[hannob]

It makes me a bit sad reading comments like this. I don't doubt that this is what you experienced, but it's pretty much basic science 101 that personal anecdotes aren't evidence. You experienced that you got worse when you stopped taking SSRIs and you got better when you took them again. There are many explanations for this. That SSRIs were the reason is only one of them. Maybe it was a placebo effect, maybe there were other circumstances that made you feel better, maybe it was pure chance.

The only way to find out whether a drug works are properly designed trials. Unfortunately the situation with trials regarding antidepressants is rather murky, with trials results being hidden in the past etc., and from the best I can tell there is no consensus on how well SSRIs work among experts. But the solution to that is not to refer to anecdotes, it is better science.

[enraged_camel]

>>from the best I can tell there is no consensus on how well SSRIs work among experts.

No, this is totally wrong.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/ssris-much-more-than-yo...

tl;dr: SSRIs have a substantial and clinically significant positive effect on patients with severe depression. The positive effect only decreases in patients with moderate depression, and becomes indistinguishable in patients with mild depression.

[jmhain]

I made absolutely no claim that my experience provided any sort of scientific evidence for the efficacy of antidepressants. I merely stated that if you're on antidepressants, and are in remission, you probably shouldn't quit because of some FUD you read on the internet as I, quite stupidly, did.