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alex
Developer
Joined: Jun 14, 2004
Age: 22
Posts: 6179
Location: DC Metro Area
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 Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:16 pm Post subject: Antidepressants found to not have effect on most people |
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They are among the biggest-selling drugs of all time, the "happiness pills" that supposedly lift the moods of those who suffer depression and are taken by millions of people in the UK every year.
But one of the largest studies of modern antidepressant drugs has found that they have no clinically significant effect. In other words, they don't work.
The finding will send shock waves through the medical profession and patients and raises serious questions about the regulation of the multinational pharmaceutical industry, which was accused yesterday of withholding data on the drugs. |
the reporter completely misrepresented the results of the study which did not conclude that antidepressants don't work, only that they only have an effect if you actually have a chemical imbalance causing depression (duh).
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/health/article3466137.ece
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Odin
Supreme Genius
Joined: Oct 13, 2006
Age: 22
Posts: 1878
Location: Moorhead, Minnesota, USA
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:25 pm Post subject: |
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This is what happens when prescription medicine is advertised on TV, it turns people into hypochondriacs so they get pills they don't really need. There is no reason to advertise such drugs except for inducing hypochondria, it's frigging obvious. That is what advertising is all about in general, creating artificial demand using psychological manipulation.
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nannarob
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Joined: Apr 14, 2007
Posts: 1297
Location: Queensland
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 3:39 pm Post subject: |
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Antidepressants work for people with major depressant. Without them I would be dead - or a cot case!
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I think there must be some chronic learning disability that is so prevalent among NT's that it goes unnoticed by the "experts". Krex
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iceb
Tarkalean hawk
Joined: Apr 27, 2007
Posts: 1198
Location: The Liberator flight deck
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englishwolf
Raven
Joined: Aug 01, 2007
Posts: 100
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:33 pm Post subject: |
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(Bit of a long post, sorry. Contains both positives and negatives about antidepressants from my own experience.)
Antidepressants worked with me up to a point, but the side effects far outweighed the benefits of the pills when I was taking them.
I was on cipralex (aka lexapro in America) and the pills kicked in very quickly when i started them. I stopped feeling down almost completely which was great. Unfortunately, as i mentioned before, there were side effects. I didn't feel down but I never felt up either. It felt like i was unable to control me emotions when something happened, i'd just always be so-so about it. My sleep has never been great but it became absolutely ridiculous when I was on medication. I'd have a couple of days of normality followed by 8 to 10 days of sleeping 18+ hours for every 24 hour period (I literally woke up to eat, work part time, wash, and visit the mens room). Then occassionally my sleep went completely the other way, and never with any warning. After being normal for a few days I wouldn't sleep more then 3 hours a night for 3 or 4 days, followed by a few days when i was back sleeping 18+ hours.
I'd get dizzy sometimes if I stood up too fast though thankfully not often.
The worst side effect by far was the huge increase in suicidal thoughts I experienced whilst on medication. It got so bad that I had my prescription cut from 56 (or possibly 64) pills to 14/16 pills at a time, and the only way I could get more pills was by seeing my doctor for the prescription so she could assess my condition further. (seriously doctors, why do you do that?! I can think of a thousand viable ways to kill myself without overdosing on what you're prescribing so who are you helping by doing this apart from your own back which you're covering?!)
The second worse part is when I look back at the period when I was on medication and I read things I typed and they are completely alien to me. They are as comprehensible as they have always been but the sentence structure, choice of words etc are completely different to anything I recognise as my own. I can barely remember most things that happened during my time on pills which sucks because I could possibly learn more about myself by remembering and because I normally have a good memory.
Oh, and one last thing. Geting off the pills, even with the advice of quitting given to me by my doctor was hellish. I had become addicted and cutting down slowly was painful. Due to the small size of the dosage for the pills I found it difficult to cut down. Even though I was on the maximum dosage I should have been able to shave a little off every few days, at least, that was the theory. In the case of my medication the maximum dosage was 20mg a day which is kinda pathetic when compared to dosage amounts of other products, but that's down to how damn powerful my zombie pills were.
To finish I'll just say that I'm glad I was on antidepresants when I took them!
I really needed them at the start, but over the course of time I learnt that I'm a stronger person without them. The realisation of how strong I am without them is something that I enjoy thinking about and makes me happy. Maybe this is an unintentional (hopefully permanent) effect antidepressants had on me but it is definitely good to have.
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opal
Sea Gull
Joined: Jul 23, 2007
Posts: 247
Location: Australia
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| Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:44 pm Post subject: |
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The report I heard said that the study excluded people with suicidal thoughts, and those with drug and alcohol problems.
I am wary of doctors giving antidepressants as a first port of call. They have some rather nasty side effects, some irreversible, and they can take a few weeks before you find out if they are actually doing anything other than making you sick. |
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just-me
Deinonychus
Joined: Mar 07, 2008
Age: 21
Posts: 361
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 6:44 pm Post subject: |
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I think they don't work because depression med's have a side effect of suicide and seizure med's have a side effect of more seizure's and so on .
I was heavily medicated since age 6 and I have been off of my med's for about a year now. I am actually healing , where before I was crying every day all day , falling asleep when standing up whilst talking! Parts of my body are still messed up! I would never tell anyone to take something unless there life depended on it. I believe these things should be used only in the short term ( to stabilize someone).
In the long term they do very real damage that sometimes cant be reversed.
Am I saying someone who is diabetic should stop taking there pills ? NO but I do suggest finding an alternative to these medications working VERY CLOSELY WITH YOUR DOCTOR , to make sure your safe.
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JerryHatake
Kumdo Practitioner
Joined: Jul 02, 2006
Age: 20
Posts: 7562
Location: Woodbridge, VA
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| Posted: Wed May 07, 2008 8:28 pm Post subject: |
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I take some myself here and they work fine with my system.
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"No one is the same you can't compare yourself to other people because everyone is different" - Michelle
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Sublyme
Snowy Owl
Joined: Apr 24, 2008
Age: 26
Posts: 171
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:42 pm Post subject: |
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They work fine for me. I keep a couple bottles of Lexapro on hand in case I need to induce a manic episode...leave it to me to manipulate my own neurochemistry as I see fit. See antidepressants work well for me....a little too well actually. I can take 5-7 doses of 10mg pills and be high as a kite for months......if I get too high I need some big doses of ativan and haldol to bring me down........don't try this at home kids. It's stupid and dangerous.
That being said, I'm sure they do work for a depression that is based in wonky and misbehaving neurotransmitters....actually neurobiochemical depression. But in situational depression that isn't based in neurochemistry....I don't see how they would do much of anything.
Antidepressants carry a risk of suicide, because when you begin treating the depression you may still feel depressed, but now have the energy back that the depression was zapping you of.....depressed with lots of energy is not a good combination. You may have been to lazy to act out a suicidal impulse when depressed, but if a little bit of the depression lifts before you start to feel better, and now you have the motivation and energy to do something about that fleeting suicidal ideation.......bad things could happen..... |
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LeKiwi
Phoenix
Joined: Nov 27, 2007
Posts: 1956
Location: The murky waters of my mind...
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:50 pm Post subject: |
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| Odin wrote: | | This is what happens when prescription medicine is advertised on TV, it turns people into hypochondriacs so they get pills they don't really need. There is no reason to advertise such drugs except for inducing hypochondria, it's frigging obvious. That is what advertising is all about in general, creating artificial demand using psychological manipulation. |
QFT
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spudnik
Exterminate Exterminate Exterminate
Joined: Feb 20, 2008
Posts: 2358
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| Posted: Fri May 09, 2008 2:57 pm Post subject: |
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Not news to me, I was on the whole range of antidepressants since my mid 20's, I always seemed to feel worse, I was on prozac for a month before I tried to hurt myself, the last one I was on was effexor, which actually seems to work but I couldn't afford them at the time so stopped using them, after 4 months, which I guess is about as long as your supposed to use them anyhow. I have been drug free now since 2003, and feel more normal being for these antidepressants.
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Fossy
Hummingbird
Joined: Jun 01, 2008
Posts: 19
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| Posted: Wed Jun 04, 2008 12:32 pm Post subject: |
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| just-me wrote: | I think they don't work because depression med's have a side effect of suicide and seizure med's have a side effect of more seizure's and so on .
I was heavily medicated since age 6 and I have been off of my med's for about a year now. I am actually healing , where before I was crying every day all day , falling asleep when standing up whilst talking! Parts of my body are still messed up! I would never tell anyone to take something unless there life depended on it. I believe these things should be used only in the short term ( to stabilize someone).
In the long term they do very real damage that sometimes cant be reversed.
Am I saying someone who is diabetic should stop taking there pills ? NO but I do suggest finding an alternative to these medications working VERY CLOSELY WITH YOUR DOCTOR , to make sure your safe. |
I am not diabetic but I am hypoglycemic and I do find myself extremely tired like you described. I'm wondering if that has a connection. I feel like I need to be on something but I'm only on a little bit of lexapro now so that means it might be the klonopin that's doing it? The klonopin totally changed my life. I am so much more confident on it.
I hate this anti-pill movement. I know people that I think have serious mental problems and refuse to go to the doctor or be put on meds. |
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history_of_psychiatry
Deinonychus
Joined: Dec 23, 2006
Age: 24
Posts: 349
Location: Central Florida
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| Posted: Thu Jun 05, 2008 1:46 pm Post subject: |
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Cymbalta saved my life. I would've killed myself without it's treatment.
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Pandora
Cat Lady
Joined: Jun 18, 2005
Age: 47
Posts: 4684
Location: Townsville
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| Posted: Sat Jun 07, 2008 8:55 am Post subject: |
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I must have had a chemical imbalance because Efexor works for me.
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