(AFP) – Feb 27, 2008

LONDON (AFP) — Doctors urged patients to keep taking their anti-depressants Wednesday despite a scientific study showing that the drugs are little more effective than placebos in treating depression.

Doctors are warning their patients not to suddenly stop taking the medication prescribed to them.

Patients suffering from depression are expected to raise questions about the effectiveness of their treatment plan following controversial claims by researchers who said that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI) drugs like Prozac and Seroxat are barely more effective than sugar pills in treating most people with mild depression.

The study was led by Professor Irving Kirsch's from the University of Hull, who analysed 47 clinical trials and incorporated data not previously released by the drug companies.

Commenting on the findings, Kirsch said: "The difference in improvement between patients taking placebos and patients taking anti-depressants is not very great.

"Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients unless alternative treatments have failed to provide a benefit."

But the study was met with calls for caution.

Louis Appleby, national clinical director for Mental Health, told the Press Association: "New guidance on the treatment of depression will be issued by Nice [the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence] later in the year, and this new study will be considered as the guidance is prepared.

"Until then, the message to patients and doctors remains the same -- anti-depressants are an appropriate treatment for moderate or severe depression."

The government has plans to expand the availability of psychological therapies as an alternative to drugs, Appleby explained, with extra investment and more psychological therapists.

"The evidence shows that these therapies are effective and often preferred by patients," Appleby concluded.

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