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Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

nytimes.com

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Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#91

Post by Perceval »

thearn4 wrote: post #19
dbt00 wrote: post #17

I was up to 10mg/daily of Lexapro for two years. When my doctor and I agreed it was time to stop taking it, his advice was to go down to 5mg for a week, then stop. When I tried stopping after the 5mg dose I had constant vertigo symptoms and incredible difficulty sleeping. What I ended up doing was cutting the pills in half for a few weeks, then quarters, then removing one day a week from the schedule until I was down…

I had the same issues coming off of Lexapro. Weird brain shocks. Bupropion (Wellbutrin) has been better for me all around, but I worry about what it will be like coming down off of it too. The good news is that I'm overall in a good place and feel like I probably don't need it anymore.

I had no problems stopping Wellbutrin after 3.5 years. More or less went cold turkey when I ran out of prescription.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#92

Post by CocaKoala »

wbkang wrote: post #64

Is there a reason why people are trying to stop taking it? If it helps your life, why not keep using it? For example, I have been taking antihistamine daily for the last 18 years for skin allergy. My QoL is significantly better with it, and unless there is some magical cure, I don't see why I should stop just because it's a "drug", "chemical" or "unnatural". For example, from the article, > "A year and a half after s…

There are side effects to the anti-depressants that might be unpleasant. There are several types of anti-depressants that kill your libido, for example, which can have a fairly large impact on your relationship with your partner.

On top of that, some people aren't comfortable needing to take a daily dose of medication where the withdrawal symptoms are so disruptive. What happens if you forget to take your meds one morning? What if you lose your insurance coverage and can no longer afford the pills? What happens if you're traveling abroad and the bad with your medications gets stolen?

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#93

Post by dbasedweeb »

ada1981 wrote: post #78
dbasedweeb wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seroquel is part of a family of drugs (antipsychotics) which have some of the worst long term adverse effects of all psychiatric drugs. Everything from tardive dyskenisia to enlargement of the ventricles of the brain are routinely observed over decades of use, and that’s not even mentioning adverse effects which appear almost immediately. In general though, these drugs have little or nothing to do with antidepressant…

An alternate to psychosis as something to interrupt is that it's a biological process that happens when the default mode network isn't sufficient. The ideal environment is one in which the psychosis can complete. It's very similar to a psychedelic journey in that with the right set and setting it can lead to deeper compassion, clarity and connection. I've been through a number of such experiences over the years; I us…

I’m not going to be able to debate the validity of your experiences of course, and I won’t try to. I can say with confidence however that for most people, psychosis is strongly correlated with poor outcomes including homelessness and suicide. Early intervention and prevention leads to the best outcomes, and the more psychotic events in a persons life, the worse the outcomes are on average.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#94

Post by electricEmu »

cassowary37 wrote: post #71

Ah, another Benedict Carey antidepressant hatchet job. Anecdotes about withdrawal symptoms + alarmist statistics about number of Americans on antidepressants + vague questions about lack of data suggesting that we know little about antidepressant long-term safety. A few important points: 1. Antidepressants can truly change people's lives. Not everyone's, and they're not the only treatment that works. Somehow this rep…

1) So do placibos

2) They're common while tapering too.

3) Agreed

4) Possibly true. What's unpolite about mentioning this?

5) Wrong analogy; depression only increases would be analogous to increased cholesterol. What are statin drug side effects when quitting, from the drug.

6) The mechanism of action isn't even fully understand. You're absolutely wrong to claim "we would have seen them (long-term side effects)". Isn't there an article on ceiliac disease and how long it took to pin down on HN's front page now?

7) You mentioned in #6 we should already know.

If I had a rant, about overly-confident individuals posting on forums. While I've no reason to believe you were intentionally dishonest, the over confident, "factual" sounding, behavior has the same basis as disinformation activists.

Experience? Was on antidepressants. Had a horrible side effects unrelated to depression coming off them. Safe my ass.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#95

Post by jotm »

cassowary37 wrote: post #71

Ah, another Benedict Carey antidepressant hatchet job. Anecdotes about withdrawal symptoms + alarmist statistics about number of Americans on antidepressants + vague questions about lack of data suggesting that we know little about antidepressant long-term safety. A few important points: 1. Antidepressants can truly change people's lives. Not everyone's, and they're not the only treatment that works. Somehow this rep…

I used to get imipramine, which was replaced with venlafaxine. The latter was shit, but of course no one could prescribe imipramine just because I wanted it (also probably because it went generic and it was too cheap to prescribe). Fuck them all, bunch of crooks.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#96

Post by ada1981 »

benevol wrote: post #20

I hope that this doesn't come over as sarcastic, but the pharmaceutical industry is a business , and they will always operate like one: A business is about making the most money possible: Maximizing revenue is about minimizing the main costs which are generated by the activities of: (a) acquiring the customer (through: advertising and marketing) and, (b) retaining the customer (in this case: through dependency). Ther…

This is exactly the case.

Psychedelics used in the right setting are actually proving to be wildly successful in treating depression, PTSD and others.

Maps.org has MDMA in phase 3 clinical trials.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#97

Post by aviv »

vanderZwan wrote: post #9
aviv wrote: post #6

This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Modern medicine is not in the business of curing diseases. It's all about disease and symptom management.

> Modern medicine is not in the business of curing diseases. I know enough people in the field of modern medicine to know that that is hyperbole. At least in the European countries that I have lived in. EDIT: I am sorry to hear from the responses to this that this may not be quite so hyperbolic in the US. I hope that trend will be reversed somehow.

Quite symbolic that my original comment is flagged and now invisible. That's exactly how truth is being suppressed in the US. Original comment was: This shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. Modern medicine is not in the business of curing diseases. It's all about disease and symptom management.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#98

Post by DanBC »

dimal wrote: post #90
cassowary37 wrote: post #71

Ah, another Benedict Carey antidepressant hatchet job. Anecdotes about withdrawal symptoms + alarmist statistics about number of Americans on antidepressants + vague questions about lack of data suggesting that we know little about antidepressant long-term safety. A few important points: 1. Antidepressants can truly change people's lives. Not everyone's, and they're not the only treatment that works. Somehow this rep…

> If there were substantial long-term risks associated with antidepressants, we would have seen them Drug makers have no incentive to see them. I can say from experience that I have seen them. I spent two months out of work when I had to discontinue Effexor. Other people complained about “brain zaps” and were largely ignored. My doctor never warned me. The evidence is there but there if you look, but there is no one…

Discontinuation effects are listed on the patient information leaflet for venlafaxine. Patients, at least in the UK, are always given this leaflet with every packet of medication.

https://www.medicines.org.uk/emc/product/4487/pil

> If you stop taking venlafaxine suddenly you may get withdrawal reactions (see section 3)

[...]

> Do not stop taking your treatment or reduce the dose without the advice of your doctor even if you feel better. If your doctor thinks that you no longer need Venlafaxine tablets, he/she may ask you to reduce your dose slowly, before stopping treatment altogether. Side effects are known to occur when people stop using Venlafaxine tablets, especially when Venlafaxine tablets is stopped suddenly or the dose is reduced too quickly. Some patients may experience symptoms such as tiredness, dizziness, light-headedness, headache, sleeplessness, nightmares, dry mouth, loss of appetite, nausea, diarrhoea, nervousness, agitation, confusion, ringing in the ears, tingling or rarely, electric shock sensations, weakness, sweating, seizures or flu-like symptoms. Your doctor will advise you on how you should gradually discontinue Venlafaxine tablets treatment. If you experience any of these or other symptoms that are troublesome, ask your doctor for further advice.

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#99

Post by DanBC »

ada1981 wrote: post #51

Keep in mind that SSRIs appear to do little more than active placebo in the vast majority of cases with the downsides of withdrawals and all the other symptoms including deceased emotions in general. There are many alternatives that have been shown to be as or more effective. Writing and then reading 14 Gratitude Letters to people. Spending an afternoon a week outside. Practicing telling the 100% truth in your relati…

> Keep in mind that SSRIs appear to do little more than active placebo in the vast majority of cases

This isn't true. We know that antidepressants are significantly more effective than placaebo for most people. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29477251

We are now gathering evidence about which antidepressants are most effective and least likely to cause people to stop using them: https://discover.dc.nihr.ac.uk/content/signal-00580/the-most...

Re: Many People Taking Antidepressants Discover They Cannot Quit

#100

Post by DanBC »

jacquesm wrote: post #53
bm1362 wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you're interested in working for a startup working on improving the physical health -> behavioral health system integrations, checkout https://www.quartethealth.com/ in NYC.

The last thing we need is people who clearly lack a basic understanding of a field as complex as mental health to start working for start-ups in that field.

It's bad enough that the ultracrepidarians post in these threads. I dread to think what would happen if they ran start-ups.
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