

Antidepressants Target the Wrong Thing, and Only Work 50% of the Time - dstorrs
http://machineslikeus.com/news/why-antidepressants-dont-work-everyone

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divia
_The rats, after decades of development, are believed to be the most depressed
in the world._

I'm not against animal testing in general or this sort of thing in particular,
but I found that sentence strangely evocative.

~~~
btilly
My first thought was that at least one of them should be named Marvin.

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stse
Didn't want to make a new submission, but I read this yesterday: 'Anti-
depressants cut suicides', <http://www.thelocal.se/22842/20091023/>

Also includes the origin of the Swedish "suicide myth" at the end.

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Virax
The article is interesting, but the conclusion that _all_ antidepressants on
the market are flawed is not correct, mostly because different antidepressants
target different systems in different ways. I took Celexa for over a year, it
worked OK but not great, and then after reading the wikipedia article on
treatment of depression, I tried SAM-e, which works much better (200mg Jarrows
in the morning with a B-complex supplement to break down the homocysteine).
Prior to Celexa, I tried Zoloft, which was completely useless.

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NikkiA
One of the odd things about SSRIs that I learnt recently...

I was reading up on peripheral neuropathy, since I'm suffering some nasty
nerve damage in my feet due to diabetes, and discovered that SSRIs are one of
the most effective treatments for peripheral neuropathic pain. (which probably
didn't help with my diabetes diagnosis, since I've been on a SSRI (paroxetine)
for anxiety for the last 3 years, and it was the pains in my feet that led to
testing for diabetes...)

~~~
btilly
The current Scientific American has an article you may find interesting on the
biology behind certain kinds of chronic pain. In particular there is a certain
kind of cells called glia whose job is to heal hurt neurons. They consider
active pain neurons to be hurt, try to "heal" them, and increase the
sensitivity, leading to a nasty feedback loop as anything will cause pain.

There are treatments being developed for this kind of pain. But one of the
more effective existing ones is marijuana. Marijuana dials down the glia,
which breaks the feedback loop. If you live in a state that allows medical
marijuana, you may wish to look into this.

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human_v2
I'm kind of against a pharmaceutical regimen for most people. I understand
that there are SOME things that people cannot fix themselves, but a lot of the
cases, I don't believe drugs are necessary. Let's face it. People take pills
because it's easier than eating a healthy diet to make your blood pressure go
down.

Depression, in my opinion, is something most people can overcome. Rather than
looking within and learning about themselves, most people would rather just
pop a feel-good pill every morning.

And the drugs themselves. They're essentially a bunch of random chemicals that
big pharma shoves down the throats of test subjects and looks for good things
that could happen. I would rather deal with my mild depression than take pills
that could make me nauseous, give headaches, make me bleed from strange places
or even kill me. Most people don't weigh the costs and benefits of taking
prescription drugs... because it's easier.

~~~
bendotc
Now, I'm not a cheerleader for modern-day psychopharmaceuticals; I often liken
antidepressants to kicking a television and hoping that the picture clears up.
They often don't work, or mysteriously work for some time, then stop, and
there doesn't seem to be a ton of rhyme or reason to it.

That all having been said, from what I've read, for most people with chronic
depression, the most effective treatment is a combination of antidepressant
drugs and behavioral therapy. For a lot of people, one or the other alone
doesn't work very well, and I certainly hope that no one would be unwilling to
get help because people would think them weak or lazy for relying on
antidepressants.

Put simply, if you have chronic depression, you can use all the help you can
get. Sometimes drugs don't work, many have awful side effects, or may just not
work for any given person, but it's often worth the trouble in order to fight
clinical depression. If people can effectively manage it with behavioral
therapy, then great, but for all the people out there who've tried and for
whom that's not enough, I hope you reconsider the idea that for the most part,
antidepressants are for the lazy.

~~~
Mz
I kind of agree with both of the above thoughts. I've made very drastic
lifestyle and dietary changes to get myself well. I am not particularly prone
to depression. If I am "depressed" for more than three days, it is usually bad
anemia. I had no idea how bad my anemia was until it got better and my body
just worked differently. Being anemic was my norm and I just didn't know one's
body could feel different and work different.

On the one hand, I think that if one goes far enough with dietary and
lifestyle changes, more can be done to address the underlying physiological
problems than most people realize. On the other hand, I am aware that
depression can be a response to feeling helpless about your life. Drugs won't
fix that. Making different choices does more for that kind of depression.

Again: I'm not very prone to depression. I am prone to getting angry in the
face of stuff like that. But the same principle applies: Stewing about things
isn't healthy and doesn't make one feel better. I have found that the best
antidote to my tendency get angry about stuff is to DO something, no matter
how small. Since I tend to be the "bounce off the walls" type, I tend to make
good friends with folks who are prone to depression. (Two bounce off the walls
types can be a very destructive combination whereas depressed folks find I
liven things up and I find they help ground me.) So I have assisted a couple
of people with both the behavioral and dietary stuff the promotes their
depression.

For me, getting healthier has been a fascinating study in using negative
outcomes of life as feedback for what I need to correct in my own thought
processes and behavior. I don't even know how to adequately put it into words.
I think the best I can do is the explanation I once gave my son when he was
younger: That life is like a video game and you either learn from your
mistakes or Game Over, only we don't have a reset button. So life-threatening
events are a big wake-up call that "hey, stupid, you can't keep doing that".
The trick is to figure out what things you can't keep doing.

I think I have dug my grave deep enough and should probably just clam up now.
:-D

