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.
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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.