Administrator Altostrata Posted June 9, 2012 Administrator Share Posted June 9, 2012 Acerbic UK Daily Mail editorial serves up some trenchant insights. http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-2156340/Anti-depressants-merely-addiction--doctors-patients.html?ito=feeds-newsxml [Emphasis added.] Antidepressants are merely another addiction - for doctors as well as the patients By Dr Robert Lefever 8 June 2012 Daily Mail Online Adding exercise to conventional treatment for depression - antidepressant drugs and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy - does not improve the outcome. So says the National Institute for Health in an NHS funded research study published in The British Medical Journal. Nor would adding anything else once antidepressants are locked into the mood centres of the brain. The prime purpose of prescribing antidepressants is to enable doctors to avoid being blamed for patients' suicides. However, the effectiveness of antidepressants in treating depression is only slightly greater than placebo (tablets that have no active ingredient). If doctors do not follow the herd in prescribing drugs and CBT, they risk being blamed by coroners or by the General Medical Council when patients kill themselves. If they do follow conventional practice, they will not be blamed. They will be said to have done the best they could do. And if so-called 'antidepressants' actually increase the risk of suicide, nobody would ever know. The patients die but the prescribing doctors can sleep easy. In my rehab I treated over five thousand in-patients who had tried to 'treat' their own sense of desperate inner emptiness with alcohol or recreational drugs or food or gambling or all sorts of things. These 'treatments' worked for a time but then the effects wore off so they used them again. In time they became dependent upon these mood-altering substances and processes. When they tried to give them up they developed a crashing depression again. .... Exactly the same principle applies to the most pernicious of all 'designer' drugs - antidepressants. Of course some people feel better on them. This is largely a placebo effect: they feel better when their problems are medicalised and they are free from responsibility for sorting out their own lives. They may have been overwhelmed by personal problems and by an incapacity to get their heads focussed upon anything other than misery. As with recreational drug users, they feel absolutely desperate when their drugs - antidepressants - are discontinued. But this does not necessarily mean that the drugs worked or that they should be continued. It could mean that something entirely different should be tried, preferably something that would be more effective and not lead to a dependency. Doctors generally believe that antidepressants are not addictive. I fundamentally disagree. Patients do not usually crave for an increase in the dose but they have dreadful withdrawal effects. Coming off them has to be done very carefully and gradually over a period of weeks rather than days - and a behavioural programme, such as The Twelve Steps, has to take their place. I doubt that exercise on its own would be sufficient to treat a full-blown depressive illness but it can be a helpful adjunct. Cognitive Behaviou Therapy is an excellent treatment for people who grapple with confusing issues but not for those with any significant emotional problem. Obviously, each patient is unique and must follow the advice of his or her own doctor. All I can say is that, when I was a working doctor, I did not initiate prescriptions for antidepressants and I did help a large number of people to get off them. They wanted a full range of emotions, rather than the blankness that antidepressants provide. They wanted to live. Now they can take some healthy exercise, if they so wish, and maybe they can enjoy it. This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner. "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein All postings © copyrighted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrator Altostrata Posted June 9, 2012 Author Administrator Share Posted June 9, 2012 Dr. Lefever has agreed to be listed among our recommended doctors and clinics. He does not offer medical treatment but he will refer patients to private doctors who are knowledgeable about tapering. He is in London. This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner. "It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein All postings © copyrighted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Barbarannamated Posted June 10, 2012 Share Posted June 10, 2012 Powerful statement. Thank you, Dr. Lefever. I look forward to your book. My husband is a physician who is slowly becoming 'aware'. http://www.doctor-robert.com/books/ Pristiq tapered over 8 months ending Spring 2011 after 18 years of polydrugging that began w/Zoloft for fatigue/general malaise (not mood). CURRENT: 1mg Klonopin qhs (SSRI bruxism), 75mg trazodone qhs, various hormonesLitigation for 11 years for Work-related injury, settled 2004. Involuntary medical retirement in 2001 (age 39). 2012 - brain MRI showing diffuse, chronic cerebrovascular damage/demyelination possibly vasculitis/cerebritis. Dx w/autoimmune polyendocrine failure.<p>2013 - Dx w/CNS Sjogren's Lupus (FANA antibodies first appeared in 1997 but missed by doc). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts