Live data from Hacker News

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

theguardian.com

101–110 of 561 posts

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

#101
post #62
post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is what my psychiatrist more or less warned me about when I went on medication; that a lot of people who are suicidal lack the energy and ability to plan their suicide, and medications can sometimes undo those particular symptoms and people manage to end themselves. I'm not sure what kinds of studies have been done about it, but I've had a few therapists same similar ideas. If it's not a studied phenomenon, then…

[flagged]

What is "detox inefficiency"?

EDIT - I ask because the only results I get when searching are a Harvard article debunking it. I'd rather hear the opinion of someone that actually believes in it before I read about why it's all malarky. I believe in arguing against the best version of someones argument.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-dubious-p...

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

#102
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.

Finding everyone’s cow is expensive and time consuming: https://antidepressantcow.org/2020/02/the-story-of-the-antid... But is the only true cure to the suffering. We’d have to undergo a massive reorganization of society (and upset a few hefty profit margins) to prioritize that, so we settle for the messy symptom management we have.

I mean sometimes. For me it was multivariate for sure. Biggest problem - wife and kid. Helped a ton. My specific wife, really. I doubt someone else would have helped me. I had a lot of self defeating thought patterns she helped me fix.

Second - light. Lots of light, specifically in winter time. Like this https://www.benkuhn.net/lux/

I had a horrible time with school because as finals rolled around in the fall semester I’d get extremely depressed and anxious.

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

#103
post #23

Our 11 year old daughter was seriously depressed recently. N=1, but fluoxetine was life changing (and potentially life saving) for her, at least.

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?

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

#104
post #98
post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depression is likely to have many possible underlying causes. It’s a description of a persistent set of symptoms not necessarily any specific biological process.

Correct. and one of the leading causes is what I described.

You really have to unpack "detox inefficiency" because even a google search comes back with nothing.

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

#105
post #88
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

Depression is likely to have many possible underlying causes. It’s a description of a persistent set of symptoms not necessarily any specific biological process.

>Depression is likely to have many possible underlying causes

including adaptive evolutionary procreative success

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

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Finding everyone’s cow is expensive and time consuming: https://antidepressantcow.org/2020/02/the-story-of-the-antid... But is the only true cure to the suffering. We’d have to undergo a massive reorganization of society (and upset a few hefty profit margins) to prioritize that, so we settle for the messy symptom management we have.

That story doesn’t work for people with depression who otherwise have very good lives. I grew up in a stable household with a loving family and both parents present and supportive. I’ve never had financial hardship, either as a kid depending on my parents to provide or as an adult providing for myself and family. I did very well in school, had plenty of friends, never had enemies, never got bullied or even talked bad…

[deleted]

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

#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 same time went, "Ohhhh!" Mom was shocked that we'd noticed such a difference in her behavior and started taking the medication again.

I've been on the exact same dose as her for 15 years, and my 7-year-old son just started half that dose.

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.

What I tell my kids is that getting depressed, feeling sad, feeling hopeless -- those are all normal feelings that everyone has from time to time. Pills can't or shouldn't keep you from feeling depressed if you have something to be depressed about. Pills are for people who feel depressed but don't have something to be depressed about -- they have food, shelter, friends, opportunities to contribute and be productive, nothing traumatic has happened, but they feel hopeless anyway -- and that's called Depression, which is different from "being depressed."

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

#109
post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

What is "detox inefficiency"? EDIT - I ask because the only results I get when searching are a Harvard article debunking it. I'd rather hear the opinion of someone that actually believes in it before I read about why it's all malarky. I believe in arguing against the best version of someones argument. https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/the-dubious-p...

https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/body/glymphatic-system

PS Thanks for keeping this a good place to be!

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

More for the avid reader:

1.) https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7698404/

2.) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40012567/

3.) https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/36498538/

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

#110
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correct. and one of the leading causes is what I described.

You really have to unpack "detox inefficiency" because even a google search comes back with nothing.

When your normal lymphatic processes (and glymphatic processes) are slowed, or near-halted.
Post reply on HN