When antidepressants are necessary

The headline ‘‘Antidepressants don’t work’’ (The Press, Feb 28) was misleading and incorrect.

It came from a conference held in Christchurch on the management of depression. At the conference Peter Gotszche said an article that documented the value of many currently used antidepressants was ‘‘total rubbish’’.

This article was published in The Lancet, and the NHS UK paid for it to be ‘‘open access’’. The idea that both the Lancet and the NHS UK are in the grip of the drug companies is ridiculous.

In addition Roger Mulder concluded that since suicide and mental health issues are on the rise despite increasing use of antidepressants, our current management, including drugs, doesn’t work. This is faulty logic.

Over the past decade life has become more difficult for many. Child abuse, poor housing and homelessness, unpleasant working conditions, zero-hours contracts, relationship breakups and social media pressure have all been rising. Add in earthquakes and flooding. These all adversely affect our mental health.

Depression is a common, complex, very unpleasant and potentially lethal condition. At present many patients will need antidepressants at some time in their illness. These will need to be combined with cognitive behavioural therapy (talking through the issues) to identify and, if possible, correct underlying causes. Psychotherapy might be needed.

Antidepressants are simple to prescribe and monitor. Counselling, cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) and psychiatrist therapy may be less accessible.

Cashmere

Two sides to the story

It was a relief to see the front page present the other view that medication does help people with depression (The Press, Mar 1). But your readers will be left somewhat confused. In a way both viewpoints are correct. There is no doubt that medication helps with depression. However, many people may appear to be suffering from depression but in fact the symptoms are due to trauma in their lives, whether it be as a victim of emotional, physical or sexual abuse, witnessing violence or being part of a natural disaster. In these situations, medication may help a little, but really the trauma needs healing and medication does not do that. Our mental illness services are very stretched, and it would be very helpful to be able to provide additional services to assist people to heal from the trauma in their lives, with many different modes of therapy as no one suits all. The aim would be to heal trauma rather than to fix illness.

Sue Bagshaw

Burnside