Highlights: Prozac, Welbutrin, other SSRIs, virtually worthless.
Better than placebos in only 14% patients
No effect in the mildly or moderately depressed
Somewhat effective in small minority of the severely depressed
Company and FDA knew there are dozens of studies that show SSRIs have major negative side effects and little or no positive effects, but ignored those studies in approving drug. All they were two positive outcome studies, and they ignored the rest.
Billions being wasted on these drugs.
Now basically banned in UK
15 minute/day on treadmill much better.
It's all a placebo effect for vast majority of patients.... and huge $ for doctors and big pharma.
The purpose of medicine is to give the government an excuse to steal from income-earners, and to generate cash flow to drug companies.
Period.
I wouldn’t dispute the value of exercise and other methods to treat depression. However, prozac is used to treat a spectrum of conditions, including anxiety and obsessive compulsive disorder symptoms, and it seems to have helped folks I am familiar with. To a person who really is suffering from debilitating anxiety, etc., it seems to make quite a difference.
Also agree many medications are over prescribed, but that doesn’t mean these medicines are worthless. They seem to be talking about the average person who can benefit from a jog as much as medication. Not everyone falls in that category.
They did not work for me; I felt worse because I am Bipolar and those of us who are need a mood-stabilizer as well. An anti-depressant alone can actually make it worse.
As far as others are concerned,it might make them feel better. I don’t know.
Sure sure, just walk off that BPD. It’s all placebo effect.
Thank you for that advice Doctor. I’ll throw away my pills and come over to your house so you can deal with me in one of my manic cycles.
One size does not fit all.
Obamacare is not going to treat mild depression. That is all this report is about.
Those drugs are going no where. They are way too valuable in treating other disorders.
Actually I think Welburtin is fairly effective for folks trying to quit smoking. Not sure how effective it is for depression.
“Better than placebos in only 14% patients”
So, screw that 14%? How many will off themselves?
Can you say death panels?
Citalopram has worked incredibly well for me.
Here’s something to consider when you think your life has gotten to the point of depressing you to need a doctors prescription....mental health concerns WILL prevent you from owning firearms.
That would depress the hell out of me. No documented mental health concerns = much happier than I thought!
Of course, some of you might need medication,and should not be anywhere near a firearm if that were the case...
Well, that settles it. I'm eating Dark Chocolate four times per day from now on. LOL!
Exercise has been shown to be more effctive than SSRIs in a number of depression studies.
I suffered from clinical depression for years. I took Prozac for some few years. It didn’t turn me into a soul-less zombie. It worked. I no longer suffer from depression and my doctor stop prescribing Prozac about ten years ago.
CBS?
60 Minutes?
SeeBS for 60 minutes.
I have no idea whether SSRIs work or not, but I do know that if 60 Minutes reports it, it’s almost certainly false or so politically slanted as to be worthless reporting. If 60 Minutes says it’s bad, then I’d bet dollars to doughnuts it’s not.
They are not entirely worthless. Prozac, for one example, has driven a few people to suicide, singer Del Shannon among them, thus permanently curing their depression.
What’s worthless is the modern diagnosis of depression as a disturbance in the chemicals of the brain. Well, I tell ya something, by that kinda view, everything you humans do is a disturbance of the chemicals in the brain. Say, on the spur of the moment you decide to buy a trashy magazine while waiting at a supermarket checkout line. You didn’t plan it, you don’t need it, you cannot afford it, what happened? The chemicals in the brain conspired to tell you to do it. I don’t need to go on, do I?
Life is the cause of depression. Fix my fracking problems (PLEEZE!), and I’ll be miraculously cured of depression.
Prozac is a $4 /month generic at WalMart; so are most of the SSRI’s. They are not making anybody a lot of money. Interesting that Kirsch doesn’t mention the anti-psychotics. They are also over-prescribed , mostly in the primary care setting. Now, a lot of them are $500/month drugs, though sliding toward generic status quickly. I guess Kirsch knows that people really needing anti-psychotics should in no way be encouraged to go off of them. Yet, the same drug companies using similar clinical trial strategies, bring anti-psychotics to market. Does Kirsch think that’s all “placebo effect” as well? Can you exercise your way out of schizophrenia as well?
When I was young, a doctor put me on one of those medicines. If anything, they seemed to make me ‘worse’. While taking it, I seriously contemplated suicide for no good reason. I stopped taking it, and felt MUCH better. It was like a dark cloud lifted away.
I’d advise someone feeling ‘bad’(as long as it isn’t too often) to simply pick up a bottle of spirits for after work, rather than taking that garbage.