How effectively do antidepressants relieve the symptoms?

There are a lot of different medications for treating depression. But it's difficult to predict how well a particular medication will help an individual. So doctors often first suggest taking a drug that they consider to be effective and relatively well tolerated. If it doesn't help as much as expected, it's possible to switch to a different medication. Sometimes a number of different drugs have to be tried before you find one that works.

Studies show that the benefit generally depends on the severity of the depression: The more severe the depression, the greater the benefits will be. In other words, antidepressants are effective against chronic, moderate and severe depression. They don't help in mild depression.

The various antidepressants have been compared in many studies. Overall, the commonly used tricyclic antidepressants (SSRIs and SNRIs) were found to be equally effective. Studies involving adults with moderate or severe depression have shown the following:

• Without antidepressants: About 20 to 40 out of 100 people who took a placebo noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.
• With antidepressants: About 40 to 60 out of 100 people who took an antidepressant noticed an improvement in their symptoms within six to eight weeks.

In other words, antidepressants improved symptoms in about an extra 20 out of 100 people.


Antidepressants can also relieve long-term symptoms of chronic depressive disorder (dysthymia) and chronic depression, and help make them go away completely.

An antidepressant can already have an effect within one or two weeks. But it may take longer for the symptoms to improve.

Depressive symptoms can also be treated with a combination of two medications. This might lead to a noticeable improvement. In some people it can take a long time for a medication to start helping. Other people still have symptoms even after trying several different medications. You can then discuss the other possible treatment options with your doctor.


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How well can antidepressants prevent relapses?

Antidepressants are usually taken for one to two years, and sometimes longer, to prevent relapses. Relapse prevention may be a good idea for people who

• have already had several relapses,
• absolutely want to avoid a relapse, or
• have chronic depression.

Studies involving adults have shown that taking commonly used antidepressants such as TCAs, SSRIs or SNRIs can lower the risk of relapses, but can't completely prevent them:

• Without preventive treatment: About 50 out of 100 people who took a placebo had a relapse within one to two years.
• With preventive treatment: About 23 out of 100 people who took an antidepressant had a relapse within one to two years.

In other words, taking an antidepressant over a long period of time successfully prevented a relapse in an average of 27 out of 100 people.