MDiTV News: Andrew Holtz Clears Up Some of the Confusion About Antidepressant Ads – In the late 1980s, the FDA first approved many antidepressants commonly used today based on evidence that the drugs helped people with severe or chronic depression. But these days, doctors prescribe antidepressants to people with short-term, or mild to moderate depression. Doctors writing prescriptions don’t have much scientific data about how well the drugs work on the larger population of depressed patients. To further complicate the issue, studies suggesting antidepressants may not work very well are often withheld in medical journals. This is known as publication bias. The pharmaceutical companies who often sponsor the antidepressant research may be making sure positive results dominate medical literature. And they spend a lot of money saturating the media with ad campaigns highlighting the optimistic outcomes. Read more... ...