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Antidepressants are all the rage but have a dark side
Chicago Tribune ^ | February 3, 2008 | Christopher Weber

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...

--snip--

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.

--snip--

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 ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: antidepressants; cocopuffs; disorders; health; medicine; mentalillness; psychiatry; ssri; ssris
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To: Rudder

booked marked


41 posted on 02/18/2008 11:57:04 PM PST by Gator113 (America just traded away the possibility of a dream, for what is certain to be a nightmare.)
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To: neverdem
Why did you ignore that? Healy changed his mind about SSRIs.

I didn't ignore, I deferred until I could get to that part.

I'll have to read the details---which I will. But please keep in mind when it comes to the results of any scientific study: "One swallow does not make a summer." Replication of his results by different investigators will, if his findings are confirmed, certainly change the course of SSRI research and application.

I'll get back with you after I read the details.

42 posted on 02/19/2008 12:02:15 AM PST by Rudder
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To: neverdem
Take a drug if I get depressed?

Hell no! I go down the hill and give paper targets and old cans a severe case of lead poisoning...works EVERY time!

I highly recommend it!

43 posted on 02/19/2008 12:24:00 AM PST by JDoutrider (No 2nd Amendment... Know Tyranny)
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To: the808bass

Ack - an even worse article than I realized. Thanks.


44 posted on 02/19/2008 12:48:09 AM PST by gondramB (Preach the Gospel at all times, and when necessary, use words.)
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
It’s all just don’t-give-damn medicine, and the beer is cheaper.

Best cure is find someone worse off and help them.
45 posted on 02/19/2008 1:20:59 AM PST by carumba (The secret of life is honesty and fair dealing. If you can fake that, you've got it made. Groucho)
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To: neverdem

patch’s advice :

keep your hand out of the medicine jar


46 posted on 02/19/2008 1:35:14 AM PST by patch789
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To: neverdem

Maybe Dr Paul Pots is right.


47 posted on 02/19/2008 1:52:31 AM PST by NoLibZone (If the Clinton years were so great, why is Osama doing so well?)
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To: M203M4
For some patients, severe depression has a component that you might call "paralysis of action." They may contemplate a variety of (self-)destructive acts, but the lethargy that's part of their condition keeps them from carrying out their plans. Medication can reduce the lethargy, at which point the patient enters a dangerous phase: now he has enough energy to do the things he's thought about, but hasn't yet (re)gained the judgment that would keep him from doing them. That's where close support from family and friends can make all the difference.

And yes, the Meysenburg/Bostock site is unmitigated garbage.

48 posted on 02/19/2008 2:08:20 AM PST by Tenniel2 (If you liked the nomenklatura, you'll love the PIAPSburo.)
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To: neverdem

Drugs, pfff! Finish your chores, pray, and get some exercise. Like Eddie Lawrence used to say, lift your head up high and take a walk in the sun.
Then if you still feel like crying, maybe you need to have a good cry. Have it, rinse, and then repeat step 1.


49 posted on 02/19/2008 2:31:04 AM PST by 668 - Neighbor of the Beast ( Peel back tabs for tagline. Do not remove this label. Obey.)
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To: Tenniel2

I want to mention the dangers of prescribing these types of medications to people who drink alcohol on a regular basis. The effects are devastating. The drugs act as kind of a force multiplier to the alcohol. I wonder how many physicians screen their patients for alcohol abuse before prescribing these medicines.


50 posted on 02/19/2008 2:36:34 AM PST by RU88
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To: neverdem
Why did you ignore that? Healy changed his mind about SSRIs.

One, all SSRI's are not the same. Zoloft has a number of side effects that are problematic.

Two, giving strong medications to a healthy person and seeing them get sick is no indicator that giving meds to a sick person won't help them. I would think it would be unethical to do this in the first place. Many medications have side effects that are a price that we pay for the beneficial effects. However, when a medication can have no benefit, and yet a certain percent have strong side effects you get a profile of problems without any offsetting benefits.

Anti-Depressants save lives, anyone who believes different is participating in trutherism. They do not save all lives and do not work for everyone. Some people experience adverse side effects from any medication, and without proper monitoring this can be a problem.

People are determined to throw out the good because of not being perfect, and this is lame. It seems to be a sign of the times though.

Adults recognize the situation of optimum results rather than perfect results. This means the best you can get under the circumstances. All real solutions involve making trade offs, you don't often get 100% of what you want in every category, but have to pick and choose amongst which to have more and which to accept less.

Sometimes you decide the opportunity or medication is not worth the side effects that are possible. These are the choices Adults make.

Save us from the nanny state which prevents us from making good choices because they are not perfect or because they bear some risk for the possible benefit.

51 posted on 02/19/2008 2:58:17 AM PST by dalight
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To: Rudder
MHO as a retired (yes!) shrink, is that the disorder, depression, itself, is the underlying scourge and not the anti-depressant medications, whether they be SSR or tricyclics or whatever. Depression can be very serious and very debilitating to body and mind. Recovery therefrom is not always smooth sailing no matter whether Rx is used or not.

Doctors IMO are not being near careful enough in ruling out actual underlying medical conditions. For example Anxiety Disorders as related to Vestibular Dysfunction. Doctors about sent me over the edge with SSRI's. The correct low dosage consistent 4Xdaily of Xanax however did wonders. I've been on Xanax almost 14 years now no problem. Also my wife has severe neurological disorders {quadriplegia and Inner Ear issues associated with it } Zoloft and Trazodone gave her acute Serotonin Syndrome twice in one week and six doctors at two hospitals did not even know what it was till I showed them a pharmacology alert from a respected {their university} pharmacology professor I found on line. They insisted she needed more Zoloft. It came very close to killing her and she was in it almost a week.

Needless to say the doctors were angry when I pointed out the problem and called it rubbish till I asked if their professor taught rubbish.

SSRI's need to be used with far more caution than what is being given and patient and family needs to be educated to their possible adverse side effects including the bursting bladder ballet leading to Dysreflexia which also happened to me and I am trained to recognized the condition.

52 posted on 02/19/2008 3:19:42 AM PST by cva66snipe (Proud Partisan Constitution Supporting Conservative to which I make no apologies for nor back down)
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To: Marie2

Your post shows such a complete lack of knowledge about depression and depressive disorders as to render it laughable.

Depression and depressive disorders are not about feeling sad or sorry for oneself.

That said, sometimes it takes some time working with your doctor to determine what is the best medication and dosage for treatment.
Additionally, many people do not realize that some of these medications, Prozac for one, cannot be started or stopped abruptly and that doing so will have repercussions. Unfortunately many people think they are smarter than the doctor.


53 posted on 02/19/2008 3:32:32 AM PST by visualops (artlife.us nature wallpapers)
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To: neverdem

btt


54 posted on 02/19/2008 4:44:19 AM PST by Cacique (quos Deus vult perdere, prius dementat ( Islamia Delenda Est ))
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To: Excuse_My_Bellicosity
Might as well just prescribe a 6-pack of beer. It’s all just don’t-give-damn medicine, and the beer is cheaper.

LOL! It is "don't give a damn" medicine. It is mind chaff.

55 posted on 02/19/2008 4:47:24 AM PST by Puddleglum
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To: donna
Give us back our cigarettes.

I think you're onto something. I used to smoke a lot and was stinky but probably happier. Of course, my family has a history of lung ailments, so for my wife & kids I quit. It was fun while it lasted, though.

56 posted on 02/19/2008 4:53:23 AM PST by Puddleglum
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To: flaglady47

I think that coming down off some of these mades can induce violence. I was on Paxil for a while and when I went off, I got jumpy and VERY irritable — not violent, but in another psyche, I can see it leading there.


57 posted on 02/19/2008 4:56:40 AM PST by Puddleglum
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To: Rudder
It's MHO that "depression," like obesity, is a by-product of our modern, sedentary lifestyle.

For most people taking anti-depressants, vigorous regular physical activity would be a far more effective prescription.

58 posted on 02/19/2008 4:59:57 AM PST by Trailerpark Badass
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To: Marie2

Quite often, depressed people can’t even begin to do those things without help. Asking them to do and identify all those steps is like asking the impossible when most of the time they don’t even want to face getting out of bed in the morning. Jeez, when I was in a really bad depressive state, it threw me into such a state just trying to decide if I should do the laundry or vaccuum first. You’re paralyzed. Indecision and clouded thinking is a huge part of true depression. You can’t ask someone like that to make reasonable decisions right off the bat and on their own.


59 posted on 02/19/2008 5:01:30 AM PST by ktscarlett66 (Face it girls....I'm older and I have more insurance....)
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To: flaglady47
Going off meds right away is very dangerous. Especially for people with a suicidal history. This is most likely what happened with the NIU shooter and he lost it.

The proper way to go off these meds is to very gradually reduce the dose until you’re off. This could take months depending on your dose. The shooter’s GF is on record saying he just stopped a few weeks ago.

Methinks a warning should be posted for these drugs but the drug companies don’t want these drugs to seem addictive.

Anti-depressants aren’t considered ‘addictive’ so people stop taking them on their own. Sometimes with very bad results. They are ‘addictive’ like narcotics but the symptoms are deeper depression instead of withdrawal.

60 posted on 02/19/2008 5:03:54 AM PST by varyouga ("Rove is some mysterious God of politics & mind control" - DU 10-24-06)
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