In spite of the controversy that surrounds the long-term use of psychotropic drugs like antidepressants, a team of Arabic researchers recently released their new findings.
According to their study released in PLOS One, long-term antidepressant use is not associated with better health-related quality of life among people suffering from depressive disorders.
The findings were based on the examination of data from the United States’ Medical Expenditures Panel Survey between 2005 and 2015.
“This study investigates the effect of antidepressant medication use on patient-reported HRQoL for patients who have depression,” the authors specified in their journal report.
“The real-world effect of using antidepressant medications does not continue to improve patients’ HRQoL over time,” the authors determined.
“Future studies should not only focus on the short-term effect of pharmacotherapy, it should rather investigate the long-term impact of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions on these patients’ HRQoL.”
The authors declared no competing conflicts of interest.
