Is the pharmaceutical industry rolling out medicines on a regular basis?

[Dresden]

Possibly, I mean we know that pharmaceutical companies routinely withhold reams of research data and studies when those results don't support their current goals for that drug, which are usually to show safety and efficacy to the FDA and so get the thing approved ASAP. So of course it is only slightly more of a stretch that these big pharma multinationals know a lot more about their drug mechanisms than they are letting on, for whatever possibly sinister reason such as profiteering such as what you seem to be implying or just wondering or for any reason really. I don't think they're nearly that uber competent though. Instead I posit that they are just trying to get drug x approved as quickly as possible and then sell as much of it as possible before the patent runs out and all the while charging as much as the market, which is far from free, will bear out in the process.

As for the lack of effective drugs to treat depression, I once read it is because they have been focusing on misleading or just downright incorrect animal models when screening the initial lead compounds for depression. In the case of antidepressants, they use an animal model called the learned helplessness model whereby a rate is left swimming or floating in a glass full of water too tall for it to be able to escape from until they just give up and float (or drown?). The problem with this model is that it has little to nothing to do with the etiology of depression in humans and has been relied on exclusively for far too long. As a result, until they correct their methodology for screening novel antidepressant drugs in animals, from what I read, a truly safe and effective (or even just an effective) drug treatment for depression in us humans will likely never develop. And before the next placebo aided SSRI treated depressive chimes in and says, "Well, SSRIs/SNRIs/etc. helped my depression a lot," (and there are plenty or at least a handful of these people), just let me point out that studies have shown SSRIs to be slightly LESS effective at treating depression than placebo! Now that is a deplorable record of achievement.

 

[sekio]

just let me point out that studies have shown SSRIs to be slightly LESS effective at treating depression

part of the problem with statements like this is that "depression" is an awfully broad category of disorders, rather like saying "cancer" - it's a symptom which doesn't clearly reflect the underlying causes at work.

The fact remains that SSRIs and friends do treat depression in some cases (namely severe chronic depression), they have greater than zero efficacy... and for some kinds of depression the best treatmebnt we have is simply therapy.

 

[serotonin2A]

Dresden, the problem with that view of pharmaceutical companies is that their research isn't actually very opaque. Researchers at pharmaceutical companies often move from company to company or to academic institutions. There are also students and interns who help with the research. If the companies know all of this new information about diseases, then all of those people would also know. Scientists like to get grants and win things like nobel prizes, so someone would spill the beans for personal gain.

You are also markedly understating the effectiveness of antidepressants. If there wasn't substantial evidence of therapeutic efficacy then the FDA and other regulatory agencies would not have approved their use. Do we need better antidepressants? Sure! But that is because it is difficult to discover new therapeutic targets.

It is true that some studies have reported that SSRIs are ineffective, but that is apparently due to use of outdated assessment instruments:
http://www.nature.com/mp/journal/vaop/ncurrent/pdf/mp201553a.pdf

There are several varieties of animal models. Although learned helplessness may not have etilogical validity (the depressive symptoms in animals do not occur for the same reason that they occur in humans), it does have predictive validity and face validity. Those types of validity are sufficient to make learned helplessness a useful model.

https://www.acnp.org/g4/GN401000076/CH.html

There are also several other animal models used to evaluate potential antidepressants.

 

[dopamimetic]

As for the lack of effective drugs to treat depression, I once read it is because they have been focusing on misleading or just downright incorrect animal models when screening the initial lead compounds for depression. In the case of antidepressants, they use an animal model called the learned helplessness model whereby a rate is left swimming or floating in a glass full of water too tall for it to be able to escape from until they just give up and float (or drown?). The problem with this model is that it has little to nothing to do with the etiology of depression in humans and has been relied on exclusively for far too long. As a result, until they correct their methodology for screening novel antidepressant drugs in animals, from what I read, a truly safe and effective (or even just an effective) drug treatment for depression in us humans will likely never develop. And before the next placebo aided SSRI treated depressive chimes in and says, "Well, SSRIs/SNRIs/etc. helped my depression a lot," (and there are plenty or at least a handful of these people), just let me point out that studies have shown SSRIs to be slightly LESS effective at treating depression than placebo! Now that is a deplorable record of achievement.

Yeah, I've been having much the same thoughts for a while now ... mental disorders are just too fragile, different and complicated to be replicated in animal models (let alone such simple ones.. Rat Park still isn't fully accepted). Of course it gives a starting point, the learned helplessness model has it's reasons behind, but our conscious brain is too complex- you'll only find very basic mechanisms by this way. How do you deal with year-long experiences and stress, traumas etc. when the animals only ever see their fucking cage and their torture ... and you can't talk with them.

They would never have found ketamine as an antidepressant out of just animal experiments.

Indeed it might be true that things that make rats swim longer over and over again in models of learned helplessness could on the long term cause a worsening of depression for some ........ do they ever test multiple episodes of depression, normal life and happiness etc. in animals and look how they behave when they are older!?