Original story I'm not questioning the study, but I do know that it contradicts my own personal expierience with SSRIs. I've found them to be helpful, though their effect is subtle. I agree that there needs to be bettr access to counseling, but that ternds tro be expensive and not covered by insurance, so people just get more drugs.
I know a few people that have been on anti-depressants, and they've made a huge difference in their attitudes. I've also noticed a huge difference when they've come off them eg. I know someone that has always been a bludger, got on the anti-depressants, went out, got a job, his life picked up, but the drugs were making his teeth sore, so he stopped taking them, and straight away, he went back to how he was, and stopped working To me, that seems like they have quite a bit more of an effect than a placebo.
I think the problem here is that they are used as a "catch-all" medicine, a bit like antibiotics were in the 70s. What the research shows is that they're not the magic bullet that we're led to believe, and that in many cases there are better and more appropriate treatments that should be used, but aren't. Ultimately, this could lead to atrophying of other psychiatric treatments, such as CBT - and sooner or later, we could find ourselves facing the psychiatric equivalent of MRSA or C. difficile
The well known Doc on R&J was on today talking about this subject, can't remember exactly what he said, but he said the Media has put this across wrongly, I think he said something along the lines to what you have said a the start of your post.
Have quite big opinions on this. They do help some people, there is no denying that, and I don't think it's anything to do with severity of depression just depends on different people reacting different ways. Personally I've been on them and had family whove been on them and Ive seen both good and bad effects of both them being taken and of the process of withdrawal. I think doctors should be more concerned with the CAUSES of depression rather than treatments, yes depression is chemical inbalance and can thus be affectively treated with drug treatment but a lot of the time there is major causes behind the depression, I believe anyone who is considered for such drugs should be given help to improve their lifestyles generally ( even if this is just advice), and given counselling to reveal the root causes of the problem rather than just throwing drugs at people. Yes the drugs do help, and yes they can be a lifeline for people with depression, but they will never really solve anything, just cover over it.
I hear what you're saying, but I know from expierience that a lot of the time depression has no cause beyond the chemical. There are a lot of time when i'm feeling depressed and when I stop to consider why the answer is no reason I can discern. Some depression is situational, a lot is chemical masquerading as situational. That said, there are non-chemical ways to treat depression, but the hard part is recognizing depression and then finding the motivation to do something about it. Exercise can help, but at a certain point you don't want to feel better, and so how are you going to find the ambition to go exercise? The often cited increase in suicide after starting anti-depressant therapy is conversely a sign that it's working. When you're seriously depressed you feel suicidal, but can't get ambitious enough to do anything about it. When people start therapy that first little boost in mood is sometimes enough for them to finally go out and do it. Same reason we see a spike in suicide attempts when it finally stops raining around here.
There's a lot of scare tactics being thrown around in that article. Looks like there's a general consensus that SSRIs and other mild antidepressants are very useful when used correctly, but they're often used inappropriately. Speaking for myself, depression runs in the family. I went through a fair amount of psychotherapy, which helped me understand what was happening, but didn't do a huge amount to change it. (Forgive me Nexxo, I'm probably using the wrong term... I never did figure out all the various types of 'shrink'.) I started taking some antidepressants after about a year and a half, which made a huge difference. I tried going off them after about a year, and within two months was a royal mess. I started taking them again and it promptly cleared up. I'm very glad I had the therapy, but I think it's pretty safe to say that there's a chemical/genetic cause in my case. By contrast, my father's dealt with depression for about fifteen years, which was only properly diagnosed and admitted to in the last couple of years. He did a brief stint of psychotherapy, and has tried several medications. The medication takes the edge off of it, but at this point his maladaptive habits from a decade+ of depression are so deeply ingrained that they're not changing. More psychotherapy would really help with that, but he's quite convinced that he's fine, it's just a chemical thing. Drugs are part of the answer, not a magical cure-all. If there is a cure-all (which I highly doubt), it's more likely to be psychotherapy. But you can't help people who don't want to be helped. And you'll never, ever be able to stop companies who see a chance to make money.
