Posted on 02/18/2008 9:26:24 PM PST by neverdem
Despite recent bad publicity over withheld studies showing marginal results, the resume of America's arsenal of antidepressants is enviable: consort to celebrities, subject of best-selling books and tabloid headlines. They may be the most celebrated pills since Valium.
Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa and Lexapro, among others, have become both household words and medicine-cabinet staples. Known collectively as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, these antidepressants are prescribed for anxiety, social phobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder and numerous conditions besides depression.
SSRIs are now the most commonly prescribed of all medications in this country. The rate at which physicians prescribed SSRIs more than doubled between 1995 and 2004, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. SSRIs are considered the first line of defense in treating depression, an illness that afflicts more than 20 million Americans.
Given their wide circulation, SSRIs will have a profound impact on the nation's mental health in the decades to come. But whether their impact is for good or ill depends upon whom you ask.
Most antidepressants boost the amounts of messenger chemicals, or neurotransmitters, circulating in the brain. SSRIs were the first to target the key neurotransmitter serotonin, with highly touted...
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Just last month, a report in The New England Journal of Medicine showed that the makers of drugs such as Prozac and Paxil didn't publish results of trials indicating that their products performed just modestly better than placebos, which have no actual pharmaceutical value.
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Rosie Meysenburg of Dallas and Sara Bostock of California met at a public hearing on SSRIs sponsored by the Food and Drug Administration. Both had strong reservations about the safety of SSRIs. Together, they created a Web site, SSRIstories.com, which catalogs more than 2,000 news stories detailing violent acts -- murders, suicides, school shootings -- by individuals taking SSRIs...
(Excerpt) Read more at chicagotribune.com ...
Can you elaborate and/or provide a link? Sounds interesting. Severe depression is an issue for vets, usually accompanies PTSD.
You need to wise up and stop advising people to play with drugs and dosages like you do. People should follow the advice of a trustworthy doctor, not some nut whose claim to fame is a comical impersonation of a cuckoo bird.
I'm in the same boat, brother. I'm considering just ignoring the election this year until October and reading less bad news. So less FR to be less grumpy.
I wish I could spend as much time with her as I do on FR though.
Thank you both for your posts and the thought and energy that went into them.
While have tremendous admiration, respect and even a bit of envy for those who can do it (as in have faith etc)....it’s not a possiblity for those with a very negative history with the church-— especially in cases of mental illness, abuse, incest etc....
Understand, there is no going back for those who’ve been brutalized in the faith (my term). Basically, the relationship we forge with God is pretty much without scripture or church. It’s the only way for us-— more one on one and totally without outside input of any kind.
And yes, while I find that there are many good Christians who understand mental illness/depression etc, there are as many if not more who do more harm than good and leave the person believing they are a true reprobate.
(Me? Probably am, quit worrying about it years ago).
But that’s just my opinion based on my experience.
sure...http://www.fhu.com/
The patriot outreach is right there on the front page.
“The “system” in this country isn’t set up for long-term care.”
I guess it’s Pollyannish of me, but I think it should be. My posts have been describing what I see as the best solution for the many suffering from depression. I have never suggested, and I keep repeating I have never suggested, that no one should use meds. I have no sympathy with Tom Cruise’s position.
I realize it takes a lot of time, effort, money, love and resources to take care of the depressed in what I see as a (usually) better way. I am just wishing it could be done.
I don’t want to see the government do it, I’d like to see families first (yes, I know, just like with many of the Ritalin kids, no one has the time) and then in the absence of families, churches and private charities.
It is a pipe dream, I realize, so I am not a Pollyanna in the sense of trying to imagine it into existence. I am just lamenting the fact that the systems are not in place, and wishing things were different.
In San Francisco we have catatonic (I suppose) folks sleeping in doorways, obviously schizophrenics riding the bus, severely depressed sitting on the street corners. My heart aches for these people, and I so wish we could do better by them. For instance, as you mentioned, the decisions in the 60s that stopped the involuntary detention of the mentally ill. No one wants to return to the snake pit days, but I think there is a happy medium between that and letting these poor souls wander about in their scabs and urine soaked clothes, being rolled and raped and abused, freezing in the night, going hungry.
I understand that, by the time they reach that point, therapies of various types might be just about useless. I continue to believe, though, that were there earlier intervention, they could have been helped. I would rather be hopeful than be a cynic. People DO get over depression, it CAN be done, and I think people are worth the effort.
Because in SEVERE depression, nothing can be tried before meds. Offensive was the wrong term to use. Perhaps naive/ignorant? Once you’ve seen severe ‘can’t get out of bed’ depression, you’d know that other therapies are out of the question. It’s similar to telling someone having a heart attack that they should exercise and watch their diets. OK sure - but let me get to that point first.
OK, but I have been saying all along, that someone who isn’t responsive would obviously need meds first to cope.
Withdrawal from SSRIs is very, very unpleasant — both physically and mentally. I’ve been tapering off of Paxil since October and it is an experience that I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
Visit www.paxilprogress.org for stories, advice, etc.
I can empathize-I had a very unpleasant experience with weaning off Paxil-took many tries but I finally did. That stuff is nasty.
Get your doc to switch to generic Prozac, aka fluoxetine, to a dose where the symptoms are tolerable and continue the tapering. It is the preferred SSRI for tapering because it has the longest half life. Let me know if you need professional citations.
Thank you!!
My sympathy. I should be thankful, and I am, that my body rejected Paxil with the first dose. I don’t respond well to psychoactive drugs unless absolutely needed, such as long ago Xanax for anxiety.
Very often, anxiety and depression go hand in hand. So, fwiw, I can confidently recommend a homeopathic preparation called Rescue Remedy. It is 100% harmless and has helped me through many rough spots.
This sort of drug is bad news. They mask the real cause of the problem, allowing the real problem to get worse. Then one day, pop and the person is in the newspaper.
Thanks very much for the ping, neverdem. Very interesting topic. Thanks to all contributors to this thread.
Cheer up, maybe Hillary or Obama will be elected.:)
“You need to wise up and stop advising people to play with drugs and dosages like you do. People should follow the advice of a trustworthy doctor, not some nut whose claim to fame is a comical impersonation of a cuckoo bird.”
You know, either you are blind and can’t read what my reply to you was (which was that the professionals handle the matter, in consultation with the patient), or you need to seek the advice of a trustworthy doctor yourself regarding irrational thinking. Or maybe you are just doing a comical impersonation of a cuckoo bird.
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