Anti deppressants literally do nothing

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http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archive ... lness-why/

Depression is not a "mental" illness. It is a chemical malfunction of the brain. And anti-depressants (some of them) prevent the re-uptake of serotonin.

ruveyn

I haven't closely read the article or the references in it, but I recall one criticism of a study about antidepressants which showed only weak results: the actual results were that people with mild to moderate depression didn't improve, but people with severe depression did. That makes it look like they ought to do separate studies for mild-moderate and sever depression. But perhaps pharma companies want to include the mild-moderate groups in order to maintain a large target market for AD drugs.

IMO, antidepressants probably don't directly relieve depression. I think they probably work by inducing a certain level of a "f**k it, who cares?" attitude, so that people are less distressed by things.

I do agree with the article about not liking the expanding use of anti-psychotics, though.

Well it is referred to as a mental illness a lot, but illnesses can usually be cured........depression is not always really curable, the symptoms can be reduced with anti-depressants for some people, but they certainly don't work all the time and can even make it worse.

[puttin' on my doctor hat]

People in this forum should be more aware than the general population that the DSM is a pretty ham-fisted tool that tries to tie groups of symptoms together and hang a label on them. While it's not necessarily a bad thing to classify disorders, it is a bad thing uncritically to use the label and base a treatment therapy on that.

But that is precisely what the medical system is currently designed to do.

Patient X feels depressed--for any number of perfectly good reasons, which might--or might not--have to do with brain chemistry.
Patient X sees a tv ad for Zoloft (for example) and thinks, "Hmm, maybe that will make me feel better."
Patient X arranges an appointment with the doctor--and does a little research to that the symptoms can all add up nicely.
Doctor Y has 7 and a half minutes to talk to X, diagnose X's problem and suggest a solution.
Doctor Y reaches for the prescription pad
Pharmacutical Company Z (in this case, Pfizer) makes a tidy profit. Probably funded by insurance company A.

Far too often, patients come in with a preconceived notion about their condition and about the appropriate course of treatment (and nowhere moreso than in the areas of mental health. Antidepressants and drugs for the treatment of ADHD are, in my personal opinion, the most overprescribed pharmaceuticals in the catalogue).

Now, I think most people who follow my posts know me to be highly patient-oriented. But just because you know best about what you are experiencing and how your body is reacting does not mean that you are able to diagnose yourself or that you know how best to treat it. Medicine works best when doctor and patient cooperate--not when patient comes in and asks for a prescription and doctor reaches for the pad.

So I suspect a large number of the people for whom antidepressants are ineffective are:

1) people who are depressed, but whose depression does not warrant medication,
2) people who are depressed, but who are unresponsive to the type of antidepressant that they are taking
3) people who misrepresented the scope, type and gravity of their symptoms in an effort to persuade their doctors to prescribe antidepressants when they are not, in fact, depressed.
4) people who honestly described the scope, type and gravity of their symptoms, but have been improperly diagnosed, and are thus being improperly medicated.

I've seen them all.

Isn't this a case of weighing up the Pros Vs the cons in determining the efficacy of anti-depressants case by case?

For instance Prozac and Zoloft have been demonstrated to increase functioning in children with autism - particularly reduction in stress and anxiety and increasing verbosity. In other reports they have not been found to be effective in children or adults who are already high functioning.

The side effects of Prozac and Zoloft are a worry however choosing natural remedies like St Johns Wort could reduce symptoms of side-effects - but the herb has not been shown to be as effective as pharmaceutical drugs in trials.

actually, the serotonin theory has never been proven and IIRC has been disproven. one company was (and my already have) coming out with and anti-depressant that actually lowered serotonin levels.

also, when compared to ACTIVE placebos (as in placebos that cause harmless side effects such as dry mouth) the anti depressants did no better at all. the author had to use an FOIA request to get the data to show this though. the drug companies seem to be able to conveniently bury the many studies that fail, and no matter how many fail they only need two that succeed.

i wonder how many of these "mental illnesses" would be solved better by fixing whatever life problems these people have. i've been curious to see a study that takes "mentally ill" people and gives them what they think they need to better their lives (such as a car for the car-less so that they can get to their jobs, or more money for poor patients etc...) and healthy food and exercise., and compare such treatment to typical mainstream treatment.