Posted on 02/19/2012 6:07:06 PM PST by MindBender26
(CBS News) Do antidepressants work? Since the introduction of Prozac in the 1980s, prescriptions for antidepressants have soared 400 percent, with 17 million Americans currently taking some form of the drug. But how much good is the medication itself doing? "The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people," says Harvard scientist Irving Kirsch. Will Kirsch's research, and the work of others, change the $11.3 billion antidepressant industry? Lesley Stahl investigates.
Citalopram has worked incredibly well for me.
Here’s something to consider when you think your life has gotten to the point of depressing you to need a doctors prescription....mental health concerns WILL prevent you from owning firearms.
That would depress the hell out of me. No documented mental health concerns = much happier than I thought!
Of course, some of you might need medication,and should not be anywhere near a firearm if that were the case...
Pixie Sticks? I’m not sure what that means...
You’re Bipolar,too? Aren’t mood swings swell?
We do need our meds. No two ways about it.
It worked for me but I lost almost 20 pounds due to vomiting and appetite loss.
This is what I said...
“Obamacare is not going to treat mild depression. That is all this report is about.
Those drugs are going no where. They are way too valuable in treating other disorders.”
This is what you responded...
“Sorry all, but in 86% of cases, those on sugar pills got just as well on those on SSRIs.
Yes, your friend or you got well, but it wasn’t the pill! “
In a really big and obnoxious font.
First of all, it wasn’t me nor a “friend”. I spent a good amount of my life as an Office Manager for the Head Psychiatrist of a large hospital. Our practice had two doctors and three therapists. I saw many people treated for disorders other than depression who did marvelously some of these meds.
Second, Wellbutrin is NOT an SSRI, Secondary Serotonin Reuptake inhibitor. It is a dopamine and norepinephrine reuptake inhibitor. They work on different chemicals in the brain and are not the same thing.
Soooooo, this report by C-BS is BS. If YOU want to do a happy dance about it, fine. Personally, I take everything that C-BS puts out with a grain of salt and anything about health, all I can say is “watch the other hand”.
I’m on Cymbalta ane Lamictal. Together they work really well.
Well, that settles it. I'm eating Dark Chocolate four times per day from now on. LOL!
“The purpose of medicine is no longer to heal.
The purpose of medicine is to generate cash flow to drug companies..”
http://lamplightersoftware.com/dsm.php
And most of the science in use today underlying the selling of these blockbuster drugs is yanked out of the ear of:
http://www.forteantimes.com/features/articles/3847/the_occult_world_of_cg_jung.html
Exercise has been shown to be more effctive than SSRIs in a number of depression studies.
I suffered from clinical depression for years. I took Prozac for some few years. It didn’t turn me into a soul-less zombie. It worked. I no longer suffer from depression and my doctor stop prescribing Prozac about ten years ago.
I have also seen several of these drugs help people with anxiety to the point that they take a non-functioning person and make him/her productive. Their lives are greatly improved. The assertion that execise could replace these drugs is naive and simplistic for people who do actually suffer from a valid medical condition.
CBS?
60 Minutes?
SeeBS for 60 minutes.
I have no idea whether SSRIs work or not, but I do know that if 60 Minutes reports it, it’s almost certainly false or so politically slanted as to be worthless reporting. If 60 Minutes says it’s bad, then I’d bet dollars to doughnuts it’s not.
Hard work for that which you respect will in itself bring respect upon yourself which demands hard work.
Thank you.
I pretty much agree with every word in your post.
They are not entirely worthless. Prozac, for one example, has driven a few people to suicide, singer Del Shannon among them, thus permanently curing their depression.
What’s worthless is the modern diagnosis of depression as a disturbance in the chemicals of the brain. Well, I tell ya something, by that kinda view, everything you humans do is a disturbance of the chemicals in the brain. Say, on the spur of the moment you decide to buy a trashy magazine while waiting at a supermarket checkout line. You didn’t plan it, you don’t need it, you cannot afford it, what happened? The chemicals in the brain conspired to tell you to do it. I don’t need to go on, do I?
Life is the cause of depression. Fix my fracking problems (PLEEZE!), and I’ll be miraculously cured of depression.
Secondly, i do not doubt the the TOTALITY of he treatment offered by your physicians helped many patients, but the study from Harvard and many from the UK clearly demonstrate that the chemical agents worked only to a very limited amount.
In 86% of the cases, pts on placebos got as well, as quickly, as did those on Prozac.
In addition, in approving Prozac, et.al., FDA ignored multiple studies that showed them to have virtually no effect, and only considered two studies that showed positive results.
Seriously, read the Harvard study. It's not about a claim that pts did not get well, it's about why they got well.
Prozac is a $4 /month generic at WalMart; so are most of the SSRI’s. They are not making anybody a lot of money. Interesting that Kirsch doesn’t mention the anti-psychotics. They are also over-prescribed , mostly in the primary care setting. Now, a lot of them are $500/month drugs, though sliding toward generic status quickly. I guess Kirsch knows that people really needing anti-psychotics should in no way be encouraged to go off of them. Yet, the same drug companies using similar clinical trial strategies, bring anti-psychotics to market. Does Kirsch think that’s all “placebo effect” as well? Can you exercise your way out of schizophrenia as well?
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