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Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

newscientist.com

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Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#331

Post by drakythe »

bcjdjsndon wrote: post #327
drakythe wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and on stimulants (went through 3 kinds before we found one that seemed to help). What "high"? Our brain chemistry literally works differently than neurotypical people and the stimulants don't get us high. In fact they often have a calming effect. I had to fight not to fall asleep at my desk two days this week (Not entirely the medication's fault, lotta family stress wrecking my sleep…

> In fact they often have a calming effect. That's clucky addiction mate same reason opioids can make addicts chatty and full of life again if they've been struggling to score all day

Its not addiction at all. I literally forget it once or twice a week on average, even on work days. I don't think you know what you're talking about.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#332

Post by mrguyorama »

pas wrote: post #165
bb123 wrote: post #126

There is a real lack of transparency in communicating some of the long term impacts of SSRIs to new patients. When I was prescribed sertraline not one doctor mentioned the massive (and sometimes permanent!!) sexual side effects, the likelihood of weight gain or how brutal it would be to taper off. Also, I ended up ignoring my doctor's (way too aggressive) tapering schedule and managing my own down-dosing with a pill…

for anyone who's curious about the sexual side-effects, this subreddit has stories from the unlucky few https://reddit.com/r/PSSD/top/

The only medication for Premature Ejaculation that exists currently is a megadose of a special SSRI which has a short half life.

If you are a man, SSRIs are very likely to make you last longer in bed, and that is often a very bad thing.

If you are a woman, whatever the SSRI is treating may leave you better off than before, if you found the depression or anxiety to be an obstacle to your satisfaction.

Many people however don't have an effect that makes a meaningful difference.

That subreddit is awful though. It's full of the same energy as health woo communities.

>It's tragic that this time we won't be able to enjoy GTA 6, after we were able to enjoy Gta 5. Damn everyone who invented these destructive drugs.

Like, come on man.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#333

Post by movespebp »

orangedog wrote: post #296
WhitneyLand wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So, this is not supported by the data when people are asked. Sexual effects alone hit about 50–70% people. Then you could face nausea, insomnia, profuse sweating when you’re still, emotional blunting, and weight gain. I don’t want to discourage anyone, they can save lives. It is a net benefit for some people, but even then most people will experience side effects and wish they didn’t have to take them.

> The most common side effects reported by patients in the study by Hu et al1 of 401 outpatients taking SSRIs were drowsiness (38%), dry mouth (34%), and sexual dysfunction (34%) > which was conducted in 1999-2000, questioned patients about side effects via phone interviews within 75 to 105 days of starting antidepressant therapy. The side effects deemed most bothersome were sexual dysfunction (17%) It's no where nea…

[dead]

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#334

Post by Mezzie »

clsec wrote: post #270
Mezzie wrote: post #228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are absolutely people with bigger problems than depression. For example, I have MS, and my mental health is absolutely one of my less concerning problems. There are so many options for mental health + the treatments are much easier to access than a lot of my symptom management meds + DMT. People undergoing chemo. People with ALS. People with bipolar (who can't take a lot of first line depression treatments) or…

You didn't word it like that though. And I'd argue that for people with MDD, and without those comorbidities you listed, depression is a huge problem.

I'm not the GP; I'm a separate person who was providing potential context.

Something can be a huge problem and still be small potatoes to people having catastrophic problems, and often those of us in very, very dire circumstances are tone policed to within an inch of our lives and have to constantly consider normal people above ourselves (and make no mistake, people with MDD are closer to normal than somebody with ALS or severe cancer). We're never allowed to express anger, never allowed to talk about having it harder, have to stop and attend to the feelings of others while ours are ignored, etc.

Also, no offense, but depression can end up making people very self-centered. It's your illness that makes you think that what you're going through is more important and worse than what anyone else is going through, and it's not. (And it's not for me either: there are definitely people who have it worse than me and could say they wish their problem was 'just' MS. I just wouldn't get offended by that.)

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#335

Post by drakythe »

y-c-o-m-b wrote: post #316
drakythe wrote: post #267

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Diagnosed with ADHD as an adult, and on stimulants (went through 3 kinds before we found one that seemed to help). What "high"? Our brain chemistry literally works differently than neurotypical people and the stimulants don't get us high. In fact they often have a calming effect. I had to fight not to fall asleep at my desk two days this week (Not entirely the medication's fault, lotta family stress wrecking my sleep…

> What "high"? Our brain chemistry literally works differently than neurotypical people and the stimulants don't get us high. In fact they often have a calming effect. Is this actually true? I see this repeated a lot. The one time I increased dosage of Adderall too quickly, I felt very calm and almost "normal" again, but I attributed this to a mild euphoria because euphoria is technically the effect one gets when hig…

My statement was perhaps too broad. It is possible for ADHD people to get high off their medications, yes. But that is a signal the dosage is too large. Normal dosage and usage won't get a person "high" in the traditional sense, much in the same way injecting insulin into a healthy person is bad but a diabetic person requires it for standard function, however too high of a dose would still be bad for a diabetic person too.

Suicidal ideation as a side effect is bad. I'm sorry you had that experience.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#336

Post by cactacea »

someothherguyy wrote: post #144
asa123 wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

somewhat off topic but i’ve thought about tapering like this, but i’ve got wondered where can one get a calibrated milligram scale? or perhaps it doesn’t matter too much.

if the substance has good water solubility, you can do this by dilution, measuring volume, without a scale. sertraline for instance: https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/68617#section=Solu... don't do this with medications with special coatings or other methods for controlling release (SR/XR/etc).

Using distilled water would be a good idea as well.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#337

Post by stronglikedan »

trentnix wrote: post #197
fny wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The problem is that psychiatry is an absolute zoo. Ive heard that if you go to 10 doctors you'll get 10 different opinions based on the docs personal experience. Even if there are trials for these medications, the field is not quantitative in practice. "Standard of care" is a myth.

The one thing they will all agree on is that you need pills of one sort or another.

Of course, because prescribing pills is the sole job of a psychiatrist. Go to a phycologist or therapist of you want to try to talk it out. If talking doesn't work, they'll send you to a psychiatrist for medication.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#338

Post by stronglikedan »

fsuts wrote: post #246
15feetOfclay wrote: post #243

This comment section is absolutely full of people ready and willing to insist that people with depression simply need to cheer up and get over it. And all I can say is: I hope someone shows them a similar level of compassion when they are at their lowest.

Most of the problems I would say are related to the modern isolated Nuclear family. See that programmer sat next to you that is not a nice person? Well some kid had no choice but to have him as a parent. Throw in a society that doesn’t value teachers and pays them below many other jobs and the kid spends all his day and evenings with no one to guide and nurture him or her.

There is no modern isolated Nuclear family. There's mostly broken homes now, and that is the root cause of most of the problems.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#339

Post by SV_BubbleTime »

wredcoll wrote: post #32
SV_BubbleTime wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

There's hundreds of years of "depression isn't real and even if it was real the only treatment is to take a walk in the woods!!" and like a decade of "man, ssris are great, they really helped me". Public responses have probably not finished overcorrecting.

Fair.

But imo the issue with that might be that “just man up and go take a walk” may still be better advice than “hey kid with your underdeveloped brain… take this maybe psychoactive drug that absolutely changes your brain chemistry in ways we absolutely do not understand causing almost certain addiction with effectively zero supervision unless you self-report murderous and psychotic tendencies! Don’t mind that I’m making kickbacks on every subscription!!”

In terms of possible damage to self and others. And to long term society.

Re: Doctors are finally learning to manage antidepressant withdrawal

#340

Post by fsuts »

stronglikedan wrote: post #338
fsuts wrote: post #246

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Most of the problems I would say are related to the modern isolated Nuclear family. See that programmer sat next to you that is not a nice person? Well some kid had no choice but to have him as a parent. Throw in a society that doesn’t value teachers and pays them below many other jobs and the kid spends all his day and evenings with no one to guide and nurture him or her.

There is no modern isolated Nuclear family. There's mostly broken homes now, and that is the root cause of most of the problems.

Are you one of those religious Bible loons who believes couples need to stay together even if it’s a disaster relationship.

As you are wrong if you are. Children suffer more in bad parent relationships

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