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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

#361

Earlier 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.

And several of your comments before that were upvoted. Are we to regard those as suspicious?

Of the recent downvoted comments, one was a complaint about moderation that anyone who has paid attention to dang's track record here over more than a decade knows is baseless. (And if you think the top comment on any thread is a bad one, you can always choose to be a helpful contributor to the community and email us to let us know).

Of the other two of your downvoted comments, none were downvoted by the same users.

The choice is yours to make an effort to observe the guidelines and be a positive contributor to HN, or alternatively to keep using HN for political/ideological battle and complain to the moderators when things don't go your way, but it's clear what others in the community want to see.

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

#362

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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…

ssris are known to unmask or precipitate manic episodes in people with family history of bipolar or schizophrenia.

> 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

ssris actually block the serotonergic effects of mdma and similar.

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

#363

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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WTF? You cannot comment like this on HN, no matter what you're replying to or how wrong you think they are. We've had to ask you before to avoid abusive comments. We have to ban accounts to do this repeatedly, and it's only because the parent comment was pretty bad too that I'm not banning you this time. Please take a moment to remind yourself of the guidelines and avoid ever commenting like this again if you want to keep participating here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#364

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 anyth…

To be fair, I didn't read that suggestion as being about a possible placebo effect, just that you can't attribute any one good day to the pill. It's like climate change- it undeniably exists, but you can't blame climate change for a single heat wave or freak storm.

You read it that way because that’s the sensible way to read it. Everyone suggesting you missed the plot is in turn making a rather large logical leap.

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

#365
I have overseen over 20 phase III clinical trials. Many of those clinical trials have failed to show statistical efficacy. In every single one of those trials there are patients who see dramatic and undeniable benefits. In the oncology field, we continue to treat such patients even when the statistics say, no benefit. And, sometimes those patients just stay better. My point is, when the trial shows "no better than placebo", it doesn't mean the treatment doesn't work. It might be that. But more likely it means we don't know how to define the population of folks for whom the treatment does work. Maybe it's a particular genetic background, maybe it's age, gender, serum CPR or Tau level. Maybe it's something else. This stuff is complicated and interesting. And we are still figuring it out.

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

#366

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m with you on this. Granted my oldest is only 5, but anything profound my kids say can be traced back to something they heard

Teachers / schools / mandatory privilege education

You seem to have a pretty narrow view of the world, especially about “privilege education.” FWIW I’ve never once heard anything about “white people bad” from my kiddo, about 10.

It’s also impossible to to talk about idk Columbus, slavery, Great Britain, or the founding of America (and like ya know, the treatment of native Americans) without ascribing some blame to the people responsible…who were by and large “white”. We also talk about how any judgement based on skin, appearance, gender, ethnicity, or religion, is flat out wrong.

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

#367

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suicidal ideation at 7 years old is not normal kid behavior, neither is sudden and unprecedented paralyzing anxiety over the prospect of ordinary things like going to a friend's birthday party or trying a new playground. Me and my mom are on identical doses of Prozac to treat very similar symptoms. We consulted with a child therapist, a pediatrician, and a psychiatrist.

You are shockingly patient and nice to these people who are going out of their way to be judgmental jerks. Kudos to you; you're inspiring me to find more grace in my life, but don't feel obligated to respond to these people who are trying only to bring people down.

> You are shockingly patient

It’s the Prozac, obviously /s

It really does take a lot to be able to deal with all the comments they’re getting, and I know from my own experience that once you’re living a life of both seeing and experiencing struggles with mental health, it becomes something you adapt to rather quickly.

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

#368

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, “linked to” is better than “caused by” here, for sure. Not often this kind of thing comes up on HN, so I was replying in haste at a stoplight! I’ll ignore the slight, which you should know better than.

Stopping back in, because I unironically came across someone's almost-surely AI assisted summary that does a better job than I have summarizing the processes being discussed: == === Why the Sick Get Sicker Most people think illness progresses because of pathogens, toxins, or genetics — but the deeper truth is that tension, stress, and breathing patterns control the trajectory of health more than anything else. When t…

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

#369

Earlier 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 was one of those “medicating kids is a terrible idea” people, until I had kids with severe generalised anxiety. It took a lot to convince me to try it, but it made their lives better in such an obvious, immediate way. The whole experience made me a lot more humble about opinions I hold without relevant experience.

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

#370

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, us too. Beats us. Sure wasn't around our house, and we can't imagine any family/friends/TV/whatever he may have learned it from.

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"why do you feel sad about your girlfriend broke up with you, it happens all the time and you'll probably find someone else"

Attitude

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