Warning: May cause sadness

A man walks into a doctor's office and says his antidepressants aren't working.

"Let's see," says the doc, consulting his chart. "Are you sad?"

"Yes," says the patient.

"Unable to sleep?" asks the doc.

"Yes," says the patient, starting to think his doc is on the right track.

"Difficulty concentrating?" asks the doc.

"Exactly!" exclaims the patient, now convinced his doctor knows exactly what's going on and is ready to help. "Do you have anything that works?"

"Anything that works?" replies the doctor, incredulously. "What more do you want--the drug IS working!"

It sounds like a joke, but it's not. Because the fact is, patients who take antidepressant drugs continue to suffer these and other symptoms, even in cases in which the drug is considered "effective."

Researchers examined data on 2,876 patients in the STAR*D trial who took selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for 12 weeks.

They found that every single patient reported at least three residual depression symptoms, with 75 percent experiencing five or more and some having up to 13 lingering depression symptoms, according to the study in the Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology.

Overall, the researchers say 71 percent reported sadness, 79 percent experienced insomnia, and 70 percent reported concentration problems--all classic depression symptoms.

Yet the researchers said these drugs worked--they just happened to "miss" a few symptoms.

Miss a few symptoms? Sadness IS depression--and any drug that somehow manages to "miss" it is the very definition of ineffective.

And that's not the only evidence against these meds--because the researchers also found that only a third of all patients who took the SSRIs went into remission within 12 weeks.

That means two-thirds of all patients on these meds are still battling depression months later... and even if the severity is reduced a little in some, why bother with drugs at all if they're not going to do the job?

Most cases of depression have a real answer--one you can find and fix completely without SSRIs or any other mainstream antidepressant drug.

In some cases, it's a matter of getting over one of life's many humps and bumps-- and if you're going through that, try St. John's wort or the amino acid SAMe.

In other cases, you may be suffering from a nutritional deficiency or a hormonal problem--and a skilled naturopathic physician can help find the source and fix it without any lingering sadness.