It has been shown that patients with depression who use antidepressants have no higher health-related life quality than those who do not. It turns out that this is what a recent research found.
Depressive disorder has a significant influence on individuals’ health-related quality of life, which is well accepted. Debate persists about the long-term effects of antidepressants on patients’ health and quality of life (HRQoL) despite several studies showing its effectiveness in treating depression. Antidepressants were prescribed to 57% of the 17.47 million adults who were identified with depressive episodes each year throughout the research, with a 2-year follow-up period.
This study, which measures health-related wellbeing, found that antidepressant use was linked with just some improvements in the survey’s mental element (SF-12). Antidepressants, though, had no statistically meaningful effect on either the physical and mental components of the SF-12 when contrasted to the group of patients who were identified with clinical depression but decided not to take antidepressant drugs.
Over the course of 2 years, the life quality of individuals using antidepressants didn’t vary considerably from that of those who weren’t. The research was unable to distinguish between different depression subgroups or levels of severity. Non-pharmacological depressive therapies should be investigated in future trials, according to the authors.
In addition, long-term research examining the effects of pharmaceutical and non-pharmacological therapies on the quality of life of individuals with depression is required, according to the experts. Therefore, greater research into the impact of cognitive as well as behavioral therapies in the long-term treatment of major depression is needed in order to better the fundamental objective of treatment for these people, namely enhancing their overall standard of living.
The research findings were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
