61–70 of 155 posts
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Seligman [2] https://books.google.com/books?id=qreACUdDAc0C
I'd like to think that medical professionals and academics in the mental health field have probably been thorough enough in their research to have looked at these finding over the years. I somehow doubt a person whose graduated in Social and Political Science and has no medical or scientific background might actually know what they're talking about in relation to this. Interesting thing about the author. He was a ris…
There seems to be an increasing number of non-academic articles, essays and books that are expressing the idea that the Serotonin hypothesis of depression is flawed. It seems like the drug industry just picked up this idea in the 70s and has been running with it (to the bank) ever since Anecdotally, I have come to believe that SSRIs have a temporary mood-altering effect, possibly combined with a placebo effect that w…
Almost all antidepressants list the increase of suicide risk as a side effect, which is frightening. Zoloft for example [1]: > An increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults (aged 18 to 24 years) with major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders has been reported with short-term use of antidepressant drugs. [1] https://www.drugs.com/sfx/zoloft-side-ef…
Years of strict exercise, diet, meditation, breathing techniques, various forms of therapy, and numerous self-help books did not cure my anxiety and depression. 2 weeks after starting a low-dose (10mg / day) of Lexapro made me feel better than I had in 10 years. Don't be afraid of medication if other techniques fail. My life was ostensibly fine, with a good job, friends, and family. I had a chemical issue, which is s…
>My life was ostensibly fine But you said in a previous comment "I was working 35 hours a week at a startup and studying two difficult subjects at my university (computer science and Latin) while maintaining an active social life. I kept pushing myself harder and harder, and essentially collapsed". I think most people would burn out with that amount of stress.
Why did my comment get flagged? I assume this was a mistake, so reposting: tl;dr: Many people diagnosed with depression are actually just sad because modern society is kinda lame. (The article argues this point cogently, and I agree with it.) [I slightly edited this because I think people thought I was saying that I think all depressed people are faking or something]
I found, over the years of being on HN, that there's a sort of forceful response that always comes to these types of comments about depression, along with downvoting. The responses say basically, "Don't talk about what you don't know. Many people have real, chemical depression, and your comment that it's a product of life circumstances is not helpful ". I was always a but puzzled about the regularity with which that…
It's kinda like the conversation where someone is trying to describe a problem with a piece of software or UI trope, and people chime in with unhelpful workarounds rather than addressing the issue itself.
substantive discussion about facts or statistics or science
Given the subjective nature of consciousness, dismissal of anecdotal responses as counterfactual or invalid is intensely alienating to the depressed subject.
There seems to be an increasing number of non-academic articles, essays and books that are expressing the idea that the Serotonin hypothesis of depression is flawed. It seems like the drug industry just picked up this idea in the 70s and has been running with it (to the bank) ever since Anecdotally, I have come to believe that SSRIs have a temporary mood-altering effect, possibly combined with a placebo effect that w…
Almost all antidepressants list the increase of suicide risk as a side effect, which is frightening. Zoloft for example [1]: > An increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults (aged 18 to 24 years) with major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders has been reported with short-term use of antidepressant drugs. [1] https://www.drugs.com/sfx/zoloft-side-ef…
This explanation does not work for all types of depression. There are people who have wonderful lives, fulfilling jobs, happy families, who are still depressed. We need to be more careful in our language, the word depression has become overused, much like the drugs used to treat it.
That's how I've often described it before. Feeling like shit when your life is terrible is normal. Feeling like shit when your life is awesome is not. The problem is that the pill often works regardless of why you feel like shit.
So I take antidepressants not to fix the issues, but to alleviate the symptoms so that I am able to take on the actual problems.
Reimbursement for psychotherapy has been getting squeezed in the last several years. Reimbursement for psychotherapy is generally based on time: i.e. $x for a 30 minute session, $y for a 90, etc. Reimbursement for "medication management", i.e. prescribing drugs, is not based on time, but generally is a fixed amount. So the more prescriptions you write, the more money you make. Psychiatrists therefore focus on meds rather than therapy, as the reimbursement rates for therapy can't support a practice. Many psychiatrists don't take insurance at all bc they don't want to be "medication mills", so they charge $200-600+ per hour for therapy and only rich clients can pay. Psychologists and other licensed therapists can't prescribe meds, so they do therapy, but often make less than $60-70k a year. People don't want to go into psychology / psychiatry because of the stress of dealing with suffering people without having the tools to help them, and then getting paid relatively little (compared to other health care professionals)
This results in much of depression and other mental health being treated in primary care. PCPs aren't trained that well in treating mental health beyond what pharma sales reps tell them, so they wrote an rx and call it a day. 70% of patients don't respond to the first trial of antidepressants, but PCPs don't really know how to handle this
There seems to be an increasing number of non-academic articles, essays and books that are expressing the idea that the Serotonin hypothesis of depression is flawed. It seems like the drug industry just picked up this idea in the 70s and has been running with it (to the bank) ever since Anecdotally, I have come to believe that SSRIs have a temporary mood-altering effect, possibly combined with a placebo effect that w…
Almost all antidepressants list the increase of suicide risk as a side effect, which is frightening. Zoloft for example [1]: > An increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults (aged 18 to 24 years) with major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders has been reported with short-term use of antidepressant drugs. [1] https://www.drugs.com/sfx/zoloft-side-ef…
There seems to be an increasing number of non-academic articles, essays and books that are expressing the idea that the Serotonin hypothesis of depression is flawed. It seems like the drug industry just picked up this idea in the 70s and has been running with it (to the bank) ever since Anecdotally, I have come to believe that SSRIs have a temporary mood-altering effect, possibly combined with a placebo effect that w…
Almost all antidepressants list the increase of suicide risk as a side effect, which is frightening. Zoloft for example [1]: > An increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults (aged 18 to 24 years) with major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders has been reported with short-term use of antidepressant drugs. [1] https://www.drugs.com/sfx/zoloft-side-ef…
While my scepticism of 'alternative' medicine, magical thinking and general woo-woo is as strong as ever, my experiences of the last couple of years have really shaken the former certainty I used to express in the rigour of science-based medicine. I still believe in the method, but the execution seems to leave a lot to be desired. Not entirely unrelated, I'm reminded why I became disillusioned with my biochem undergrad studies - specifically the labwork. We were repeatedly told to ignore results that didn't produce the 'correct' result and were even docked marks for effectively honest reporting. Although I'm sure it was mostly crappy technique that was to blame.
Thanks for your kind words