Posted on 06/13/2016 8:07:56 AM PDT by MarchonDC09122009
Antidepressants in young people may do more harm than good, warn scientists.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/06/08/antidepressants-in-young-people-may-do-more-harm-than-good-warn/
*"researchers at Oxford University who carried out the review said effectiveness and safety of antidepressants taken by children and teenagers remained unclear because of the poor design and selective reporting of trials, which were mostly funded by drug companies."
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Pharma cherry picks their self-funded clinical trial efficacy and safety data that's reported to the FDA. What could go wrong with that?
The majority of antidepressants do not work on children and teenagers and prescribing them could do more harm than good, a major study in The Lancet has warned.
A review of clinical trial evidence found that of 14 antidepressant drugs only one, fluoxetine - marketed as Prozac - was better than placebo at relieving the symptoms of young people with major depression.
Another drug, venlafaxine, was associated with an increased risk of suicidal thoughts and suicide attempts.
Although fluoxetine is the only drug currently recommended for youngsters by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (Nice), clinicians have previously warned that they are still being prescribed.
"Patients who take selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) such as Prozac (fluoxetine), Paxil (paroxetine) or Zoloft (sertraline) may experience side effects such as violent behavior, mania or aggression, which can all lead to suicide.?
Had they given labels back in the 1960s and 1970s when I was young, I would have gotten a few myself (other than “just plain weird”). And they would have doped me up on all sorts of pharmaceutical chemicals. While I didn’t enjoy my childhood all that much, I’m grateful I didn’t get the chemical lobotomy.
Americans have been to willing to believe the lie that the solutions to all their problems are found in a plastic orange bottle with a white cap. And that they don’t need to critically examine their lives and make some tough choices.
All drugs have adverse side effects and no one I know is forced to take them. I know a bit about drug development and it bears no resemblance to what you state. Drugs have actually saved millions of lives and prolonged millions more.
Psych meds linked to 90% of school shootings
http://mobile.wnd.com/2012/12/psych-meds-linked-to-90-of-school-shootings/
*Some 90 percent of school shootings over more than a decade have been linked to a widely prescribed type of antidepressant called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, according to British psychiatrist Dr. David Healy, a founder of RxISK.org, an independent website for researching and reporting on prescription drugs.
Gee FDA, you mean giving powerful psychotropic drugs to young still developing brains could actually be more destructive in the long run?
So maybe having government forcing parent to put kid on Ritalin or else, might have been a bad idea, teachers union?
I have been harping on this and taking flack for years, and every time there is som “Adam Lanza” type loosing it, notice that last this ever looked t is ; What freaking drugs were they giving him and for how long?
While I agree that drugs have done much good, I also wonder how much we really comprehend about how prolonged use of any psychotropic drug changes the chemistry of the brain. This is particularly concerning when it comes to adolescents.
What if these drugs are often a long term solution to what may be a short-term problem? What happens to the brain when one discontinues or stops taking these drugs?
I think more research, less reliance on psychotropic drugs, and a better understanding of potential long-term side effects would benefit everyone.
However, when it comes to psychotropic drugs, the doctors and pharmacologists still don't know exactly what they are doing. I would compare the modern practice of psychiatry to the practice of medicine as it existed before Ignatz Semmelweiss developed the germ theory of disease. The chemical balances of the human brain are still too complex and unknown. They are getting closer to understanding it, but are not there yet to the point where I'd like to take any of their medications.
Actually, the irony is that anti-depressants did their job in several of these mass-murder cases. It was just a job they were unwisely assigned to do!
Anti-depressants help make people to lack willpower and gumption feel confident, motivated and capable. That’s normally a good thing. The problem is when that is given to a teenage who has been stewing in dreams of murder and revenge, stymied only by insecurity; vague and suppressed instincts against such violence; and isolation.
First it started with prozac and ritalin. This drug cocktail ruined two whole generations of boys. Add to that a steady diet of soy products, and the ongoing quest of the radical feminists to effectively neuter young boys, and you get the current crop of young men that you have today: a bunch of momma’s boys who want to have nothing to do with women, and would rather play video games and live under momma’s wing for as long as possible.
Thirty years ago, I couldn’t wait to strike out on my own. Get your driver’s license, find a cheap car, hit the road, and discover freedom and the places it would take you.
Now, most boys absolutely refuse to get a driver’s license, refuse to leave the nest, and momma would divorce dad in a heartbeat and suffer rather than let their boys become men.
Anyone who really thinks that a chemical can halt depression is in dire need of psychotherapy and an education.
Depression is not caused by a chemical coursing through one’s blood vessels. Putting another chemical into one’s system does not reverse depression. It sends a chemical through one’s blood vessels that tells the body that it is not depressed, while in reality it is.
The individual remains depressed, while exhibiting external signs of happiness.
Obviously that is an abnormal situation, and leads to serious problems.
Depression we have known for thousands of years leads to suicide.
Sometimes anti-depressants work.
Sometimes they are not enough.
Sometimes they can have an antithetical effect.
Everyone’s metabolism is different. Metabolisms are also often in flux. It is a difficult to monitor one hundred percent effectively. Possibly not affordable for most patients.
The purpose of this piece, from my reading is not to educate the public. The purpose is to lay the groundwork for an ambulance chasing money fishing expedition, with a side goal of helping to tear down our medical care system.
It’s absolutely true that experimenting with individuals’ reactions is key antidepressant therapy. Cognitive therapy is more difficult to get access to, and is a crucial element. And I’d even be open to the notion that we shouldn’t experiment on brains in such a state of flux as young peoples’ are. It’s just a shame that the debate on such matter is dominated by people who don’t have a clue what they’re talking about.
Strawman argument.
Drugs can benefit patients, no doubt.
And in some cases within state Family Services, parents Are compelled to ensure their children take their meds as a condition of maintaining custodym
My point that pharma doesn’t play by ethical rules is proven by the following facts:
Pharma and FDA oversight has been so untrustworthy that it took an act of Congress to address the following problems with incestuous self-intrested pharma-FDA relationship:
The ClinicalTrials.gov Results Database Update and Key Issues
“KEY TRIAL-REPORTING POLICIES
Section 801 of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (FDAAA)1
expanded the legal requirements for trial reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov.
*It was passed into law amid
concerns about *ethical and scientific issues affecting the design, conduct, and reporting of
clinical trials,2 *including the suppression and selective reporting of results based on the
interests of sponsors,3 unacknowledged alterations of prespecified outcome measures,4 offshoring of human-subjects research,5 and *failure to report relevant adverse events.6”
Per NIH study publication:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3066456/
No say you’re sorry to the 27,000+ people who were murdered by big pharma’s Vioxx scam, among numerous other drug scandals.
RE: “All drugs have adverse side effects and no one I know is forced to take them. I know a bit about drug development and it bears no resemblance to what you state. Drugs have actually saved millions of lives and prolonged millions more.”
The normalcy bias runs strong in you.
Yeah, and that’s why the study was conducted by Oxford medical professionals and published in such a hack publication like The Lancet (UK’s version of the US’s New England Journal of Medicine).
Oh, and pharma and the FDA are Soooo ethical, that the following oversight act of Congress was Completely unnecessary, right?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3066456/
RE: “All drugs have adverse side effects and no one I know is forced to take them. I know a bit about drug development and it bears no resemblance to what you state. Drugs have actually saved millions of lives and prolonged millions more.”
Dr. David Healy’s research on SSRI use and violence.
http://rxisk.org/tools/guides/
And ssristories.org
Dozens of mass shootings have been committed by young adults using anti-depressants.
Suicide and violence are stated as side effects by the drug manufacturers.
The whole thing is nuts from word go. Giving children speed is going to help their brains? They are giving kids ECT, too. How is damaging the brain going to help? What kind of suckers ever bought into that? They have no idea what the brain chemicals are or what the right proportions are and have no way to test what the drugs are doing to the brain without killing the patient and doing an autopsy.
But numbers like 90% of shootings are a pretty strong clue as to what is causing the unpswing in senseless workplace, and school shootings as well as these nutzoid cases of parents killing their own children. I’ll bet the numbers are 90% there too.
Antidepressants are not a long term solution. Unfortunately people think the brain is just a chemical soup and that ones it’s “just right” then the issue goes away.
But they’re easier to do than talk therapy, doctors only need 15 minutes for a med check versus an hour therapy session. There’s a lot of factors involved, and Pharma is only one actor.
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