No benefit of antidepressants in inpatient treatment of depression. A longitudinal, quasi-experimental field study.

Rationale: Antidepressants (AD) are mostly considered indispensable for the treatment of major depression. The vast majority of depressive inpatients are treated with AD. However, there is a growing body of studies indicating that the effectiveness of AD is greatly overestimated due to methodological issues with the AD efficacy studies (e.

Inpatient treatment decreases depression but antidepressants may not contribute. A prospective quasi-experimental study.

Objective: The aim of the study is the evaluation of psychiatric-psychotherapeutic inpatient treatment utilizing a naturalistic design.

Methods: In a sample of 574 consecutively admitted patients, depression (64.5%), personality disorders (19.