Shining A Light On The Dark Side ( effects ) Of Antidepressants
( Part 2 of a Series on Depression and Anxiety )
Troy Centazzo and Chris Kressler
In Part 1 of this Series, I discussed the massive increase of the use of prescription drugs to treat depression ( indeed, they have become the most subscribed drug in the US ), as well as recent medical research that questions their effectiveness. I also reviewed James S. Gordon ' s new book, " Unstuck, " which offers a depression treatment program using natural techniques, close as stress management, palpable exercise and eating nutritiously, among other techniques, and discusses the various issues with taking antidepressants.
In Part 2, I focus on the common - and significant - side effects of antidepressants, and have been sure thing permission by Chris Kressler, a health researcher and instructor, who runs the popular health and wellness blog, " The Healthy Skeptic, " to publish an excerpt from his article, " The Dark Side of Antidepressants ". This comprehensive overview of medical research related to antidepressant side - effects follows my Introduction.
Part A - Introduction
Positive anecdotal stories of antidepressant users who have suffered from the debilitating symptoms of untreated depression and anxiety often involve emotions after taking prescription drugs of sensibility better, clearer and just plain happier. One of the most popular antidepressants, which I will not name, has a website with persuasive - often heart wrenching - patient testimonials that prepare with pre - treatment stories of lives in turmoil that are halfway unbearable and count post - treatment discussions of a good angle, an awakening, a new vigor, and a family that at last enjoys spend time with the patient in that babe is no longer irritable, a negative personality shift originally caused by stress on the job.
These personal stories are of course compelling. Some readers of this column, no doubt, caress the duplicate way. Antidepressants have in truth helped many people " lift the dark take cover, " as the saying goes. Drug companies certainly want you to lap up antidepressants are the safe, quick solution to your blues. According to a recent report in the New England Journal of Medicine, pharmaceutical companies spend over 1 billion dollars each year on marketing and promoting antidepressants to consumers and the doctors who prescribe them, including direct - to - consumer advertising on television and significant investments in " detailing " doctors ' help, or having sales representatives visit the doctor and tolerance drug samples, drug information and freebies uniform pens and pads. The report also suggests that " the F&DA ' s capacity to enforce advertising regulations has been insubstantial in recent years. " ( 1 )
The marketing certainly has worked. As mentioned in Part 1 of this Series, I discussed how antidepressants have become the most commonly prescribed drugs in the United States, prescribed more often than drugs for high cholesterol, high blood pressure, asthma, or headaches. ( 2 ) The U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) reviewed 2. 4 billion drugs prescribed in visits to doctors and hospitals in 2005. 118 million were for antidepressants ( high blood pressure drugs were the second most common, with 113 million prescriptions ). Midpoint 232 million prescriptions for antidepressants were written last year, a immense increase. ( 3 ) Approximately 30 million patients in the US spent $12 billion on antidepressants in 2007. ( 4 ) The average time a general practitioner ( MD ) will spend with each patient to determine the best approach to treat a patient for the trait at belief during a visit? About 15 organ. ( 5 ) The use of antidepressants and other related drugs have ballooned over the last decade and that trend is projected to outlast.
One of the most interesting statements I came across during researching this article was - to interpret - the fealty of antidepressants may be a triumph of marketing over science. Why is that? In part 1 of this Series, I included recent medical research that questions the effectiveness of prescription antidepressants. Now we are increasingly musing that these drugs also may come with serious side effects.
A Wake Up Call For this Author – Is the Locality More Serious Than Just Whether the Drugs Work or Not?
I am not a medical researcher. I undertaking to transcribe residence focused articles that hold a significant amount of research and uninvolved investigation. I visualize that virtually everyone who engages in this process, whether a hobbyist double me or a slick journalist, conducts a " Google search " during the beginning stage of the article writing process. Saying that I " Googled " a subject is congeneric my prayer someone to " FedEx " a carton when I really just want it sent overnight. Google searches not only contribute useful sources of information, but I would contend that they also offer a barometer of what is both available on the Lacework and what topics are of significant leisure activity as Google actually tells you. As one types in a search term of a word or words, Google will quickly show a list of how many results ( in terms of webpages, blogs, etc. ) you ' ll find for your search based on the particular term you ' re searching.
When I began researching this article, I " Googled " various terms related to depression, its treatment, antidepressants and their side effects, among others, and then spent time seeing what was on the Net. To be frank, the results were fairly shocking. I originally intended to search all terms for antidepressants that could be considered positive or neutral ( e. g., " antidepressant benefits " ) and then all terms that could be considered negative ( " antidepressant side effects " ), but quickly realized there are cleverly too many possible key words to come up with. One thing became pleasant pretty quickly after searching a few hundred terms - there are tens of millions of search results related to the problems of antidepressants. Intrigued, I elongate to dig.
As I followed up on several of those search results, I realized that there is a massive Mesh - based movement - on websites, blogs, postings in forums, chat lodgings, etc. - to discuss and advise of the dangers and side effects of antidepressants, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors ( SSRIs, the newer engendering of drugs ), in particular. The blogs and sites are filled with horror stories about using the drugs, about suicidal thoughts, about that actuality that people can ' t fall for more isn ' t being done to spending money the way depression in being treated. I couldn ' t proposition a guess at home many people are currently participating in this online grassroots movement. I suggest that everyone into in the subject surf around the way I did.
My discussion mostly has been based on the anecdotal discussions of individuals and families I came across while researching this article. But what has medical research discovered about the likelihood, types, and frenzy of antidepressant side effects? For that discussion, Chris Kressler, a medical researcher and teacher, has loaned an excerpt from his comprehensive research - based article on the physiological, psychological and social consequences of antidepressant use.
Part B – “The Dark Side of Antidepressants” Excerpt by Chris Kressler
Side Effects of Antidepressant Use - A Review of the Medical Research
Although these [antidepressant] drugs are much considered to be safe by the media and amongst medical professionals and patients, a close the eye at the evidence suggests unalike. Antidepressants have serious and potentially urgent adverse effects, generate potentially abiding brain damage, increase the risk of suicide and fuming behavior in both children and adults, and increase the frequency and chronicity of depression. Chronic use of antidepressants also promotes dependency on drugs reasonably than empowering people to make positive life changes, and places a tremendous burden on healthcare systems in the U. S. and abroad.
Physiological side effects
The adverse effects of antidepressants teem with movement disorders, agitation, sexual dysfunction, biased bone development, wrongful brain development, gastrointestinal bleeding, and a variety of other subordinate known problems. These are not uncommon events, but the most significant hurt comes only after months or years of use, which leads to the pseudo dogma that antidepressants seem absolutely safe.
More than half of those beginning an antidepressant have one of the more common side effects. ( 6 )
While some side effects may not bear serious health risks, others do. Gastrointestinal bleeding can become a life - critical savor, and cruel bone development in children is a serious trouble that can lead to aggrandized skeletal problems and prevalent bone fractures as they age. It has been shown that serotonin exposure in not aged mice impairs their grasp ' s cerebral development, and many researchers fall for that the use of SSRI medications in pregnant mothers and half-grown children may cinch children to emotional disorders following in life. ( 7 ) ( 8 )
Another squeeze with the side effects caused by antidepressants that is often not discussed is the likelihood that more medications will be prescribed to control them. It is well - known that Prozac produces anxiety and consternation, so physicians often prescribe a sedative ( typically a benzodiazapene ) along with it. In that sprouting studies have shown that antidepressants create gastrointestinal bleeding, doctors are embryonic to prescribe acid - inhibiting drugs equivalent as Nexium to prevent this side effect. These drugs also inevitably cause side effects, which may lead to the prescription of even more drugs. ( This is not alone. )
Psychological Side Effects
Perhaps the best known psychological side effect of SSRIs is " amotivational syndrome ", a mark with symptoms that are clinically matching to those that develop when the frontal lobes of the inventiveness are scraped. The syndrome is characterized by apathy, disinhibited behavior, demotivation and a character pocket money comparable to the effects of lobotomy. All psychoactive drugs, including antidepressants, are known to loutish our emotional responses to some cusp.
Clinical studies of SSRIs report that disquietude is a common side effect. When Yale University ' s Department of Psychiatry analyzed the admissions to their hospital ' s psychiatric division, they ring in that 8. 1 % of the patients were " set up to have been received owing to antidepressant admiration or psychosis. " ( 10 ) Trembling is selfsame a common side effect with SSRIs that the drug companies have consistently sought to hide it during clinical adversity by prescribing a tranquilizer or sedative along with the antidepressant. Studies by Eli Lilly employees launch that between 21 % and 28 % of patients taking Prozac tuned in insomnia, recreancy, anxiety, nervousness and restlessness, with the principal rates among people taking the best kind doses. ( 11 )
From their presentation, antidepressants have been received as having a worrisome capacity to incite changes between episodes of depression ( characterized by dysphoria, insomnia, low energy, beggarly concentration, reduced appetite and diminished libido ) and episodes of mania ( characterized by euphoria, deeper activity, rapid speech, blue streak thoughts, diminished need for sleep, hypersexuality and diminished impulse control ).
Several reports suggest that SSRIs are associated with movement disorders compatible as akathisia, Parkinson ' s disease, dystonia ( acute rigidity ), dyskinesia ( abnormal native choreic movements ) and tardive dyskiniesia. ( 12 )
These movement disorders are serious enough on their own. However, what is even more hot is the inherent for akathisia to induce strike and suicide. Akathisia, a savor of inner restlessness or severe agitation, is the most commonly occurring movement disorder associated with psychoactive drug use. Akathisia - related violence receives specific attention in the Diagnostic and Statistical Guide of Mental Disorders ( DSM ). Akathisia has been shown to increase desperate behavior and suicide, and antidepressants are known to cause akathisia.
After years of head - dragging and thousands of needless suicides, the FDA someday admitted that " two to three children out of every hundred " could be expected to develop suicidal thoughts or actions as a reaction of antidepressant therapy. ( 13 ) The risk of suicide events for children taking SSRIs has been three times higher than placebo. ( 14 ) Amazingly, no bans or restrictions have been placed on their use in children in the U. S.
While the wider risk of suicide in children has become better known, most people are unaware that a kindred risk exists for adults. When adult antidepressant tragedy were re - analyzed to indemnify for wrong methodologies, SSRIs have consistently revealed a risk of suicide ( concluded or attempted ) that is two to four times higher than placebo. ( 15 )
Turning short - term suffering into long - term misery
A growing body of research supports the hypothesis that antidepressants worsen the chronicity, if not fervor, of depressive features in many subjects. Antidepressant therapy is often associated with the poorest outcomes. In a mammoth, retrospective study in the Netherlands of more than 12, 000 patients, antidepressant exposure was associated with the worst long term results. 72 - 79 % of the patients who relapsed proverbial antidepressants during their initial episode of depression. In idiosyncrasy, only one of the patients who did not relapse well-known no antidepressants during or following the initial episode. ( 16 )
Longitudinal ( long - term ) follow - up stuides show very in rags outcomes for people treated for depression in both hospital and outpatient settings, and the overall prevalence of depression is rising despite extra use of antidepressants. ( 17 )
Epidemiological observations have long held that most episodes of depression end after three to six months. However, partly half of all Americans treated with antidepressants have remained on medication for more than a year. ( 18 )
Antidepressants have been shown to produce long - term, and in some cases, irreversible chemical and structural changes to the body and brain.
The administration of Prozac and Paxil raises cortisol levels in human subjects. ( 19 ) Apt the actuality that elevated cortisol levels are associated with depression, weight gain, immune dysfunction, and retrospection problems, the option that antidepressants may contribute to prolonged elevations in cortisol is menacing to disclose the first off.
In a study designed to go over the anatomic effects of serotonergenic compounds, researchers at Thomas Jefferson University initiate that high - dose, short - term exposure to SSRIs in rats was powerful to produce swelling and kinking in the serotonin nerve fibers ( 20 ) Conclusion.
