And, if at its worst, they only met the restrictive usefulness described in this headline, medications that helped with moderate and severe depression would be a uncomplicated good.
That said, many of all of the medications pushed out by PharMA are marginally helpful and sold because equally effective but much less profitable compounds are off of patent protection. The first question you have to ask anymore is, "Is this name brand yuck any better than something on the Walmart $4 list?" many times the shocking answer is no.
Prozac that is one of the drugs targeted in this article has been proven over and over and over as safe and effective against numerous specific problems but is not a silver bullet and no drug will cure the underlying problem of the "cause" of the depression they treat.
Anti-depressants treat the symptom of depression rather than the cause, which can be as varied as human suffering. Talk Therapy can be more helpful because someone can suggest on a regular basis.. "If you whack your hand it hurts, so perhaps lets not do that this time."
Also, anti-depressants are not the only or best way to treat especially mild depressions which may yield much better to exercise, social interaction, and "dare I say it?", a trip to your local church or synagog.
My Cardiologist put me on Paxil and within 2 weeks I was arrested and spending money like a fool. I and my family told him that it was affecting me badly but because he was getting kickbacks for writing prescriptions he kept me on it.
I will never take another drug ever again unless I am going to die without it.
My semi-professional (a little knowledge is a dangerous thing though) and personal opinion about SSRIs is that for the person going through a life event that is intensely difficult and has them questioning life, a short term prescription of one of the SSRIs will help them avoid suicidal ideation, and allow them to place one foot in front of the other temporarily. Short term means 3-6 months.
Then one needs to wean off these drugs very carefully. Quitting them is hell.
Long term, one should NOT mess with serotonin reuptake at all. If at all possible, avoid these drugs. But there may be some short term usefulness in certain situations with mentally healthy people going through a crisis.
these medicines do help severe cases of depression but nowadays they’re being prescribed all over the map. Life wil deal bad ones as well as good ones. Sometimes you just take your lumps and move on.. no need to mess with your brain chemistry just because of a bad day.
I used to take Prozac for depression. It helped but I now think the biggest contribution to getting relief was moving my office from a mold infested building.
I didn’t have any common cold like symptoms from mold but I was affected mentally. Once I moved, the depression like symptoms disappeared.
If others with mild depression have a similar mold allergy to mine, they may not be helped much with Prozac. I do however believe it helped me at first because the mild depression caused a very real deeper depression.
Two separate doctors wanted to prescribe me an anti-depressant. I took it the first time. HATED it and gained weight. The second time I said no. Turns out my thyroid was/is screwed up. Second doc knew it but wanted to prescribe Zoloft anyway.