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Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#51

Post by Broken_Hippo »

throw998away wrote: post #48
lexhaynes wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please intervene. Get her some real counseling! Get her to a psychiatrist! And when she is able, get her exercising and taking probiotics. Good luck.

You talk as though I have any control over her whatsoever. She is pretty much uncontrollable. If I tried to suggest she needs to see a psychiatrist it would pretty much ensure she would never see one.. I am pretty much at the end of my tether now.

My ex was on the line of bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. I both didn't have control over anything he did, yet had some things I could do.

First off, good advice is found in the mental health hotlines. 1-800-950-NAMI (6264) if you are in the states. They can let you know options that I might not realize.

I was lucky enough that my ex kept his meds up (mostly) and went to the doctor - and that I had an invitation from his psychiatrist to call the hospital if I had any issues. Unfortunately, you don't have this. However, this doesn't preclude you from talking to her doctor. Even if he or she doesn't give you feedback information. He might be willing to change course with her or offer.

You might be able to change tactics and talk to her as well, explaining that you aren't sure this med is doing well for her and about the changes you have seen. She might be willing to go to a psychiatrist with you under the view of saving the relationship.

You also might be able to speak to a psychiatrist or therapist yourself to get some ideas on how to get through to her.

And good luck to you both. I truly understand your sort of struggle, even if I don't understand the specific flavor of it.

Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#53

Post by ada1981 »

_98fj wrote: post #34

Just a couple of unordered facts here, because discussions about this topic tend to get very confused: 1. Serotonin is a very basic, very old transmitter found in all bilateral animals. Humans have two sites of serotonin-production, one in the body, one in the brain. 90% of serotonin resides in the body. 2. Serotonin in general regulates "activity". It affects hunger, gut-movement, sleep, cell-growth, mood, body-temp…

Some good info here, however just want to point out that feeling sad / angry is not te result of a brain circuit malfunctioning.

All of our emotions are useful signals and it's often our learned responses to those emotions that are the problem.

Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#54

Post by ada1981 »

The current canon of legal psychiatric drugs won't ever cure the underlying issue that causes the symptoms.

The only things that come close to that are the psychedelics -- psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, etc. They have been outlawed but of course, the underground therapy community has been keeping them alive and we should see legalization for the treatment of things like PTSD within the next 5 years.

Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#55

Post by amelius »

I'm reading this on Wikipedia:

> Several plants contain serotonin [...] These compounds do reach the brain, although some portion of them are metabolized by monoamine oxidase enzymes (mainly MAO-A) in the liver.

This makes me wonder: will people with a homozygous defect in the MAO-A gene (quite a large percentage of the population) end up with the problem that lots of endogenous serotonin may reach the brain?

Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#56

Post by kefka »

csydas wrote: post #41
qrybam wrote: post #6

Some thoughts from someone who's been prescribed anti depressants in adolescence but never took them because I believed the doctor misdiagnosed: * Do these drugs genuinely help or is it just a strong placebo response? * If the anecdotal evidence increases the odds from 1 in 100 to 1 in 4, would this be considered normal in medicine? Of course the symptoms could be attributed to the wrong thing here but they sound pre…

Heh, as someone who was on SSRIs for a long time at high dosages, they definitely do something, but the issue is less whether the drugs do anything and more what you do during that time. Personal experience with Sertraline - it doesn't make you happy or feel better or anything. It just numbs you, and you're really susceptible during this time. It's part of the reason why therapy is also really important in addition t…

> In the case of true chemical imbalances like it's suspected I have, during this time you help find non-drug related coping mechanisms. Finding ways to help create a strong positive part of your life so the imbalances are offset and don't hit as hard. A lot of this comes just through therapy or at least a counselor while you work.

We wouldn't say the same if it was your arm was broken...

"You can just come up with non-surgical ways of coping with the fact your arm is broken"

Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#57

Post by MichaelMoser123 »

Confusion wrote: post #7

Many meds have extreme side-effects in part of the population. Often we call those 'allergies', but those are just the tip of the iceberg. There's nothing new here, just a reminder that a specific medication may not work for you or may work but still make things worse by causing side-effects.

>Many meds have extreme side-effects in part of the population

My daughter was given Montelucast/singulair for treatment of asthma; now it turns out that it can have severe side effects with kids - anxiety and suicidal behavior [1]. The funny thing is that these side effects are not listed on the medication guide, as these are supposed to be 'known risks'. What exactly were they thinking when they omitted this information from the medication guide?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/26620206

Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#58

Post by Pigo »

ada1981 wrote: post #54

The current canon of legal psychiatric drugs won't ever cure the underlying issue that causes the symptoms. The only things that come close to that are the psychedelics -- psilocybin, MDMA, LSD, etc. They have been outlawed but of course, the underground therapy community has been keeping them alive and we should see legalization for the treatment of things like PTSD within the next 5 years.

They talk about these uses on almost every episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. He has a lot of researchers on who describe their usage of psychedelics to treat depression in particular. They describe it as "brain reset" or more like a chance for people to stick their head out of the fog, giving them the opportunity to see how they're stuck in a negative cycle. I just wonder if it's like a Tony Robbins seminar, super motivating and informative, but with little hope for long-term effects unless you keep going to seminars or eating mushrooms. Is there no hope of genuine change in your thought patterns outside of long-term psychoanalysis or a spiritual awakening of some type?

Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#59

Post by Pigo »

mickronome wrote: post #39
adamweld wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>There's a lot of research showing the positive effects of medication (and in ADHD's case, the futility of non-medication-based treatments), but there's still a major fight for acknowledging the validity of this form of treatment. Is this really relevant considering the extremely rapid rise in prescription and use of ADHD medication? In my anecdotal experience with friends who take these pills, they very quickly crea…

They can be harmful, but diagnosed ADHD/ADD is almost guaranteed to be harmful, maybe especially in todays society. More than doubled risk of depression is only one of the risks of the above diagnoses, and while many of the risks could be said to be more of a societal issue - at least in the beginning - they tend to cause actual health problems over time. Overprescription can always be an issue for any medication, bu…

Maybe if the medication is 90% as fun as cocaine for large portion of the population. I've known precious few people with legitimately diagnosed ADHD, but I've known tons of people who use the medication as a stimulate for studying or just for fun at parties. No one is doing this with Effexor, at least no one bright. From what I understand it's doesn't effect the people with true ADHD the way it does the casual user. This isn't their fault, and I wouldn't take their crutch away. I fault big pharma and the tons of sketchy doctors out there.

Re: Extreme side-effects of antidepressants

#60

Post by khed »

_98fj wrote: post #34

Just a couple of unordered facts here, because discussions about this topic tend to get very confused: 1. Serotonin is a very basic, very old transmitter found in all bilateral animals. Humans have two sites of serotonin-production, one in the body, one in the brain. 90% of serotonin resides in the body. 2. Serotonin in general regulates "activity". It affects hunger, gut-movement, sleep, cell-growth, mood, body-temp…

I am a practicing physician with 2 years of graduate level course work in neuroscience.

Point 3 and 4 are wrong. There is no evidence that SSRIs work by fixing a chemical imbalance.

There are multiple metananlyses in top tier journals that indicate that SSRIs have an irrelevant clinical effect. SSRIs are almost all placebo with the downside of causing serious side effects. The small effect that isn't due to placebo is probably not clinically relevant.

The only cogent defense of SSRIs I have read is http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/07/07/ssris-much-more-than-yo.... The author is a practicing psychiatrist. The main disagreement he has with the large metaanalyses is that even though the effect size is small it's better than nothing.

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