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Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
181–190 of 561 posts
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
We had/have a lot of reservations about it too, and discussed it at length with our pediatrician over months of observation. We decided what was more horrifying was hearing a 7-year-old — who has supportive family and friends, good health, no traumatic events, no major life changes going on, never worries where food/shelter is coming from — say he feels like "he shouldn't be on Earth anymore" and suddenly react with…
I'd be more interested in where your 7-year-old even learned phrases like "I feel like I shouldn't be on Earth anymore."
Come on, 7 year olds should have already learned to form phrases.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Genuine question (which I accept may be too personal to answer): what does depression in someone that young look like? How is it different from the expected hormonal changes that an adolescent is expected to go through?
It's incredible that my last four comments are down voted to -1, for engaging in genuine dialog across topics. @dang it's hard to believe that I'm not being brigaded.
My advice as a long time participant here: pay no attention to upvotes or downvotes. Sometimes they seem to be completely unrelated to whatever you said. Stay curious.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#184Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because the problem's not a "neurochemistry issue" (that theory's been debunked and the "chemicals" in play have never been known), and the solution is "no better than placebo."
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Not that I agree or disagree with the underlying claim but a call to "credentialism" to dismiss someone's opinion is not as strong in 2025 as you think it is.
The last few years have been a proof that even the "experts" are following strong political or personal ideology.
Also we don't live in the 18th century anymore. A lot of knowledge (especially around medicine) is open to the world. People can read papers, understand research etc.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#185Earlier quoted context omitted.
> my 7-year-old son just started half that dose This is horrifying.
You don't understand what having extreme anxiety at that age feels like. As someone who lived through that, I refuse to let him. All of memories of school are just feeling anxious about everything, just tight and suffocated, always in a panic. I started living when I started taking anxiety pills at 39 years old, and I can see my 2 year old having the exact same anxiety ticks and fits I have. I don't know at what age…
The main issue I see is that the anxiety pill is a way to treat the symptoms, not the cause.
Do you think that there is a way to treat the underlying cause and not the symptoms?
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#186Earlier quoted context omitted.
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Not that I agree or disagree with the underlying claim but a call to "credentialism" to dismiss someone's opinion is not as strong in 2025 as you think it is. The last few years have been a proof that even the "experts" are following strong political or personal ideology. Also we don't live in the 18th century anymore. A lot of knowledge (especially around medicine) is open to the world. People can read papers, under…
In this area, having credentials makes a difference. Experts matter.
Few if any non-medical people can read medical papers and make sense of what they say. There is simply far too much context to evaluate such papers, especially in the cases of complex medical conditions.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
His anecdote explicitly mentions the possibility of it being a placebo.
No it doesn't. It doesn't contain the word "placebo." Can you quote where it "explicitly mentions" what you're saying it does?
Wow, a shockingly argumentative tone for someone who is just flat out wrong.
Beyond the response someone else commented explaining exactly where the comparison was mentioned, the anecdote itself is useful in offering an experience of someone who's life has been changed by the drug.
In any case, the study mentioned in the article is a meta-analysis about children, not adults, so there is no onus on OP to qualify anything about placebo or not.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#188Earlier quoted context omitted.
Do you have a plan to get her off, or is she on the maintenance drug for life? It's too early to say. Obviously the idea is to get her off it if possible. SSRIs never help because of boosting serotonin. That's a hell of a claim, which could use some evidence.
> It's too early to say. Obviously the idea is to get her off it if possible. You understand that the people who sold you that drug have a vested interest in making sure it's not possible and/or that you & she think it's not possible, right?
You think the pediatrician is getting a kickback for prescribing it?
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#189Earlier quoted context omitted.
Because 7 years old is borderline too young to even make a depression diagnosis, and that kid's going to have his brain chemistry altered and essentially be addicted to a drug that he'll have to pay for for the rest of his life.
According to our pediatrician there are no known long-term effects of juvenile Prozac use. The effects may exist, but if they do they are of sufficiently low significance as to not have been detected yet. Interestingly the one possible effect she's aware of is that there may be a correlation with not growing as tall physically as one might otherwise. The data is not conclusive, but it gives me something to blame for…
This is one of the most shocking things I have ever read. There is a black box warning for Prozac:
‘Warning: Suicidality and Antidepressant Drugs
Increased risk of suicidal thinking and behavior in children, adolescents, and young adults taking antidepressants for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders’
Read the package insert: https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2011/01...
The fact that you were not informed about this should serve as proof that you cannot blindly trust what doctors tell you. They will absolutely kill you out of ignorance or incompetence, and never even realize their responsibility.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#190I thought this was already known? I can’t recall exactly but there was some research pointing to SSRIs in general as not being particularly effective at all. They were just hyped a lot and became mainstream.
I wouldn't go that far, but there was a now-famous study (Princeton?) that showed that doing aerobic exercise for maybe 30 mins every day, about five days per week, was equally effective at alleviating depression symptoms.
There's one big problem with that - getting seriously depressed people to do 30 minutes of exercise (or anything else) five days a week. "Get more exercise" is excellent advice for someone who feels a bit down, but it's absolutely useless for someone who can barely summon up the strength to eat or brush their teeth.