> OP is wrong that there is no evidence for effectiveness of any medications but there is still some debate over the effectiveness of some classes of drugs(SSRIs for instance, last time I looked).
Strongly the agree that the OP is wrong. I’m not sure why it’s so contentious.
As for SSRIs: The famous paper questioning their effectiveness has been widely panned for coming to misleading conclusions. If you read the paper, even their conclusions show SSRIs outperforming placebo. The authors used a cherry-picked analysis technique (“effect size”) to argue that the effect size was not as large as they’d like, despite showing that the effective size of SSRIs was in the direction of showing superiority to placebo.
It’s also difficult to evaluate these topics without fully understanding the science. SSRIs aren’t evaluates in isolation, they’re evaluated in relation to placebo. The problem is that placebo shows remarkable efficacy in some patients. This doesn’t mean that SSRIs are placebo (they still separate from placebo) but it does require careful analysis of the data. For example, SSRIs are significantly more effective than placebo in patients with severe depression, but they separate less in patients with mild depression. None of this means they are ineffective, but the data is often misconstrued as such by those with an anti-medicine agenda.
I’m glad you’ve found a solution that works for you, but please refrain from projecting your own medication choices on to other vulnerable people online based on a cursory understanding of the research.
> There are also many, many people who are helped by psychiatric medications.
Strongly agree.
Everyone should defer to medical professionals rather than HN comments for treatment decisions. It’s very unfortunate to see so many people choosing to avoid treatment for years out of unfounded fears of medications they’ve read online, just as it’s sad to see people avoiding vaccinations due to something they read on Facebook.