The drugs do work: antidepressants are effective, study shows

Doctors hope study will put to rest doubts about the medicine, and help to address global under-treatment of depression

It's official: antidepressants are not snake oil or a conspiracy

Antidepressants work - some more effectively than others - in treating depression, according to authors of a groundbreaking study which doctors hope will finally put to rest doubts about the controversial medicine.

Millions more people around the world should be prescribed pills or offered talking therapies, which work equally well for moderate to severe depression, say the doctors, noting that just one in six people receive proper treatment in the rich world - and one in 27 in the developing world.