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Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

theguardian.com

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Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#401

Post by ornornor »

wisty wrote: post #375
jacobgkau wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your anecdote has nothing to do with whether it's better than a placebo or not.

A later comment notes that it works well for some patients and not others. The argument is that drugs probably don't fix things very well unless the cause is mostly just bad brain chemistry. Some people have bad brain chemistry, others have "real" (usually more external - financial, relationships, actual life issues) problems they need to fix, and hiding from them by just taking a pill to help ignore them might not w…

There is a case in between: sometimes the issues are too overwhelming and you can’t start fixing them until the pills give you the space you need to address them and get to a position where you can quit the pills.

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#402

Post by DANmode »

purple_turtle wrote: post #384
DANmode wrote: post #170

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Replied to your other request too: see other comments, ask for what’s missing for you.

Links to materials that would support your claim. And at least mention terms you used.

Do you not count depression as a mood disorder…?

Do you often require people you’re chatting with to have three copies of the same conversation?

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#403

Post by DANmode »

purple_turtle wrote: post #383
DANmode wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond the links in other comments?

No, ones that would support your claim. And at least mention terms you used.

Do you not count depression as a mood disorder…?

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#404

Post by conartist6 »

robertakarobin wrote: post #108

I was very young when my mom started Prozac but do remember how angry and sad she was before compared to after. Years later there was a time when me and my sister noticed our mom was acting a bit strange -- more snappish and irritable than usual, and she even started dressing differently. Then at dinner she announced proudly that she had been off Prozac for a month. My sister and I looked at each other and at the sam…

That's what freaks me out about these drugs. You-on-the-pill becomes you, and you can't ever stop.

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#405

Post by tsimionescu »

squishington wrote: post #71
carsoon wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem with suicidal depression is that if someone has created the thought pattern that death is best, then removing the symptoms of depression (lethargy, lack of energy, no willpower) now gives the person the ability to actually follow through with the act. Medications almost always target symptoms and never address root causes.

My understanding is that the optimal scenario is taking an SSRI in combination with therapy. The SSRI adds flexibility for the brain to respond to therapy and envisage new possibilities. If you don't include therapy, you've just established a new baseline to habituate to.

This is true overall, but it only works for a limited set of patients. It's pretty likely that what we're calling depression is a different set of diseases that manifest with common symptoms, and SSRIs + therapy work wonders for some variants, but not others.

In fact, we actually do know this to be the case already: bipolar disorder also manifests with the same symptoms as depression for some time, and SSRIs + therapy are definitely not enough to treat bipolar disorder. Most likely there are other similar diseases that present with depressive symptoms that we have yet to identify distinctly and don't know how to treat effectively.

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#406

Post by bbminner »

robertakarobin wrote: post #108

I was very young when my mom started Prozac but do remember how angry and sad she was before compared to after. Years later there was a time when me and my sister noticed our mom was acting a bit strange -- more snappish and irritable than usual, and she even started dressing differently. Then at dinner she announced proudly that she had been off Prozac for a month. My sister and I looked at each other and at the sam…

I am surprised by how many people seemingly independently come up with a completely indescriptive "bad day" label - for the lack of a better one.

Good that things are working out for you.

Recently found that, on top of meds (that started wearing off - after taking them for a couple years now following a challenging life situation), going to social latin dance classes for a couple hours almost every day after work helps quite a bit.

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#407

Post by [deleted] »

robertakarobin wrote: post #145
jacobgkau wrote: post #131

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No it doesn't. It doesn't contain the word "placebo." Can you quote where it "explicitly mentions" what you're saying it does?

> If I have a good day it's impossible to day whether that's due to Prozac. But since starting Prozac I have been much more likely to have good days than bad. So, since Prozac is cheap and I don't seem to suffer any side effects, I plan to keep taking it in perpetuity. I was acknowledging that the "good days" could be due to Prozac or could be a placebo effect, but since being on Prozac correlates with having signifi…

[deleted]

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#408

Post by myguysi »

litigator wrote: post #256
BjoernKW wrote: post #232

[flagged]

During my first manic episode I was handed sertraline. This pushed the mania full send and I lost a lot of time that I can't account for, things I did I can't remember but friends have recalled. Climbing the house to get in through the upstairs window whilst having the house key on me. Locking myself in my room for a week or two convinced I was the real world John Connor and Arnie was looking for me. Blowing all my s…

> I'm speculating here but I'm pretty sure if you did an MRI on my brain you'd see lesions from the mixing of mdma and sertraline (I get myoclonic jerks to this day).

Could you speak more to this? A family member was recently diagnosed with myoclonic jerks without a clear root cause, so treatment has been hit or miss so far. I’m trying to learn what I can to help inform them.

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#409

Post by Dylan16807 »

brendoelfrendo wrote: post #373
GOD_Over_Djinn wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the first search results for me was a paper published in Nature. Other top results were from respected institutions like the NIH and Harvard University. Hardly grifters or crazies. The caveat you cite applies to basically any and all internet (or even media) consumption, and is therefore a non-argument.

Look, I can tell you've got a chip on your shoulder about this and are probably a conspiracy theorist, so I'm not going to argue anymore.

Maybe chip on their shoulder, but the claim of conspiracy theorist is completely unwarranted. The impression you give off is that you decided upfront their sources are bad and you're going to knee-jerk reject their evidence no matter what.

Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts

#410

Post by tartoran »

blastersyndrome wrote: post #212

When I was a teen I was put on Prozac because I threatened to commit suicide. The drug absolutely destroyed me. Within a few days of taking it, I was in a bizarre state of delirium where I would sleep something like 18 hours a day. When I wasn't asleep I would gnash my teeth at my parents. At school I would lash out at my classmates and randomly punch the walls of my classroom. I was taken off the drug after about fi…

How long were you on Prozac? The way you describe your experience it makes it sound like you were affected long term. Are you still on it or any other SSRI? Hope you eventually rediscover/redevelop your emotional functionality.
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