News Antidepressants: 10 Shocking Studies Everyone Should Know

[anthony]

Fact on anti-depressants are anything but what pharmaceutical companies have led you to believe for all these decades. Science is quite honestly really opening quite the shit storm surrounding pills and their effectiveness.

I would honestly recommend everyone read this story and look at the evidence.

1. Antidepressants are very hit-and-miss
2. Science of antidepressants based on backward facts
3. Some scientists say they don’t work
4. Hidden side-effects
5. Most linked to weight gain
6. Memory loss
7. Natural supplements can boost effectiveness
8. Antidepressants linked to autism
9. Self-harm and suicide
10. Antidepressants and social anxiety

http://www.spring.org.uk/2016/06/antidepressants-10-shocking-studies-everyone-know.php

 

[Kailani]

I've been saying this and thinking this for decades and so much more... Cholesterol problems... I truly believe that exercise, a healthy diet, being in nature and faith are far more effective than meds but people want a quick and low effort fix. I truly believe many health problems can be aided by following a healthier lifestyle. There is still the trauma to work on which I am learning about but the side effects of that like depression, I feel can be altered in a positive direction by non medicinal means. I understand and respect that not everyone feels this way and I respect that!

 

[anthony]

I truly believe that exercise, a healthy diet, being in nature and faith are far more effective than meds but people want a quick and low effort fix.

I will disagree with this, because there are many proven meds that actually help keep people alive due to physical health problems. I don't think medications in general should be compared to medications for psychological purposes that lack any physical science to support their foundation, and are instead best guess based lacking science of the brain.

Get high or low blood pressure as a physical ailment, and see whether you take the meds that keep you alive or not, by regulating your blood pressure. Exercise, diet, nature or faith, won't keep you alive under such circumstance.

Anti-depressants lack science... they have ever since their inception and have been based on unproven data, yet marketed as though factual because the pharmaceutical companies say it is so and only positive trials get released based on getting lucky on the group who participate favour the results. There are more negative studies unpublished about anti-depressants than positive ones... which got released some years back under court order.

 

[joeylittle]

I think it's problematic to use 'antidepressants' as a term for multiple classes of medication. I agree that they are over prescribed, and SSRIs in particular reveal themselves to be more and more problematic. However, some psych meds have twenty, thirty, forty years of practical useage - and while yes, the brain is still a whole lot of terra incognita, there are some drugs that work, even if the mechanism of action is only a data-supported hypothesis.

I'd not throw the baby out with the bath water. But, there are lots of people who are under-informed and over-medicated. There are also people who have unrealistic expectations of psych medication, especially for depression and anxiety.

Awareness never hurt anybody, that's for certain.

 

[EveHarrington]

Are you sad?

It must be low seratonin levels; here take this pill.

If that doesn't work, maybe its norepinephrine.

This pigeonholes depression down to low levels of two------only two!------neurotransmitters.

Only 2?

Seems like an oversimplification to me.

But what do I know? I'm not a doctor.

I just get frustrated that these drugs are pushed heavily without looking at the whole picture, that there are quite a few reasons for anxiety/depression that are imbalances in the body but won't be fixed with drugs that effect seratonin or norepinephrine.

 

[Deleted member 12723]

Awareness never hurt anybody, that's for certain

I so agree with this statement.

 

[anthony]

I just get frustrated that these drugs are pushed heavily

Honestly, you nailed it with just that part of your statement IMHO. I completely concur that anti-depressants are pushed without substantial evidence to support their prescription. A person tells their doctor they feel depressed, doctors too often go straight to some anti-depressant, instead of more accurately monitoring the situation on a weekly basis to see whether they actually just come good themselves, and maybe prescribe some talk therapy with a counsellor to see if that can first treat the low mood.

 

[EveHarrington]

I don't mean to go astray, but I remember an episode of an 80's sitcom where a woman was having mental issues due to aging. Her doctor ended up discovering a nutritional imbalance and put her on a special diet. Somehow I don't think this would even happen today. I mean I know there are drugs that elderly people are given in order to help with cognition issues. I guess I mean to say that the jump to "head meds" is indeed quick, and not just for depression. The drug lobby has a lock on us! How many doctors nowadays sit down with a patient and do an assessment to see if the patient is eating a balanced diet? I know from personal experience that if I'm low on certain vitamins, my depressive symptoms spike. I've never had a doctor ask me about my diet in relation to depression/anxiety other than to ask if I'm eating too much or too little, gaining or losing weight without trying. (Asking about symptoms, but not caring if my diet is sufficient.)

There are meds being pushed if antidepressants don't get rid of all of your symptoms. I see a particular antipsychotic commercial on tv that advertises this all the time.

I think we're overly dependent on medications, and it's scary to see a possible link with autism.

 

[anthony]

I've never had a doctor ask me about my diet in relation to depression/anxiety other than to ask if I'm eating too much or too little, gaining or losing weight without trying.

I'm glad I live in Australia, to be honest. These are the exact questions you go through at a doctors appointment here. Medication is often the last thing you will see from a GP here. Psychiatrist... meds first... GP.... lots of talking, learning and assessment to find the cause and treat it appropriately.

 

[EveHarrington]

@anthony

You're quite fortunate! I've seen many docs over a number of specialties. Very few even bring up the issue of diet.

I think the result of this is seen in the declining health of our nation and increasing waistlines! Doctors have given up I think because they know we would rather pop a pill than eat healthy and exercise.

 

[LF1]

I'm glad I live in Australia, to be honest. These are the exact questions you go through at a doctors appointment here.

As a fellow Aussie, I've only had one GP who actively discussed lifestyle (nutrition and exercise) factors. The last GP I saw about 12 months ago gave me a 6 month prescription for antidepressants and that was that, no interest in follow up at all. I think even in Australia, the quality of GP care for mental health is very hit or miss.

 

[anthony]

only had one GP who actively discussed lifestyle

Was it a younger or older doctor? I'm finding the newer generation of doctors, so most are 30's, are very good and much better than the older generation. I have come across a few GP's where they love to prescribe meds, but they have been few and far between, especially here in Melbourne.