I think antidepressants should be handled differently

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Head meds have very different effects on those with autism spectrum disorders.

Ritalin, I know not an antidepressant but still prescribed just as much, made me psycho. I didn't even know my mind could produce such horrid thoughts and I've been through pretty much every trauma except seeing someone I love die. Anyway, that's anecdotal and personal, nonetheless I think more care should be exercised when considering medications for those on the spectrum. In fact, it would be real swell if someone would do a study on how those drugs effected us. Hmm, am I misusing effect when I mean affect?

Anywho That's my thoughts, I would be most happy with psychiatry actually solving problems instead of covering them up, but that's me.

It's because autism is due to the brain being wired differently & psych meds are designed to treat chemical imbalances. Also the typical NT who takes psych meds is getting them to help with a disorder he/she developed at some point for various reasons but for those of us on the spectrum those issues are part of being autistic. We were born to have these issues instead of them developing because of something that happened to us; we're designed to have them because we're autistic. I think what happened with me was the psychs did not believe I had Aspergers & they were trying to treat things as if they were emotional or personality disorders & it didn't work because those issues were an integral part of me being autistic; those issues could not be fixed that way

Doctors often lack knowledge of the medication they prescribe. That is the main reason why psychiatry in general is not working. Doctors may know what the drugs are supposed to do and they may have made "observations", but the truth is that very few doctors know what the drugs do because their education never teach that. They lack knowledge in both the chemistry and the pharmacology, and they even lack the knowledge of how the drug affects the patient because they have never tried the drugs themselves. In my opinion it's never ethically right to prescribe a drug without having personal experience of how the drug works.

It's also ethically wrong to let doctors be in charge of prescribing medication because they are not the experts in that field; pharmacologist are the real experts. I don't mean to offend any doctors by saying this, but since I have a degree in pharmacology I have always been at "war" with the doctors because they never seem to respect pharmacologist. (No, I'm not a pharmacist, that's completely different. I don't work in the healthcare.) Doctors may refer to clinical trials, but often they cannot understand if the study is valid or not. Just because a study shows something it doesn't mean it's valid.

The other main problem is that the companies who develop the drugs are not conducting proper clinical studies. They are often driven by financial factors, so they need to cut corners and produce results. The populations in the clinical trials are often not representative and the results are poorly interpreted. Most of the clinical trials fail and that applies even for drugs that are working. The methods behind the clinical trials are not exactly the best. (This is commonly accepted, so it's not just my opinion.) There are no reliable methods for measuring the effects of antidepressants or similar psychoactive medication. Thus the results are seldom trustworthy. It's rarely proven that those drugs actually work, and those that work are often not accepted because they have "abuse potential".

So, I'm against most antidepressants because they are not good drugs. This applies especially to SSRIs. The whole concept behind SSRIs was a big failure but since they make a lot of money for the companies they are still over-prescribed.

Last edited by Bio_Info_Seeker on 13 Jul 2012, 12:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

I don't have a problem with people taking meds. I think it is unethical to try to convince someone not to make meds.

My problem is in the money. It always comes down to the money. People will screw you over if they can make a profit.

I do think there is a future in psychiatric meds but just get rid of all the BS and lies and I will be happy.

A person who says the psychiatrists should stop telling me is a complete and utter unsympathetic as*hole though. People can take me their meds if they want, just as a person can drink their alcohol or smoke their marijuana if they choose to.

I've had appointments with psychs & other docs where I was one of the 1st appointments in the morning. I would see some pretty women come in with briefcases of samples & the women looked way to young to have the necessary training to understand what those meds do & how they work. It's obviously a marketing strategy

I think that depression itself is something that is still a misunderstood concept, let alone the handling of administration of drugs to cope with the disorder. Not everyone is going to respond to drugs and, because everyone is different (and so therefore one person's depression is not the same as someone else's), some people will react to the drugs in a bad way whereas for others they may be beneficial. When I get depressed, I know for a fact that drugs are not going to help me as my depression was caused by unfortunate life circumstances as opposed to, say, a chemical imbalance in my brain. I am not saying that drugs don't work for those affected by unfortunate life circumstances as for some they may well indeed work. Hence the point I make about people being different. I think to a certain degree, drugs are administered as not enough is known about depression and professionals are otherwise unsure how to deal with it. For myself, I find that learning personal coping strategies to be more beneficial than drugs. Granted, it is a lot harder to get into as it requires a lot of mental effort from the patient (I fully appreciate that not being an easy task given that depression makes you feel unmotivated to say the least), but once I get into it I find it much more rewarding than taking drugs (which would be, for me, the easier but less rewarding path). Plus, in a lot of cases, drugs can take a good number of weeks before they have any effect which, if you are feeling moderately to severely depressed, can leave one feeling rather jaded.

While I wholeheartedly agree that anti-depressants are being overprescribed nowadays, regardless of whether or not somebody with true major depression chooses to use meds as a form of treatment, the depression is always the cause of neurochemical abnormalities. Emotions in all individuals, both those with mood disorders and those who experience regular emotions, are the direct cause of neurotransmitters and biological processes in the brain. Unfortunate life circumstances often DO trigger mood episodes, and there is very strong evidence to believe that stress is a leading cause of mood episodes. Look up research on how glucocorticoids, oxidative stress, and a hyperactive HPA axis all are linked to stressful events changing the brain's chemistry and causing depression and mania.

You have every right to not want to resort to medication for your depression, but even though CBT isn't an actual drug, if it's effective, it still is causing changes in the abnormal neurochemistry in order for the mood to lift. You said that you find personal coping mechanisms to be more rewarding. All reward is caused by dopamine release in the nucleus accumbens. And increased dopamine helps treat depression. Thus, even non-medication treatments are working with neuroscience.

Wow. I have this theory that Risperdal is causing me 24/7 derealization. I mean I've had depersonalization and derealization but not 24/7. Only when my anxiety was high. Now it's permanent.

I agree. That drug is horrible. I've seen doctors give this (or similar) to patients and they get a lot more messed up than they were before. And then that leads to even higher doses of the drug...

[quote="Bio_Info_Seeker"][quote]Wow. I have this theory that Risperdal is causing me 24/7 derealization. I mean I've had depersonalization and derealization but not 24/7. Only when my anxiety was high. Now it's permanent.[/quote]
I agree. That drug is horrible. I've seen doctors give this (or similar) to patients and they get a lot more messed up than they were before. And then that leads to even higher doses of the drug...[/quote]

The worst thing is I've gained like 50lbs in 4 months.

If you think Risperdal's bad, look at Zyprexa! If I were a psychiatrist, I would NEVER prescribe Zyprexa unless absolutely every other anti-psychotic failed!

While the experts are here, how's Cymbalta? I'm taking it for anxiety and light depression (apparently). I'm getting off the Risperdal very soon. So hopefully I'll just be on Lithium and Cymbalta. Would it be better to be on Xanax?

Xanax isn't a medication for depression. It's for anxiety only. Cymbalta is a type of anti-depressant known as an SNRI (Selective Serotonin/Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitor). It works the same way as an SSRI, only it works on BOTH serotonin and norepinephrine. It's often used for depression that has a lot of physical pain symptoms, since it is a common medication for fibromyalgia and diabetic neuropathy. As with any anti-depressant if you're bipolar, NEVER use it without a mood stabilizer! It is good that you will be on lithium, too, but be sure to still watch for any signs of (hypo)mania and alert your doctor right away of any changes.

Those were the 1st two anti-psychotics I was prescribed after having a mental breakdown & slashing myself. My GP thought I was bipolar at 1st because I have been having lots of mood swings but I started seeing a psych & she said it was depression & Borderline Personality but I'm sure it was psychotic depression. Anyways... I couldn't handle either of those meds for more than a couple days. One made me sick to my stomach & the other made me very shaky & tired/out of it. I was put on Abilify after that. I had lots of side-effects on it; stuttering/slurring, ticks/twitches, being shaky, dry-mouth but I tried a few other anti-psychotics out & kept going back to Abilify because the others affected me worse mentally