Antidepressants

In 2010, Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica published a study by Göran Isacsson et al. The paper was titled Antidepressant medication prevents suicide in depression. Here's the conclusion: "The finding that in-patient care for depression did not increase the probability of the detection of antidepressants in suicides is difficult to explain other than by the assumption that a substantial number of depressed individuals were saved from suicide by postdischarge treatment with antidepressant medication." ...

I am 46 years old and have taken antidepressants (Lexapro, Paxil, now Zoloft) for 10 years. But the reason I began taking them wasn’t due to my own need for relief from depression or anxiety. It was actually an effort to improve my relationship with my husband at the time. He suffered from depression and took medication, but said that I was overly critical, driven, intense, etc. and I think he was right. But I was also young and immature, and am an engineer by profession. I do have a critical thought process, no doubt. We were mismatched from the start and separated not long after I started the medication, but have a 11 year old son together. The divorce process, and going back to work full time as a single mom was difficult and stressful. But after taking the Lexapro for over 4 years, I actaully began feeling lethargic and depressed and decided to stop taking it cold turkey. Big mistake, I learned the hard way, and ended up on Paxil after a few months. Now I am having the same problem with the Paxil, and I really just want to get off the medication all together because I feel that it is causing the depression. I was never depressed to begin with, but now I am! After a couple of bad experiences with withdrawal symptoms from coming off the meds, I am really apprehensive about trying to taper off of them, but I want myself back, not this medicated, lethargic, irritable, unproductive person. I was far from perfect, as my ex-husband made painfully clear, but I always had hope for a better future and energy to work for it. I can’t help but feel that the meds have done more harm than good in my particular situation. I just wonder if others have had similar experiences? Thank you and best wishes in whatever you are searching for… ...

On June 13, 2014, Psychiatric Times published an article by Steve Balt, MD. The article is titled Assessing and Enhancing the Effectiveness of Antidepressants, and is a good deal more candid as to the efficacy of antidepressants than one normally encounters from psychiatry. Dr. Balt is a private practice psychiatrist in California. He is the editor-in-chief of The Carlat Psychiatry Report. The article opens with the observation that despite the large number of antidepressants on the market, and decades of clinical experience, no particular product seems to have emerged as substantially better than the rest. ...

It is generally recognized in antipsychiatry circles that antidepressant drugs induce manic or hypomanic episodes in some of the individuals who take them. Psychiatry’s usual response to this is to assert that the individual must have had an underlying latent bipolar disorder that has “emerged” in response to the improvement in mood. The problem with such a notion is that it is fundamentally unverifiable. Psychiatry defines “bipolar disorder” by the presence of certain behaviors and feelings. If a person meets these criteria, he/she is said to have bipolar disorder. What immediately needs to be noted is that bipolar disorder, in common with psychiatry’s other “disorders” has no explanatory value. To illustrate this, consider the following hypothetical conversation. ...

There’s an interesting article in the current issue of the National Psychologist written by David Kirschner, PhD, a New York psychologist. The National Psychologist is a newspaper-type magazine that publishes articles of general interest to psychologists and others working in this field. Most issues contain a mix of opinion pieces, news, changes in government regulations, etc… Dr. Kirschner’s article is titled Mass shooters received only limited treatment. Here are some quotes: ...

Robert Findling, MD, is a pediatrician and a psychiatrist. He is the Director of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center, and Vice President of Psychiatric Services and Research at the Kennedy Krieger Institute. On July 31, Dr. Findling published a brief video (and article) on Medscape: Adverse Events Caused by a Drug Warning? Dr. Findling’s article is essentially a commentary on a study by Christine Lu et al, which was published by the BMJ on June 18. Here is the conclusion paragraph from the Lu et al report: ...

There was an interesting article published on April 12, 2014 in Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. It’s called The Efficacy of Antidepressants on Overall Well-Being and Self-Reported Depression Symptom Severity in Youth: A Meta-Analysis, by Gary Spielmans and Katherine Gerwig, both of the Psychology Department, Metropolitan State University, St. Paul, Minnesota. The authors conducted a word-search in Medline, PsychINFO, and the Cochrane Central Register, and identified 8 studies that met their criteria. They combined the data from these studies and concluded: ...

On June 18, the British Medical Journal published an article by Christine Lu et al, titled Changes in antidepressant use by young people and suicidal behavior after FDA warnings and media coverage: quasi-experimental study. Here’s the conclusion paragraph from the abstract: "Safety warnings about antidepressants and widespread media coverage decreased antidepressant use, and there were simultaneous increases in suicide attempts among young people. It is essential to monitor and reduce possible unintended consequences of FDA warnings and media reporting." ...

A very important and compelling article was posted on Mad in America on June 18. It’s by Andrew L. Yoder, and is called An Open Letter to Persons Self-Identifying as Mentally Ill. Here are some quotes: "My physician was not so cautious. He was a very pleasant man that always seemed to take his time with me and did not talk down to me. Yet as I described some of the emotional distress I was experiencing, and the ways it was affecting my life, he told me with great certainty that mine was a totally common experience. He told me that I had a biological condition in my brain, one in which certain chemicals were 'imbalanced.' He told me that there should be no stigma about asking for assistance from him. Specifically he told me, 'Trying to not be depressed is like telling a diabetic to just make more insulin.' He prescribed an antidepressant medication, saying that this was no different than taking medication to regulate blood pressure or manage cholesterol. I was told of the likelihood that I would need to remain on some form of medication for an indefinite future." ...

On April 19, 2014, The Lancet published an article titled Do we underestimate the benefits of antidepressants? by German psychiatrists Mazda Adli and Ulrich Hegerl. The Lancet, founded in 1823, is a weekly, general medical journal which since 1991 has been owned by Elsevier, a private, Amsterdam-based, publishing house with offices in the UK, USA, and other countries. The gist of the article can be gathered from the opening paragraph: ...