Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/nov/20/prozac-no-better-than-placebo-for-treating-children-with-depression-experts-say

37•pseudolus•1h ago

Comments

shswkna•1h ago

From the article:

> They can also increase suicidal ideation.

A very close family member committed suicide, after Prozac dosage adjustments made his brain chemistry go haywire.

This happened 30 years ago, and it has been known to us that Prozac can cause this, since then.

The Guardians headline is way, way understating the real situation here.

carsoon•58m ago

The problem with suicidal depression is that if someone has created the thought pattern that death is best, then removing the symptoms of depression (lethargy, lack of energy, no willpower) now gives the person the ability to actually follow through with the act.

Medications almost always target symptoms and never address root causes.

shswkna•53m ago

Yes, this is what happens.

kittensmittens5•40m ago

No it's not.

kittensmittens5•40m ago

Completely made up idea here.

kayodelycaon•37m ago

Yup. Depression medication can significantly help the emotional symptoms, but that takes longer to be effective.

I’m bipolar and a lot of the medication I take does not become fully effective for months. For me, my medication slowly became more effective over years as my brain no longer had to compensate for hardware problems.

fragrom•36m ago

This is what my psychiatrist more or less warned me about when I went on medication; that a lot of people who are suicidal lack the energy and ability to plan their suicide, and medications can sometimes undo those particular symptoms and people manage to end themselves.

I'm not sure what kinds of studies have been done about it, but I've had a few therapists same similar ideas. If it's not a studied phenomenon, then it has folks that believe it exists.

pixelready•35m ago

Finding everyone’s cow is expensive and time consuming: https://antidepressantcow.org/2020/02/the-story-of-the-antid...

But is the only true cure to the suffering. We’d have to undergo a massive reorganization of society (and upset a few hefty profit margins) to prioritize that, so we settle for the messy symptom management we have.

ekianjo•40m ago

Suicidal ideation is a risk for many CNS drugs, and not unique to Prozac as far as I know. But yes this is a major risk factor that needs to be taken in account before such kind of treatments.

marcus_holmes•49m ago

> "But a new review of trial data by academics in Austria and the UK concluded that..."

> "Mark Horowitz, an associate professor of psychiatry at Adelaide University and a co-author of the study,"

Austria - cold, has mountains, but not Adelaide University

Australia - hot, has kangaroos, and Adelaide University

Is the Grauniad returning to form?

aaronbrethorst•43m ago

Nature is healing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Guardian#References_in_pop...

djohnston•36m ago

It’s fascinating that otherwise intelligent people have no hesitation pumping their children’s developing brains full of SSRIs and amphetamines at the behest of a professional class who is paid to distribute these medications.

monero-xmr•36m ago

SSRIs literally saved my life, no question about it. Night and day difference, from daily panic attacks destroying my life, happiness, and career, to being almost completely better in 2 weeks after starting. I tried exercise and diet and meditation and you name it, for years!, before I gave medication a go.

Do not care what the science says. It 100% worked for me. Please get help if you need it, tens of millions of people use this medicine successfully

Articles like this are part of the narrative that SSRIs in general are no better than placebo. Absolutely not true for me!

fgonzag•22m ago

Same here, after struggling for 39 years, glp-1 + SSRI + ADHD meds have made me a normal productive human, and 2 years ago I had pretty much given up on the possibility.

Having a child forced me to fix my life, and I'm incredibly happy because of it.

ipnon•21m ago

Pharmacology and chemistry can really make the world a better place.

djohnston•10m ago

Evidently not for children with depression. But yes chemistry is great.

gexla•17m ago

Spitballing here. I always understood stuff like this as "the system doesn't care about you, it cares about the masses." If the result is overwhelmingly looking no better than a placebo, then the small number of people it actually helps is sort of irrelevant. The exception might be cases where people are willing to drop a bomb of cash for lifesaving drugs for rare diseases (Pharma Bro got a lot of flack for massively jacking up the price of one of these drugs.) I don't know what implications such a study may have in a complex space. I imagine the drug will still be available for those who want to try, but far less prescribed as a sort of safe default. I doubt drug companies will care much for this, since the patent has long expired.

thomassmith65•13m ago

This seems like bias against the placebo effect.

BlackjackCF•11m ago

I think it’s important to note the headline that it’s specifically about children. Maybe Prozac is effective for adults but not kids in that range?

funkychicken•10m ago

Hopefully people don’t see articles like this (for depression) and think the results are the same for anxiety disorders.

lemming•4m ago

Our 11 year old daughter was seriously depressed recently. N=1, but fluoxetine was life changing (and potentially life saving) for her, at least.

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