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Tips on minimizing withdrawal symptoms from Effexor (aka Venlafaxine)
Depression & Anxiety | Last Active: 4 days ago | Replies (6299)Comment receiving replies
According to the books I've read, the clinical trials that didn't produce the results were withheld for the most part and in some of them the results were rephrased to make them appear more favorable than they were. The ones that also used placebos are especially interesting. I respect your experience following the health care industry for many years, but I also know that their motives are mixed at best, that their testing protocols were changed during the GHW Bush administration, that there's much reliable information which they don't provide and that antidepressants have been and are an endless source of huge profit for the companies that make them. They're not about to bite the hand that's feeding them.
Replies to "According to the books I've read, the clinical trials that didn't produce the results were withheld..."
This doesn’t surprise me.
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Don't disagree with you at all. There is clearly a way to get approval....and some companies are better than others. I've been aware of a researcher at Columbia who for years has asserted that the SSRIs are basically no better than placebo for many people. And you are definitely right in your interpretation of the rule changes....although economics play into it as well. Before we got to the say, late 80s, pharma companies were generally guaranteed a decent return on investment for drugs that could get approval. But then the model shifted towards seeking approval for drugs that weren't significantly better than currently available drugs - hence why there are a billion different types of SSRIs/SNRIs (and the same in other classes) -- It's been a long time since the pharma industry came up with a revolutionary drug class that many people would take for long periods of time....Most of the SSRIs/SNRIs are off patent now -- so other than a few companies trying to milk this class with new products - the pharma companies seem to be focused on getting people to take atypical antidepressants along with their SSRIs for "treatment resistant" depression/anxiety. Now there are certainly some people who will benefit from the atypicals -- but those do have well documented side effects - particularly in terms of cardiovascular (high cholesterol) and if memory serves, diabetic risk as well.