Hello,
There have been many posts of late saying that antidepressant medications do not beat placebo for mild to moderate depression and only just beat placebo for the very severe cases. This is simply not true. It is true that the response increases with severity but regardless these medications work. Unfortunately some people suffer very bad side effects and some get no help at all. I feel almost guilty that I have had success where others have not and I feel completely powerless.

Dysthymia is a chronic form of depression in which the symptoms are more moderate when compared to major depression. There is solid evidence (I posted a link to elsewhere) that 90% (or at least up to 90%) of people that suffer this condition also get major depressive episodes. Chronicity itself has been shown to be a poor responder to placebo. Anyway here is the evidence from the Cochrane Library. I actually have a copy but it has now been withdrawn for failing to comply with some technical publishing requirement. The 77 page review was published in The Cochrane Library 2005 in part concluded 'Drugs are effective in the treatment of dysthymia with no differences between and within drug classes.'
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1...otherversions=
Also the Journal of Affective Disorders:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science...6503271200451X