[Dion]

Originally Posted by I wanna be like Miikka

That is pretty much how all drug trials are conducted. They include a very detailed inclusion and exclusion criteria. It is a problem in clinical trials regarding cancer treatment because companies often reject later stage patients because they have a higher likelihood of dying and as such would make their results look worse.

Similarly, they have to restrict the type of depressed patients on the trial. Mild or Moderately depressed patients have a higher chance of responding due to the placebo effect which would make the drug look worse. After investing 200 million developing it the company tries to do their best to get it approved.

Exactly! It's all about fast tracking a drug to the market so they can make a profit on the people that use it. It doesn't give a patient much confidence that what he is taking is safe and won't cause any permanent damage to ones health.

Also manipulating the test to get a favourable result is a tad misleading as to the effectiveness of the drug.

After Serzone being pulled from the market I stopped taking antidepressents. I didn't want to be a guinea pig for some drug company.

Edit: I should also add, even though some trials are skewed like this, there are several medicines that are critical for treating mental illness. It doesn't mean they are guaranteed to work on you but they have shown great promise in current patients and in past clinical trials.

With regards to avoiding medications completely, well some modern medicines have a lot of question marks but some have been absolutely outstanding. To repeat what others have said, it all depends on you as a person. Some people will react beautifully to one drug but then react terribly to a more common drug. Medicines are out there for a reason, they definitely have their drawbacks but to full out ignore them in treating Mental Illness is a very bad idea.

Sure they have thier draw backs and i'm not suggesting we ignore these medications. I just think patients have to be more informed with what they are taking and the potential side effects to ones health. Just don't assume that a drug that has been tested is safe.

I personaly did 6 years of taking antidepressents. I didn't react well to the side effects which caused me to do greater research on what I was taking. I was shocked with what I found out and decided to try the non medication route. Dispite a few large bumps in the road I haven't had the need to go back to these meds.