Bitter sweets

doi:10.1136/bmj.39510.443947.59

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Des Spence, general practitioner, Glasgow

destwo{at}yahoo.co.uk

We clinicians have a stereotyped view of university academics: bearded cyclists, with sandals and odd terry socks, writing books that no one will read but that, fortunately, they never finish. But our academic comrades can enjoy a moment in the sun. Splashed across all the media, a recent meta-analysis of antidepressants concluded, after a reanalysis of unpublished data released through freedom of information legislation, that they are no better than placebo in all but severe cases of depression (BMJ 2008;336:466 doi: 10.1136/bmj.39503.656852.DB, …