thanks for posting. Esketamine is a really dangerous hallucinogenic drug that has to be taken in a clinic, only as a last resort for depression.
It pains me to see knee-jerk reactions condemning use of medications for depression here on this forum and elsewhere. I think people simply don’t understand what clinical depression is and that the endgame for many is suicide. OK? I don’t care if Big Pharma is making trillions as long their drugs work. People who think a drug has to work all the time for everyone to be considered as a treatment simply don’t understand the nature of mental illness. There is no one-size fits all. The haters can hang their hats on instances of bad side effects or unproven links to suicide while ignoring the fact that anti-depressants have helped millions. If you want to cry bullshit, look at the billions spent every year on talk therapies. Patients can go for years yapping about how badly they were treated by parents or others and still feel no relief. When medication for depression works it can improve and even save lives.
Agreed but please let’s keep balance on both sides. Pharmaceutical drugs are a blessing but we have an opioid epidemic that’s destroyed an astronomical amount of lives. (For starters…) And even trillions of dollars can’t make up for that.
Psychiatric drugs have played a role in saving or bettering countless lives — but they can have catastrophic consequences on some brains if wrongly prescribed, combined, abused, started at too high a dose, etc… :(. Sometimes the side effects themselves worsen the very conditions they’re meant to treat.
It takes a lot of care, skill, precision, AND supervision on the part of psychiatrists to *individualize* their treatment plan and adjust with their patient as their issues evolve — hopefully resolve.* Kudos when just one med is needed, and just for a season at that — but some may need it permanently.
My only son took his own life in June 2023 while in the throes of a mental health crisis. He was on sertraline but had terrible side effects. He was then prescribed Wellbutrin but was told it took 4-6 weeks to work. After 3-1/2 weeks, he couldn’t take it anymore and ended his life. We miss him every single day and our lives will never be the same.