So apparently, treating sadness cannot come from a drug. How depressing for those with an outlook that they need to drug away their sadness and anxiety.

Published in journal PLOS ONE from King Saud University, researchers found that as time wore on, antidepressant use was not associated with improved health-related quality of life compared to those who do not take the drugs over a two year follow up.

For the study, researchers used data from 2005 through 2015 of the United States’ Medical Expenditures Panel Survey (MEPS), a large-scale longitudinal study tracking health service usage by Americans. They found that nearly 17.5 million adults were diagnosed with depression each during the study period (yeah, sad country) and over half of them, 57.8%, received drugs for their depression via antidepressants.

They found that while antidepressant use was associated with some improvement, this change change compared to those who didn’t take any medications was statistically insignificant over two years of follow up. The SF-12 survey tracking health-related quality of life showed that comparing people who did not take any drugs to those who took medication for depression, there was no significant change in both mental and physical components of their depression experience.

OA Almohammad et al. Antidepressants and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) for patients with depression: analysis of the medical expenditure panel survey from the United States. PLOS ONE. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0265928