Antidepressants. Do they Work? (counselor, complex, relationship, feelings)

[Pinkmani]

Originally Posted by angrymillionaire

I have been so depressed lately I need one of these magic pills! Who prescribes this a regular doctor or do I need to go to a psychiatrist. I went to one neurologist who also is a psychiatrist all she gave was Cymbalta. I see no change.

Yes, a regular doctor can prescribe it (but not all are going to). Go to a different psychiatrist.

I was given Lexapro because I'm in school, and she wanted it to work quickly for exams. Lexapro is the only true SSRI. I felt better within a week.

[Boxter01]

I was on lexapro for awhile. It felt like someone put new batteries in my head at first. Things that irritated me before didnt so much so yes they work. But after some time it seemed like I was getting used to the dosage and it needed to be increased. So I stopped taking them. And for awhile, when I became even slightly irritated about something, I felt as if I wanted to faint. The "brain zap" was an excellent description.

[Djuna]

There is mounting evidence that SSRIs are no more effective than placebos.

Antidepressant drug effects and depression severity: a ... [JAMA. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI

America is a drug hungry society. Americans gobble up prescription drugs like candy and there is a massive illicit drug problem as well. What does this say about the culture?

I believe it's a multi facted issue. Pharmaceutical companies rule the world but they are in powerful positions to lobby Government in the US. This has had a profound effect on the number of drugs prescribed over the past 40 years. The other issue is the self protected AMA (American Medical Association), which essentially needs people to be reliant on drugs.

The American people have been fed lies. You don't need a pill for every aspect of your life, especially mental health issues which are effectively "treated" by many non prescription drug therapies, but they would require work by the person, and face it, who wants to put in the hard work when you can simply pop a pill.

I am from New Zealand, I have been working in a busy Trauma Hospital in a college city, for 5 years. I am appalled and disgusted at the number of young college kids coming in to triage and they are on Ritalin for their "ADD", anxiolytics for their "anxiety" and antidepressants for their "adjust disorder". What a travesty of ethics.

[sade693]

Didn't work for me. From what I've heard of others, it can work for people who are just depressed. I have the diagnosis of Bipolar II, and they made things worse for me. In fact, it was when I was on antidepressants that I took two drastic, desperate measures to end the anguish.

I'm not any meds now, just a healthy diet with regular exercise. It doesn't completely rid me of all the symptoms, but it definitely makes everything more manageable. Never been a fan of the idea of changing my natural brain chemistry anyway, but I understand that for some people (like people diagnosed with Bipolar I or schizophrenia, for example) it's very necessary. I am totally against meds for kids and/or people with personality/behavior disorders, as that's something that can almost always be fixed with therapy alone.

[FlowerPower00]

To those of you who "know" God or Goddesses, I am happy you found a way to manage your depression.

I, however, have found or know Celexa 10mg assists in my depression. To those of you who believe it's a way to get stoned, please, educate yourself.

[thunderkat59]

I went through a very bad period in my life where different doctors had me on a few all the time after a long interment in a MH facility. Lot of stuff from benign imiprimine class all the way to horrific lithium. One day I woke and looked at all these bottles and just stopped. Cold turkey. Obviously they didn't work for me. What amazed me was how far off each new doctors diagnose was from the previous one. With a broken bone, there is a pretty standard methodology to fix/heal the problem, With the mind, its not so cut and dry. The opinions were all over the place. Now, I feel "depression" or "ADHD" diagnoses are given in almost fad-like proportion. I felt much better without meds and believe too much emphasis is put on letting our society control us, and chemical rather than holistic cure.
My Wife on the other hand, went through a bad period where her Lexipro(?) really helped her, in her opinion. She has a little more faith in them than I do.

[thunderkat59]

Originally Posted by Djuna

There is mounting evidence that SSRIs are no more effective than placebos.

Antidepressant drug effects and depression severity: a ... [JAMA. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI

America is a drug hungry society. Americans gobble up prescription drugs like candy and there is a massive illicit drug problem as well. What does this say about the culture?

I believe it's a multi facted issue. Pharmaceutical companies rule the world but they are in powerful positions to lobby Government in the US. This has had a profound effect on the number of drugs prescribed over the past 40 years. The other issue is the self protected AMA (American Medical Association), which essentially needs people to be reliant on drugs.

The American people have been fed lies. You don't need a pill for every aspect of your life, especially mental health issues which are effectively "treated" by many non prescription drug therapies, but they would require work by the person, and face it, who wants to put in the hard work when you can simply pop a pill.

I am from New Zealand, I have been working in a busy Trauma Hospital in a college city, for 5 years. I am appalled and disgusted at the number of young college kids coming in to triage and they are on Ritalin for their "ADD", anxiolytics for their "anxiety" and antidepressants for their "adjust disorder". What a travesty of ethics.

Fabulous post!

Having a lot of experience in this stuff as a participant and looking in from the outside, I feel there are a few people who have real chemical imbalances. A few. Most other people have situational issues that just make them angry and sad. For whatever reason, they cant leave what is making them angry and depressed, like a bad job, abusive partner, undesirable living situation, etc . . . Americans are trained from a young age to look to chemicals to fix all their problems. The large pharmas happily accommodate them. Most people will never find the personal fortitude to admit to, and internal strength to just say "enough is enough" to the situations that are making them depressed, so they will look to chemicals to help them. This is not meant to be critical or judgmental. We live in a fast paced and very unfriendly society. It is only natural to look for ways to lessen the toll it takes on us.

[Mircea]

Originally Posted by Pinkmani

Lexapro is the only true SSRI.

No, there are many SSRI and even SNRIs.

citalopram (Celexa, Cipramil, Emocal, Sepram, Seropram)
escitalopram oxalate (Lexapro, Cipralex, Esertia)
fluoxetine (Prozac, Fontex, Seromex, Seronil, Sarafem, ---- Fluctin in Euro-States)
fluvoxamine maleate (Luvox, Faverin)
paroxetine (Paxil, Seroxat, Aropax, Deroxat)
sertraline (Zoloft, Lustral Serlain)

Sometimes SSRI's are not enough --- you need to block the uptake/re-uptake of Noradrenaline as well, and that is what SNRIs do...

bupropion (Welbutrin/SR)
mirtazapine (Remeron)
nefazodone (Serzone)
trazodone (Desyrel)
venlafaxine (Effexor/XR)

Medicine is not a Science

In order for Medicine to be a Science, it requires that every person have the exact same identical blood chemistry and brain chemistry, and since Humans do not have the same blood and brain chemistry, the best doctors can do is experiment.

Originally Posted by Djuna

There is mounting evidence that SSRIs are no more effective than placebos.

Antidepressant drug effects and depression severity: a ... [JAMA. 2010] - PubMed - NCBI

The study is outdated --- it ignores recent break-throughs.

Originally Posted by Djuna

America is a drug hungry society. Americans gobble up prescription drugs like candy and there is a massive illicit drug problem as well. What does this say about the culture?

Nothing we didn't already know.

What it says about Americans is that they are heavily reliant and dependent on technology to the point of being addicted to technology, and they seek the proverbial "Magic Bullet" for everything.

Weight loss is an excellent example. Instead of walking 20 minutes each day and using the stairs instead of the elevator and eating a proper diet -- which includes real food instead of chemical goo --- Americans want to take a pill and be done with it.

Originally Posted by Djuna

I believe it's a multi facted issue. Pharmaceutical companies rule the world but they are in powerful positions to lobby Government in the US. This has had a profound effect on the number of drugs prescribed over the past 40 years. The other issue is the self protected AMA (American Medical Association), which essentially needs people to be reliant on drugs.

This has nothing to do with pharmaceutical companies or the AMA.

Originally Posted by Djuna

The American people have been fed lies. You don't need a pill for every aspect of your life, especially mental health issues which are effectively "treated" by many non prescription drug therapies, but they would require work by the person, and face it, who wants to put in the hard work when you can simply pop a pill.

If you lack understanding, then just say so.

Originally Posted by Djuna

I am from New Zealand, I have been working in a busy Trauma Hospital in a college city, for 5 years. I am appalled and disgusted at the number of young college kids coming in to triage and they are on Ritalin for their "ADD", anxiolytics for their "anxiety" and antidepressants for their "adjust disorder". What a travesty of ethics.

That has nothing to do with Depression.

Like I said, the study you cited is out-dated, since it does not include any medical data from the conflicts in Iraq or Afghanistan.

Originally Posted by thunderkat59

The large pharmas happily accommodate them.

This has nothing to do with "pharmas."

Originally Posted by thunderkat59

What amazed me was how far off each new doctors diagnose was from the previous one.

Uh-huh...well, that was because you failed to be 100% honest to them or to yourself.

Their diagnosis is based on what you tell them, and if you do not answer the questions honestly, or compete the survey forms honestly, or discuss your issues openly face-to-face with your doctor, then you cannot blame them or hold them accountable.

Not only is this true for proper mental health diagnoses, it is also true for all medical diagnoses.

And that is actually a common problem. Seriously, any condition medical or not, requires brutal honesty with the self in order to correctly identify the problem and then arrive at a viable solution that is effective.

Originally Posted by thunderkat59

I felt much better without meds and believe too much emphasis is put on letting our society control us, and chemical rather than holistic cure.

Point. Set. Match. You just proved exactly what I was saying.

"Cure?" Sorry, there is no cure. The purpose of any drug used in the treatment of mental health or mental disease is to stabilize the symptoms of the patient....and nothing more.

There are three different forms of Depression. One form is widely believed to be genetic, and there is no cure, but shock therapy helps.....yes, shock therapy.

On the other two forms of Depression, shock therapy is known to be harmful and cause damage to the brain aggravating the condition, and so it is not used.

Of the remaining two forms of Depression, there is now a large body of evidence -- thanks to the study and treatment of veterans of OIF/OEF that a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI in the medical journals) is what triggers significant changes and alterations in brain chemistry, including a re-wiring of the brain in the affect area were cells and other brain tissue was damaged.

As scary as Traumatic Brain Injury might sound, a concussion is a TBI.

I mention that because it was widely believed that SSRIs would be effective in the treatment of Depression...uh, that is, um, until they discovered the impact of Noradrenaline on Anxiety/Depression, and thus SNRIs.

The general consensus now...and I know because I'm at the VA hospital one or two or three times a week, is that SSRIs and SNRIs are only one part of the key to the puzzle, and that they may be a joint causal factor, or they may actually be a secondary factor or factor in response to the primary factor.

In other words, a Seratonin imbalance or Noradrenaline imbalance (or both for the really lucky) may be the brain's chemical response to help repair damage to the brain, or to correct genetic cause or other condition which may be caused by other factors.

If you were "cured" then you were depressed, but being depressed does equate to Clinical Depression or any other Depressive Disorder.

But don't worry....your wish is about to be realized soon enough.....thanks to people like me and many other veterans (and probably civilians) who voluntarily submit to blood tests, they are very close to developing a blood test to diagnose....and they will be able to separate the people who truly do have Anxiety, Depressive and a few other select disorders from the people who are faking it.

I'd imagine a lot of people on Social Security Disability will be totally freaking out.

Educating...

Mircea

[angrymillionaire]

What works for anxiety? The other day I was speaking to the big big boss & found my mouth drying up, like I was running out of saliva. Do anti depressants treat anxiety?

[thunderkat59]

Originally Posted by angrymillionaire

What works for anxiety? The other day I was speaking to the big big boss & found my mouth drying up, like I was running out of saliva. Do anti depressants treat anxiety?

This is a normal condition. Im sure there is a doctor somewhere who will prescribe you something, but this is a common occurrence in musicians, public speakers, etc . . . Once you get sucked into the cycle of doctors/meds, its hard to leave. I would suggest researching what public speakers or performers do to relax before presentations before jumping on the med train