Posted on 06/09/2010 9:01:24 PM PDT by neverdem
Depression is a chemical imbalance, most people think. Researchers, drug manufacturers, and even the Food and Drug Administration assert that antidepressants work by “normalizing” levels of brain neurotransmitters—chemical messengers such as serotonin. And yet hard science supporting this idea is quite poor, says Irving Kirsch, professor of psychology at the University of Hull in the U.K. An expert on the placebo effect, Kirsch has unearthed evidence that antidepressants do not correct brain chemistry gone awry. More important, the drugs are not much more effective against depression than are sugar pills, he says. To support these controversial claims, Kirsch conducted a meta-analysis, digging up data from unpublished clinical trials. When all the evidence is weighed together, Prozac, Paxil, and other such popular pills seem to be at best weakly effective against depression—an argument Kirsch presses in his new book, The Emperor’s New Drugs. Some other research backs up his claims. A study published this winter in the Journal of the American Medical Association found that psychoactive drugs are no better than placebos for people suffering from mild to moderate depression.
Where did the idea of depression as a chemical imbalance come from? The initial two drugs, imipramine and iproniazid, that were discovered and promoted as effective antidepressants both seemed to increase the amount of serotonin in the brain. It was discovered afterward that one of them seemed to block the reabsorption of serotonin, leaving it to linger longer at cell receptors, and the other blocked the destruction of the serotonin neurotransmitters in the synapses in the brain.
Then there was an observational finding that a drug called reserpine produced depression. Reserpine decreased the available serotonin, so...
(Excerpt) Read more at discovermagazine.com ...
Must be a Scientologist.
Depression has been proven, at least by the docs and people associated with Watercure.com, to be dehydration. A symptom of dehydration. You cure depression by hydrating and staying hydrated. Why do you think the ads that say “depression hurts” show muscle soreness, sore throats, cramps, etc. Dehydration. ‘nuff said.
Another player is entering this debate and is represented by holistic practitioners. The theory is that trauma (wide definition) impacts the body at the cellular level, and is not limited to just the brain. Psychology and Psychiatry deal with the brain, but the holistic practitioner deals with the entire body. If in fact trauma impacts the entire body, then depression is not limited to the brain. Unfortunately, this field of science is in its infancy and is not given any credibility by medical science, which likes to compartmentalize things.
Wild Mood Swings
Homicidal (thoughts)
Suicidal (thoughts)
and that's just the beginning...
I'll post the link.....
“Depression has been proven,...... to be dehydration.”
Nah, that’s all quackery. The doc that’s used as an “authority”, has some serious credibility issues.
Don’t take my word for it though. Read about it here.
http://www.quackwatch.org/11Ind/batman.html
‘nuff said indeed!
How about severe depression?
I can see how a placebo would work on mild depression, but severe depression would be the real test of whether they worked or not.
..whether antidepressants worked or not.
I’ve always perceived depression as simply the body’s natural response to prolonged stress—a defensive mechanism. Obviously there’s a “chemical” reason for it, but I think even in the nineteenth century it was known that you could relieve it with any kind of bodily shock—and that’s really not surprising.
I had a bout of depression years ago, that I felt helpless against, but I fought it and beat it by changing my lifestyle, diet, and gave myself a kick in the pants and told myself to stop feeling sorry for myself. Wasn’t easy, but the more you do, the easier it gets - the problems that caused my depression were under my control all along, I just had to realize that, and do something about it.
I never once thought, hey, i can just take a pill!. Why?
Because, I’d seen personally what these pills do to people. I experienced it briefly when I took Wellbutrin to try and quit smoking. These pills numb you out, grind off the peaks and valleys of normal emotion - you aren’t mad, you aren’t happy, or sad, you just...are. Zoned out. Numb. I took them for a week, and then threw them out. They scared me.
I watched other people, who needed serious therapy for things like being sexually abused as a child, get put on the pills, and never have any work done on their issues. Then, they go off the pills, and it’s a complete trainwreck, jobs are lost, relationships in tatters or abandoned, in one case ending up committed to the county psych ward. That was fun.
Now, i see most people I know on them. It’s scary. Not that they’re on them, but fearful of what will happen when they come off them, and all those issues have been simmering all along, underneath.
So, now I have a rule, and I do not break it: I will not, under any circumstances, get emotionally involved with anyone on these drugs. If involved with someone, and they start, it IS a dealbreaker.
I know there are some that NEED these pills, but I bet 90% or more of the people on them don’t need them, and are being prescribed them by their doctors to simply warehouse them in the pill zone, where they don’t have to deal with their icky problems, and can guaranteed decades of billing for doing nothing more than writing out a script, and adjust the meds once in a while.
Depression sucks, but my layman hunch is most of it is dietary in nature, combined with a lack of exercise, and a culture that encourages people to wallow in their misery and take on the victim title.
My thought was that they were admitting they had no clue what their drug did, or how it did what they didn't know it was doing.
The clinical psych folks want you to keep coming in for therapy at what, a hundred bucks a visit, once to three times a week for years.
Pharmaceutical interventions are a helluva lot cheaper. Most people I have know who have tried both prefer the medication.
But I quit that! I’ve quit ALL drugs. Well... let me say one thing: I twisted my ankle this morning, and I was in quite a bit of pain... so I went to the doctor, and I asked him to give me some pain pills. And he didn’t want to do it, but I talked him into it. So he gave me some pills — and I shouldn’t have done this, but I took some about an hour before the show tonight, and right now... I am high... as a KITE! I mean, it is unbelievable! And I would NEVER say this to you people, but, in this case: if you EVER get a chance, to take these drugs... DO IT! They’re called... Placebos!
-Steve Martin
Admits that antidepressants ARE effective for severe depression. I have seen people who were suicidal completely turn around after receiving the correct medication.
I'm sold on the idea. Think I'll throw away my grad school training in Neuropsychology and go with the watercure!
It's no wonder people take the pills, instead. They are cheaper and more convenient. :(
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