The research done on the effectiveness of anti-depressants varies widely and is pretty convoluted. Without doing personal research, coming to a conclusion is incredibly difficult if one wants a simple yes-or-no answer to the broad question, “Do anti-depressants actually work?” The three articles present pretty different opinions. Dr. Mark Hyman, in opposition to anti-depressants, argues that because most of the studies that show negative results regarding anti-depressants were never published, that the flood of these drugs onto the market was just a business opportunity for pharmaceutical manufacturers. He argues that the current studies on the effectiveness of these drugs are not to be trusted because of conflicts of interest (such as drug companies paying scientists and psychiatrists). While the information he provided about the unpublished negative studies in the New England Journal of Medicine seems to be fact, there are some holes in his argument. The first thing that seems to make him untrustworthy is his publisher. Scientology is not a widely accepted or highly regarded way of thinking, to say the least. He also uses a lot of personal anecdotal evidence, such as experiences with his own patients, or stories heard at a dinner table conversation from his step-uncle. Anecdotal evidence is not at all acceptable evidence. The article by Eliezer Sobel in Psychology Today makes the point similar to that of Dr. Hyman; that anti-depressants are a ploy cooked up by pharmaceutical companies and their-handsomely paid psychiatrist cronies. He references other authors that describe an iatrogenic phenomenon (an epidemic caused by the cure). He writes that it began with a horrid over-diagnosing of psychiatric illnesses and “chemical imbalances” that must be corrected with drugs, and a whole cocktail of drugs to balance out the ill individual, in fact. But this author relies mostly on books written by others and anecdotal evidence as well. The third article in the New York Times doesn’t seem to provide anything conclusive as far as the effectiveness of anti-depressants. He provides information on studies that support the claim that anti-depressants do work, but is incredibly vague on other points. For example, he describes maintenance studies done on anti-depressants, where subjects taking medication and doing well would suddenly be switched to a
