Similarly, another peer-reviewed journal revealed that, if the true data for these drugs had not been suppressed, it would have served as evidence that they don’t work:

“We learned that pharmaceutical companies selectively released data that reflected positively on their products, and that combining sup-pressed and published data suggested that most of these medications had questionable efficacy” (J Clin Psychol, 2006; 62: 235–41).

Any residual confidence in the SSRIs is now likely to be permanently eroded. However, most of the large pharmaceutical companies that produced the SSRIs will not receive any negative fallout on their share prices. After all, most of the SSRI patents have now expired (see box, page 8). So, it would seem that the drug giants have already made whatever money they can and can now do a runner—a kind of smash-and-grab raid on the world of psychiatry.

Nevertheless, their future share in this lucrative market may be damaged. Pharma-industry analysts warn that “the world antidepressants market is in serious trouble”, with revenues of “only” $7 billion a year—50 per cent down from their peak (The World Market for Antidepressants, 2006).

They also predict that “the world market will crash”, mainly because there are not enough new anti-depressants in the pipeline.

That may indeed be so, but the market may also crash for at least three other reasons, too. The trust that may have existed between psychiatrists and their patients and the pharmaceutical companies is likely to be permanently tarnished. With this whole sorry episode, the biochemical model of depression--and biochemical manipulation as a solution--is now in question. The result is that patients may be more willing to turn to the many safe, natural antidepressants that are available to them.

Tony Edwards