Posted on 11/20/2004 7:07:55 PM PST by neverdem
Isn't it ironic that an anti-depressant killed someone?
prozac & paxil have many more horror stories on the internet than zoloft. I don't know why.
On the surface, yes, but then if you know the science behind them you might get angry.
Serotonin, an important chemical produced in the brain, is considered essential for relaxation, concentration, sleep and calmness. Its lack or suppression can lead to severe mental disturbances and even violent behavior. To make serotonin the body requires adequate levels of magnesium, tryptophan and vitamin B-6, nutrients which the USDA says American diets are severely deficient in, but which medical doctors rarely run tests for -- even when they prescribe medications which affect serotonin levels (which includes "anti-depressants," and which is often!).
There are about 200,000 deaths a year because of prescription (legal) drugs, including the homicides and suicides from "serotonin re-uptake inhibiters" and other so-called anti-depressives (in contrast to about 20,000 deaths a year in the U.S. because of illegal drugs).
Most American medical doctors have taken no more than 5 hours of nutrition classes in medical school if any at all, but they are subjected to dozens and dozens of presentations by pharmaceutical company representatives on patent medications every year. So it should be no wonder why more and more people look elsewhere for advice on real nutrition.
I all most hung myself trying to read that!
FReepmail me if you want on or off my health and science ping list.
Bump
Very interesting. Thank you.
a nutritional deficiency would explain certain food cravings in depressed people and even women with PMS who are now offered repackaged antidepressants.
-- and even when just taking supplements for those missing nutrients may have been all that is required.
Amendment X to the Constitution of the United States, together with Article I, Section 8, prohibits the U.S. Congress from involving itself in cabbage pricing, education, health care, personal safety, campaign financing, most criminal law, toilet capacity, the banning of amino acid supplements (specifically, tryptophan) and thousands of other things it has gotten away with (so far). (see http://lcweb2.loc.gov/const/constquery.html)
Do you have any reputable links?
I lost my son, Jeff, (17) in Feb of 1999 due to major depression (suicide). He was on Zoloft, and it made it worse, I am certain. God, I miss my son! I wish the FDA would get it's act together regarding anti-depressants.
I don't think these goofy MD's care. When I went to see my OBGYN he just gave me lexapro for post partum, Never bothered to see about lifestyle changes or therapy. and the crazy thing was that he knew the last thing I wanted was drugs and for the next 6 months I went through h***. Thank GOD I am off and doing well.
The simplest way to think about SSRIs is this: They give the patient back his energy before they give him back his mood. Many, many people who have both moderate to severe depression and suicidal ideation are literally too depressed to kill themselves. They want too, but they're too detatched to even be bothered to go through with an attempt. Once you start them on an SSRI, there is a short period of time, roughly one to six weeks, where they medication will be effective enough to give the patient some of his energy back, but not effective enough to relieve the underlying depression. Obviously, in those who are already thinking about suicide, this can be an extremely dangerous period of time, because it gives them a window in which they'll have both the desire to kill themselves and the wherewithall to go through with it.Chad Brownel, Matt's only close friend at Harmony, said that Matt mentioned suicide ''hundreds of times'' during the six months that they'd known each other. And toward the end of the school year, when Roxana Rogers asked Matt about his plans for the summer, Matt said that if his parents sent him away to camp, he would kill them and then kill himself.
The solution, however, is incredibly simple: All patients with even the slightest hint of suicidal ideation (like the subject of this article) should be monitored 24 hours per day for the first few weeks after being started on an SSRI. You don't have to lock them up for the duration, but you can't just toss the bottle of pills at your kid and continue with your daily routine during this time.
Assuming this article is telling the truth about what occurred (a giant if, given the source), the doctor should have made this very clear to the parents. But in any case, for all the bloviating in the MSM about this issue over the last few months, the reality is that doctors and scientists have known that SSRIs act this way for pretty much as long as they've been in existence. The only reason these medications are getting black box warnings is because there are so many doctors and parents out there that simply don't want to take any responsibility any more.
No. They sometimes have devastationg effects on some people even in small doses. Most of them require a weaning-on period. Sometimes they throw you into a severe agitated state which I can only describe as a preview of hell.
Some depressed people cannot tolerate anti-depressants. Sometimes if you have anxiety or comorbidity, a transquillizer works better. Take care of the anxiety and the depression lifts because you are able to get out and do more things comfortably.
I will never take another drug without doing extensive research on the anxiety/panic/depression newsgroups to see the various reactions people have towards them.
We have a tendency to trust doctors which is fine (to a point) with psyiological drugs but can be deadly when dealing with brain chemistry altering drugs.
People going on anti-depressants should be watched carefully for increased anxiety/agitation/tremors/behavorial changes. If you have a negative reaction, it sometimes takes quite a while to resolve. A lot of people cannot articulate what they are feeling. Outwardly they seem better because they seem to have more energy and "sound" better but inwardly they are in terrible danger.
Some people can almost effortlessly go on to anti-depressants and when get the chemicals built up with positive transformative effects. For others it is a recipe for disaster. I would imagine it is even worse for younger people who are more volatile anyway and don't know what to expect and trust their doctors because things like antibiotics work in such a life-saving manner. It is not the same with psychological meds.
They used to put you in the hospital and monitor your reactions, blood pressure etc. Now they write you a script and send you out the door and tell you to come back in a month or so. In the meantime, anything can happen.
Yes it is.
The list of what the USDA has said is depleted in the food supply is in one of my many bookshelves, and I don't know where it is right off, and I'm tired. I do recall that they said magnesium barely meets the RDA's (but various nutritionists claim the RDA's are ridiculously low in this, in B-6 and in some other nutrients).
FWIW, I do respect the Life Extension people and their obsession with data ( http://www.lef.org/ ). Some people say their research should be discounted since they have products to sell. I say anything funded by government and universities should therefore be doubly-discounted since they have tyranny to sell and tenure to buy. In any case, let the buyer beware, ESPECIALLY when anyone claims to be unbiased.
Does anyone know if Zoloft has a similar affect on adults?
Prayer for the both of you. Condolences.
Where did your lack of trust in Doctors first originate to place such trust in the Internet?
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