Earlier quoted context omitted.
A seven-year old child is being given a brain-altering drug? I am very happy such drugs did not exist when I was seven years old.
the alternative is depression. brain altering drugs seem preferrable
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Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
481–490 of 561 posts
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#482Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 u…
> when things don't go your way,
You're a ridiculous person.
> or alternatively to keep using HN for political/ideological battle
Which ones? The one about ML and programming languages? Or the one about asking a genuine question about an experience with childhood depression? Or the one observing that you and dang unevenly apply moderation rules? Or the one commenting about how you can't say the word for the literal definition of fascism on this site without getting downvoted? Or the one about dishwashers?
Where's my ideological battle?
You have no credibility. You unlike dang, don't do a good job. Go ahead and ban me or put me on a cool down to prove my point.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#483Earlier quoted context omitted.
Swapping one problem for another. Religion sounds like the worst place for someone who is mentally vulnerable. It's like pulling out your credit card in a shopping mall full of salesmen who are under tremendous pressure to make big sales asap
I have seen no studies that suggest such a thing. Hoards of studies suggest religion is good for mental health. I can be persuaded, though. Can you show research?
For whose mental health? My point is that religion brings its own shared of issues. And by religion here I mean organised religion. Religions that don't involve rituals or gatherings with other people in hierarchical settings are different (but I assume most people are after rituals and gatherings with other people in well defined settings imo rather than the actual metaphysical beliefs).
- If you look at highly religious areas like the bible belt, they are often linked to worse mental health outcomes for those who don't the religious worldview such as queer people https://www.thetrevorproject.org/research-briefs/lgbtq-youth... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8724198 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10752621
- That wave of christianism, ironically called christian science, was the cause of mental distress and deaths of tons of children due to the parents religious views. Religious based neglect is a common form of religious based abuse too.
https://childrenshealthcare.org/victims https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7545013 https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/9521945/
- Having religious parents is often associated with conditions like anxiety or depression
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10719686
- Struggles of a religious nature causing mental health issues all the way up to suicidal ideation
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266691532... https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4776639 https://www.researchgate.net/publication/371293385_SUICIDE_A...
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#484Earlier quoted context omitted.
A seven-year old child is being given a brain-altering drug? I am very happy such drugs did not exist when I was seven years old.
the alternative is depression. brain altering drugs seem preferrable
Exactly. And it's a combination usually. It's really hard to do constructive therapy when you are depressed. Stabilise with the meds and then tackle the root causes with therapy.
But some people just are very prone to depression and need the extra help.
You wouldn't say "don't give that kid ibuprofen, let them just deal with the pain"?
And SSRIs are not very strong. They do have some nasty side effects especially sexually but this is not relevant at that age so that makes it even more suitable for kids than adults.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#485Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why? If a kid has diabetes, would it be horrifying to treat it? Why would it be different for a neurochemistry issue that makes the same kid tired and sad all the time?
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."
> 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."
It most certainly has not been debunked and mind altering chemicals most certainly do work.
SSRIs have _questionable_ efficacy but that's not the same as proven to have none, which is an exceptionally high bar.
This is close minded dogma no better a religion.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#486Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, it's not. Medicine is advancing. We're increasingly able to understand and adjust dysfunctions that cause major, negative quality of life impacts. These dysfunctions have always existed, we're just getting better at finding ways to help people work through it.
This is empirically false; the rates of chronic physical and mental illnesses nowadays are are far higher than e.g. 50 years ago, and these are serious illnesses, not the kind of thing that could have been just not noticed.
That's your opinion, that is not the general opinion of the professionals in the field.
I trust a cohort of scientists significantly more than anonymous strangers online, and you should too.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#487Earlier quoted context omitted.
SSRI can have annoyances (to stay polite) if you ever need a fix so much that you go that route, be sure to ask about them. Didn't help me really but I believe that sometimes, a bit of chemical (placebo or not) relief can help staying afloat enough to work your way back up quicker. I understand your comment, my issues were due to life circumstances and not a low level neurological imbalance, and I too dismissed these…
> medical professionals who didn't really listen to symptoms Even if they did listen to me, what else can they do? They aren't going to apply to new jobs for me, find friends and hobbies for me, etc.. To the men with pills, every issue looks like a disorder.
Maybe that's just me, but flooding my brain with chemicals is a big step and I need doctors to really pay attention and not just use trial and error on me. That's what i meant/
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#488Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don’t want to discount your experience, but attributing a lifetime of symptoms to 5 doses of SSRIs (when you were already exhibiting an unstable mental state) seems extreme.
I've seen a post like this before on reddit. We know SSRI's really do cause permanent sexual dysfunctional in a small minority of people, small enough that this side effect doesn't come up in traditional FDA tests. If a side effect is extremely rare it would be impossible or at least impractical to prove in a population. Grandparent could be right or wrong about how the drug affected them, maybe their brain suffered…
> If a side effect is extremely rare it would be impossible or at least impractical to prove in a population.
This is also true for a non-existent side effect. I’m not trying to tell GP he is wrong, just that from a reader’s perspective, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#489Earlier quoted context omitted.
the alternative is depression. brain altering drugs seem preferrable
Exactly. And it's a combination usually. It's really hard to do constructive therapy when you are depressed. Stabilise with the meds and then tackle the root causes with therapy. But some people just are very prone to depression and need the extra help. You wouldn't say "don't give that kid ibuprofen, let them just deal with the pain"? And SSRIs are not very strong. They do have some nasty side effects especially sex…
I would be very cautious advising SSRIs for anyone, especially developing children, considering my own experience (on sertralin), which was complete disappearance of a libido, and massive weight gain, +40kg (70 -> 110) in ~10 months. 5 years later I still have not undone the damage from it.
Re: Prozac 'no better than placebo' for treating children with depression, experts
#490Earlier 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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> they have hope despite circumstances.
Maybe they act like being hopeful because they are afraid of you. If you were my parent, chances are I would.