

Antidepressants, Tap Water, and Autism - techdog
http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/antidepressants-tap-water-and-autism.html

======
slapshot
There's some weird causality here, seemingly suggesting that Prozac caused an
increase in depression.

>"Prozac was introduced in 1988, and we all know what happened then.
Depression went from a relatively rare condition (affecting well under 100,000
people in the 1950s) to an epidemic disease affecting 27 million Americans. "

I'm pretty sure more than 100,000 people suffered from depression in the US in
1950. They might have just gone undiagnosed and self-medicated with alcohol
rather than (non-existent) pharmaceuticals. Given that the mental health state
of the art in 1950 was an icepick to the frontal lobe, I can hardly blame them
for not seeking treatment.

I would imagine that the increase in _diagnosed_ depressed patients occurred
because of an increase in both awareness and viable treatment options.

~~~
senorprogrammer
As you note the article does really a very poor job examining that connection.
Interestingly, your assumption differed a bit from mine.

My assumption about that line was this: the availability of drugs for
depression, and thus likely drug reps and salespeople, increased, providing
greater incentives for profit through prescription, and thus increased
diagnosis.

Our biases at work.

------
zzzeek
Useful link: <https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=techdog> (note the
blog - it is the same! note the days - they are every! note the comments (when
present) - they are like "this is bunk!")

I'm beginning to flag these posts.

~~~
DanBC
I agree.

<http://imgur.com/a/MQR8d>

------
eric970
If I'm understanding the logic that this article presents... Apparently after
Prozac was introduced, depression became a huge phenomenon in the US. It
showed up everywhere. This is evidence to suggest that antidepressants caused
depression.

Wat?

~~~
DanBC
Prozac was the first SSRI. It was introduced with a lot (really, even in the
UK there was a lot) of hype.

It was described as "A medication to make you feel better than well. It was an
outrage that this med was only available to people with a diagnosis, and we
should be campaigning to change the laws about prescription meds to make it
available to everyone."

(Edited to make quote clear.)

~~~
josscrowcroft
"we should be campaigning to change the laws about prescription meds to make
it available to everyone"

Did you read the article about tap water?

~~~
DanBC
Yes. I'm just telling you what the attitude of some members of the public was
when Prozac was introduced. (I'll edit to put it in quotes.)

~~~
josscrowcroft
Ah, gotcha. My mistake.

------
SigmundA
"This is actually some of the strongest evidence yet that psychiatric
medications are connected with the sharp rise in autism that began in the
1980s."

Couldn't possibly be the huge rise in awareness of Autism in the 80's, Rainman
anyone? Or the rise in parents age could it? Nah obviously pharmaceutics in
the water. There are detectable levels of many things in all water including
say arsenic:
[http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/arsenic/index.c...](http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/arsenic/index.cfm),
it's all a matter of how much, which his sources seem not to mention.

------
tokenadult
From an earlier Hacker News comment

<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5196734>

on a submission from this blog:

> > It appears you've made some sort of resolution to publish and promote a
> blog entry per day in 2013. 40 entries in 41 days this year vs. 46 in all of
> 2012. You should reconsider - whatever your reasons were, I doubt they
> included a desire to develop a reputation for presenting topics that were
> sensationalized and thinly researched [1] produced with a pace that ensures
> discredited theories dont get reviewed.

[1] [http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/drug-companies-
stop-h...](http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/drug-companies-stop-hiding-
your-data.html%E3%80%80)

> Wow, nice spot and they have all been submitted to HN. I have never seen
> anyone's submission history be so hell bent on self promotion:

<https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=techdog>

The Hacker News welcome message

<http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html>

gives an overview of the community experiment here, summarizing the site
guidelines.

<http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>

The Hacker News FAQ

<http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html>

gives some additional details about how Hacker News is administered. The
welcome message distills the basic rules into a simple statement: "Essentially
there are two rules here: don't post or upvote crap links, and don't be rude
or dumb in comment threads."

------
josscrowcroft
This seriously scares my shit out – are there any viable (domestic) water
filtration systems that could reliably pull pharmaceuticals out of your
drinking water?

~~~
dribnet
[http://www.amazon.com/Water-Distiller-Countertop-Enamel-
Coll...](http://www.amazon.com/Water-Distiller-Countertop-Enamel-
Collection/dp/B00026F9F8)

~~~
ars
That may not work - organic compounds often will travel with the water vapor.

Distilling is really only for inorganic compounds. For organics you want a
regular carbon filter.

------
benvanderbeek
Long Beach, Calif.: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin). [1]

I'm drinking an anti-epileptic and an anti-anxiety. That sucks.

[1]
[http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-drugs-...](http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-drugs-
tap-water_N.htm)

~~~
DanBC
Epilepsy meds are used as mood stabilisers for people with bi-polar and
sometimes for people with personality disorders.

