The scientific basis behind commonly used antidepressants is completely backwards, according to a review of the research.
For almost 50 years it has been believed by scientists and the public alike that depression is related to low levels of serotonin in the brain.
The most commonly prescribed antidepressant medications — like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft — are thought to work by keeping serotonin levels higher.
So-called selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, block the re-absorption of serotonin into the cells that release it.
In fact, the review finds, the very best evidence available suggests people who are depressed actually have higher levels of serotonin in their brains, not lower.
This means that commonly used antidepressants are actually making the situation worse, not better.
Well, we can rest assured about one thing: the giant pharmaceutical companies will immediately stop producing and promoting any medication that doesn’t do what it’s supposed to do.
Right? 😉
Psychiatry is junk science.
No squirrel farmer wants his squirrels to stop being squirrels.
Interesting, but the proper response is not…
But rather….
I agree with the rodent on this one.
My older sister is about 83 now and went on prozac about 2000 … maybe earlier and had great results. Unfortunately old age has her nuttier than squirrel turds at times now but to claim prozac makes your depression worse is just nucking futs in my sister’s case. Perhaps there is a dosage issue at play too? Also some people are nuts enough that there ain’t no pill gonna “get their minds right”.
Your results may vary.
Keep your stick on the ice ladies & gentlemen!!!
Kind of reminds me of old ulcer treatments….like milk, surgery removing large parts of the stomach, Tagemet and Zantac until Barry Marshall and Robin Warren discovered that the bacterium Helicobacter pylori causes most peptic ulcers. Once a “treatment” has taken over the establishment, it takes a long time to replace it with one that really solves the problem. Too many vested interests.
Scientific beliefs are constantly being challenged. Sometimes the challenge is correct, and it changes the science. Most of the time it’s wrong, and the idea fades into the background.
But the media doesn’t generally cover that last bit. Not as exciting.
Almost every single mass shooter has been on SSRIs. This has been shown consistently over decades. People on SSRIs also have higher levels of suicide and in fact on their “side effects” warnings, suicidal ideation is one of the common side effects.
To be fair, people on SSRIs are usually taking them because they’re already depressed, but still, this needs to be looked at more fully.
I guess, but that’s a little like blaming colds on the use of kleenex.
Toilet paper causes diarrhea!
Or not.
My bi-polar/schizophrenic adult son took his OWN life … precisely because he FAILED to take his SSRI’s. He was his normal, sweet, intelligent self when he took the medications that had been carefully prescribed and adjusted by succeeding groups of Psychiatrists.
When he went OFF his meds … he was literally OUT of his mind.
this isn’t news for anyone who has known someone on antidepressants
That … was a depressing story.
Vitamin D and Magnesium can provide a healthier and natural alternative.
Or stay on drugs like the swamp rat prefers.
Approximately 9% of Banadians take anti-depressants.
Twice as many women as men take them.
My guess is most are “Life-is-hard” weaklings who feel sorry for themselves.
The truly depressed are to be sympathized with IMHO.
I am not surprised by this reporting. I -am- surprised to see this Psyblog guy reporting this as if it’s new, when the paper came out in 2015. This is not new.
Nobody understands depression. SSRIs -kind of- work in some, don’t work in others, even make some people worse. This is well known.
Cannabis likewise (when taken medicinally under the direction of a proper physician, thou doomsayers) reduces anxiety in some, does nothing in others, and a few it makes worse. Cannabis, interestingly, seems to do not much if anything for depression.
Magic mushrooms are reported to be “effective” at reducing depression (again, with physician direction, no adventuring please) I’ve met some people who are much happier with their ‘shrooms than without. Others, meh. Ketamine, same same. Some people it seems to be the exact thing they needed, others its nothing.
Indicating to me, at least, that there’s not -one- thing going on, and “Depression” is a multi-factor illness. It certainly presents that way.
fwiw l can speak very firmly strongly and accurately regarding SSRIs which l took among other meds for a crushing variety of OCD. suffice to say it dogged me every &%%$$#^%# waking moment for worse part of one, then 2 then 3 years.
ok, what now?
lm gonna be proactive instead of just sitting and quivering like jello so l mosied over to the local medical library did a search got over 100 citations for fluvoxamine aka luvox, took that to the shrink can we try this? yes, did, it worked, took it for a considerable time, and now the coup de gras.
l gave up. l quit fighting the OCD. l was worn out, exhausted, bereft of any treatments, choices strategies countermeasures.
so l just gave up the fight. ‘have at ‘er OCDemons its all yours l QUIT.
the most astonishing thing happened. it LOST its power, its hold on my brain.
l chalk it up to ‘orange rhinoceros’ syndrome iow DONT THINK OF AN ORANGE RHINOCEROUS WHAT DID I TELL YOU NOT TO THINK OF AN ORANGE RHINCEROUS STOP THINKING OF AN ORANGE RHINOCEROUS.
the fight was *reinforcing* that ‘thing’ l was avoiding.
it worked. that was crikey about 25 years ago.
off the meds, no more obsessive repulsive images every waking moment. feel free to share with anyone you know suffering this terrible soul destroying affliction.
Could that be why thoughts of suicide are commonly listed as a side-effect of anti-depressants? I work on the theory that anyone can be a nutcase. Sane people like me have spent a lifetime of deliberately trying to not let anything ever upset me.
More serious physiological caused serious mental illness can’t be willed away.
and, the popular notion from the Liberal hive mind to *facilitate* self death for those having a particularly bad day/week/year/life well shucksamighty here’s another bandwagon just fer youse. chaching chaching go the cash registers !!!
gallingly egregiously offensive ‘ve haff vays to makh zhou HOBEY!!! himmel zein!!!!
achtchung !!!!!! seig hiel seig hiel !!!!!!!’
any of this ring a bell??? feel free to ‘weigh in’ all ye compassionate polite Canaduhians . . . .
They give “”ADHD”” kids speed.
For a medicine to “work” it just has to produce a desired effect. Doesn’t mean it’s any good for you. It’s all about trade-offs. That’s the whole purpose of misinformed consent.
A lot of kids nowadays are strange. Back in the day their peers used to beat the strange out of them. Nobody was allowed to be crazy. but those who succeeded got locked up and had their gonads ectomied to keep down the boners. Those were the days.
If your car starts making a funny noise, do you just throw another quart of oil in the engine?
You check the dipstick first.
No reasonable way to test serotonin levels.
Bunch of hacks.