Have you ever been to a psychiatrist and received a diagnosis of anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, etc.? Since this is a psychiatric/psychological website I'm going to assume the answer, for the most part, is yes.

Let's say that you've received a diagnosis of major depression. The next step is the psychiatrist chooses a medication that he (or she) believes will help you. As you know, there is more than one medication that helps alleviate depression, so how does the psychiatrist pick one medication out of a dozen (or more)? The better question is how doesn't the psychiatrist choose a medication?

Choosing a medication is almost always comparing NNT to side effects. I bet 99% of people reading this post have no idea what NNT means. And it's EXTREMELY important! NNT means the average Number of people (with the same diagnosis that you have) Needed to Treat (NNT) before 1 (one) person benefits from the medication more than the placebo effect. Thus the NNT is never a number such as 1 (one). Furthermore, every medication has an NNT (and every psychiatrist knows the NNT of every medication).

Most of you are probably familiar, unlike the NNT, with side effects. These effects range from life-threatening to very mild. Just like the NNT, every psychiatrist knows the side effects of every medication.

Here's my take-home point: Instead of running the risk of trying medication after medication after medication, all you have to do is compare the NNT to the percentage, and severity, of side effects.

I hope this helps.