveness supported by research and trials

Their study consists of examining results from 33 clinical studies of 16 different drugs used to treat schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, panic disorders, Alzheimer’s and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

In addition, investigators also examined 94 clinical studies of 48 drugs used to treat heart disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis, asthma, type-2 diabetes and hepatitis C.

Researchers took note of the efficacy of drugs, which have different meanings regarding each one. For example, a drug may be deemed effective if it resolves a symptom such as a rash. But the same drug is more effective if it reduces mortality, even with a small degree. Anyway, most drugs are made to help a person with a medical condition whether it resolves a symptom or helps prolong the life of the sufferer.

 

Helps doctors realize effectiveness of their prescriptions

The study shows that different drugs differ in effectiveness according to medical conditions. For example, those drugs used for lung cancer are shown to be least effective while vaccines like smallpox virtually eliminated the disease. In regards to antipsychotic drugs, they were as effective as antihypertensives to reducing blood pressure compared to placebo.

 

The only problem in the study is that many of the information used came from large drug-making companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Sanofi-Aventis, Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca and others which put a hint of potential bias.

Though it shows that psychiatric drugs work undoubtedly, most practitioners should not regard drugs to work like miracles, according to researchers. Treatment should remain modest, giving drugs only when needed so patients would not receive unnecessary medications.

The review is available in the February issue of British Journal of Psychiatry.

 

 

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