I'd have to agree. Life has a 100% mortality rate (or at least pretty close) but that doesn't indicate we should ban life. If antidepressants keep 20 people from killing themselves but make 3 people kill themselves, they are very clearly better than NO antidepressants.
I don't think I recommend banning of all without exception, but certainly daily monitoring for the first few weeks, and possibly banning of some for certain ages. And certainly a decrease in use for teens, as it seems to cause the developing brain to be more prone to depression in later years.
but the warnings are there... if you read the phamplets of fine print that come with the drugs.
In order to put them directly on the bottle, you'd have to make the bottles awfully big. So that puts the burden on the prescribing physician, to give warning, and on the depressed person to be able to remember and track such a warning.
Perhaps, if antidepressants are prescribed, two follow-up calls should be made, one a few days later, and one the next week, restating the warnings? More work for the doctors or nurses or pharmacists, and no one will want to pay for it, but it's the only practical solution I can think of when prescribing medication to someone whose thought processes are impaired.
I've never had a doctor mention side effects of anything unless I asked, or unless the side-effects were inevitable and minor. On occasion, I've had people ask, AFTER prescribing something, if I had allergies to the drug in question.
i think that goes more generally to the care people receive from their doctors past "take two of these pills every morning". i've had every kind of doctor, from the one who prescribed me what i asked for, no real questions asked, to the one who read the list of side effects to me, asked whether i understood it all, and called a week after i started on a med to remind me to fill out my daily mood chart, and to ask whether everything was fine. ideally, i think, everyone should have the latter kind of doctor, and the former kind should get kicked out of all medical associations.
teenagers ought to also have parents who monitor their reaction to medicines. i would think. or, well, yeah -- i know. some teens' parents are worthless. that's still no reason to ban meds.
whether anti-depressants screw with developing brains, that's a whole different kettle of fish, and probably worth looking into.
You're very right that any patient on a new drug should be closely monitored, and any decent doctor schedules frequent visits with a new patient, tells the patient what to watch for, and makes sure the patient will contact him/her in those situations. Any doctor not doing that is negligent, as far as I am concerned.
As far as I know, increased depression, and therefor increased risk of suicide, is a listed side effect for all antidepressants. What we call depression is most likely a family of illnesses, some of which may have very different causes. This may be why some people just don't respond to certain drugs, or respond to certain drugs for only a little while, or respond badly to certain drugs (get more depressed). (side note: don't know if you've ever read it, but Undercurrents is a fascinating first person account of a difficult depression).
The chemistry of the brain is pretty darn intricate. They don't actually know for sure how any of the antidepressants work, just what they think they do. I, for one, am very grateful that antidepressants exist. On the other hand, my awareness that I am taking powerful psychotropic drugs where the mechanisms of functioning are poorly understood means I do my best to stay current with the relevant research. It's my brain that's messed up and being messed with, and I want some understanding of what's wrong with it and what's being done to it.
Unfortunately, most people suffering from depression are not going to have the ability or drive to be advocates for themselves. Even with my determination, I can barely manage it when I'm really depressed. ::sigh::
first, jodawi, thank you for linking my post. I'm interested in hearing different viewpoints on the subject. my cousin had been taking antidepressants for a while, maybe a year. she'd had trouble coping when she left home and went to college. she was doing alot better recently and her doctor wanted to have her off antidepressants by around january. whatever she'd originally been on was something he couldnt just ween her off. they switched her meds to something he could back her off of slowly. she started having horrible mood swings, fine one minute, extremely depressed the next. less than three weeks after the switch, she's dead. an hour before her suicide, she was doing fine. one of her teachers walked her back to her dorm and they were talking about her plans to spend her junior year in england.. happy things, she was in good spirits. no one told her wild mood swings might be a side effect. I dont think its realistic to expect doctor's to call and check up on all there patients every couple days, but I do think there needs to be better information provided to people about how serious the side effects can be. my experience with antidepressants was such that I thought I was just losing my mind. I didnt realize until I stopped taking them that they were actually responsible. I dont remember reading anywhere that I might find myself feeling worse on them than I did without them. I dont care how big the bottle needs to be, there need to be clearer warnings.
whatever she'd originally been on was something he couldnt just ween her off.
That seems very weird to me. I'd think all such drugs would need weening, and it sounds like the stopped one cold and substituted another without ramping up on it, then weened off of the substitute? If so, then I'd suspect the stopping cold on the first or starting full blast with the second as the problem. They all work differently.
I could see maybe weening off the first while at the same time increasing a different one, then weening off the second, but even that seems weird.
The first time I decided to stop, I just stopped abruptly (don't remember any warnings about it), and it caused me to sleep for two or three days with only a few hours of waking here and there.
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In order to put them directly on the bottle, you'd have to make the bottles awfully big. So that puts the burden on the prescribing physician, to give warning, and on the depressed person to be able to remember and track such a warning.
Perhaps, if antidepressants are prescribed, two follow-up calls should be made, one a few days later, and one the next week, restating the warnings? More work for the doctors or nurses or pharmacists, and no one will want to pay for it, but it's the only practical solution I can think of when prescribing medication to someone whose thought processes are impaired.
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Just presume you have to ask.
anti-depressants
teenagers ought to also have parents who monitor their reaction to medicines. i would think. or, well, yeah -- i know. some teens' parents are worthless. that's still no reason to ban meds.
whether anti-depressants screw with developing brains, that's a whole different kettle of fish, and probably worth looking into.
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As far as I know, increased depression, and therefor increased risk of suicide, is a listed side effect for all antidepressants. What we call depression is most likely a family of illnesses, some of which may have very different causes. This may be why some people just don't respond to certain drugs, or respond to certain drugs for only a little while, or respond badly to certain drugs (get more depressed). (side note: don't know if you've ever read it, but Undercurrents is a fascinating first person account of a difficult depression).
The chemistry of the brain is pretty darn intricate. They don't actually know for sure how any of the antidepressants work, just what they think they do. I, for one, am very grateful that antidepressants exist. On the other hand, my awareness that I am taking powerful psychotropic drugs where the mechanisms of functioning are poorly understood means I do my best to stay current with the relevant research. It's my brain that's messed up and being messed with, and I want some understanding of what's wrong with it and what's being done to it.
Unfortunately, most people suffering from depression are not going to have the ability or drive to be advocates for themselves. Even with my determination, I can barely manage it when I'm really depressed. ::sigh::
Oh, for a magic wand and simple fixes.
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my cousin had been taking antidepressants for a while, maybe a year. she'd had trouble coping when she left home and went to college. she was doing alot better recently and her doctor wanted to have her off antidepressants by around january. whatever she'd originally been on was something he couldnt just ween her off. they switched her meds to something he could back her off of slowly. she started having horrible mood swings, fine one minute, extremely depressed the next. less than three weeks after the switch, she's dead. an hour before her suicide, she was doing fine. one of her teachers walked her back to her dorm and they were talking about her plans to spend her junior year in england.. happy things, she was in good spirits.
no one told her wild mood swings might be a side effect. I dont think its realistic to expect doctor's to call and check up on all there patients every couple days, but I do think there needs to be better information provided to people about how serious the side effects can be. my experience with antidepressants was such that I thought I was just losing my mind. I didnt realize until I stopped taking them that they were actually responsible. I dont remember reading anywhere that I might find myself feeling worse on them than I did without them. I dont care how big the bottle needs to be, there need to be clearer warnings.
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That seems very weird to me. I'd think all such drugs would need weening, and it sounds like the stopped one cold and substituted another without ramping up on it, then weened off of the substitute? If so, then I'd suspect the stopping cold on the first or starting full blast with the second as the problem. They all work differently.
I could see maybe weening off the first while at the same time increasing a different one, then weening off the second, but even that seems weird.
The first time I decided to stop, I just stopped abruptly (don't remember any warnings about it), and it caused me to sleep for two or three days with only a few hours of waking here and there.
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