It is increasingly common for people to take antidepressant drugs long-term. Recently, a new study aimed to discover whether long-term use was supported by the data from clinical trials of the drugs. The researchers, led by Peter C. Gøtzsche, found that the drugs were not effective for long-term use. According to the researchers, every study they assessed “concluded that the drugs were not beneﬁcial in the long term.”

Additionally, the researchers wanted to determine the prevalence of harmful effects after using antidepressants long-term. Unfortunately, what they discovered was that every clinical trial either didn’t report on harm or chose very selective outcome measures which likely concealed the true extent of harmful effects.

Because of this, the researchers conclude that “The randomized trials currently available cannot be used to investigate persistent harms of antidepressants.”

It is possible to extrapolate long-term harms from the known short-term harms of antidepressants. The researchers write that “we do know that short term use of antidepressants can cause irritability, anxiety and panic, emotional ﬂattening, dyskinesias, sexual impairment, and also suicidality and aggression.” Additionally, serious withdrawal effects are increasingly well-documented, can last for months or years, and can also be mistaken for a return of depressive symptoms.