

How Prozac sent the science of depression in the wrong direction - grotius
http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/06/head_fake/

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brandnewlow
So depression is the sensation of my brain atrophying. Actually, that explains
a lot.

First thing I did after reading this? I went for a short, but hard run.

~~~
gruseom
_So depression is the sensation of my brain atrophying._

This comment makes it sound like you read that and just accepted it as true.
Surely that's not the case?

When orthodoxy shifts it doesn't mean that the new orthodoxy is right. These
things seem to come in 20-30 year cycles (remember the one about how saturated
fat caused heart disease? or how breast-feeding was really bad... I mean,
really really good?). It occurred to me that maybe one reason for these cycles
is the rise of new generations of researchers (it fits the cycle length). The
best way to make your mark is by discrediting the theories of the earlier
generation. (I'm not suggesting all of science works this way.) This sort of
churn is perhaps an indication that skepticism is appropriate. Otherwise you
end up with that amusing illusion of how stupid people always were 20-30 years
ago.

~~~
brandnewlow
Actually, as no one had yet posted a comment, I tried to sum up the gist of
the article in one short sentence, thinking it might provoke actual
discussion. I think we're probably both pretty skeptical about the latest
orthodoxy-challenging discovery.

Nonetheless, the mechanics of brain atrophy (not that I understand them, but I
understand how muscles atrophy a bit from wearing a cast on my arm) do seem
genuinely helpful in explaining what it feels like to be depressed. It really
does feel like something is happening to your brain. And these people seem to
think so. No idea if its true or not, but its helpful to have that idea out
there.

~~~
gruseom
Heh, now I see what made your comment unclear to me. It was simply the word
"So". If I had read it when it was the only one I bet I would have gotten your
meaning.

Incidentally, I like how you're processing this information through your own
experience.

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gruseom
Consider how much of this stuff has been pushed into people by white-coated
authorities over the last 20 years and the onslaughts of expert derision
against questioning it. Meanwhile it turns out that the studies on which the
drug's reputation was based were cherry-picked out of a much larger set, the
negative ones having been suppressed and only recovered after years of
freedom-of-information litigation.

Drugs are bad! Don't take drugs! The war on drugs! I mean, drugs are good!
Take the drugs we tell you to! But not those ones we gave you before!

~~~
josefresco
This sort of debate (good rugs vs. bad) will only become more complex as we
discover and build new drugs. What is now an illicit drug (cocaine, meth,
heroin etc.) will look downright silly compared to the new custom tailored
get-high drugs that come out of the drug company labs.

All I can say to people who are on both sides of this fight now is to "enjoy
it while it lasts". The lines are only now becoming slightly blurred, in 20
years we'll look back on these times with great fondness. When we worried
about blunt-instrument fun drugs and could tell the difference between a
"steroid user" and a gifted athlete.

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pixpop
How do they explain why depression comes back when the meds are withdrawn?

~~~
brandnewlow
Well, they'd probably make a comparison to weight gain. Once you get off the
diet, unless you're living the right kind of lifestyle, you're going to gain
the weight back.

Unless you're exercising, having regular social interactions, keeping busy
with work that you find meaningful in some way, you're probably going to get
depressed once you get off the meds. That's my guess.

