Health & Wellness
Dr. Mark Hyman explains the problems with anti-depressants and how we can heal naturally by changing our diet and lifestyle.
Comment: Dr. Mark Hyman author of the book The UltraMind Solution, wrote an excellent article on Antidepressants, back in 2010:
Why Antidepressants Don't Work for Treating Depression
Here's some depressing recent medical news: Antidepressants don't work. What's even more depressing is that the pharmaceutical industry and Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have deliberately deceived us into believing that they DO work. As a physician, this is frightening to me. Depression is among the most common problems seen in primary-care medicine and soon will be the second leading cause of disability in this country.Mind Control: How Your Body Can Automatically Improve Depression
The study I'm talking about was published in The New England Journal of Medicine. It found that drug companies selectively publish studies on antidepressants. They have published nearly all the studies that show benefit - but almost none of the studies that show these drugs are ineffective. (1)
That warps our view of antidepressants, leading us to think that they do work. And it has fueled the tremendous growth in the use of psychiatric medications, which are now the second leading class of drugs sold, after cholesterol-lowering drugs.
The problem is even worse than it sounds, because the positive studies hardly showed benefit in the first place. For example, 40 percent of people taking a placebo (sugar pill) got better, while only 60 percent taking the actual drug had improvement in their symptoms. Looking at it another way, 80 percent of people get better with just a placebo.
Reader Comments
It seems that the prescribing of anti-depressants has become the norm, rather than looking into diet changes, healthy exercise, proper sleeping cycles ect. Anti-depressants is not a treatment plan. It's not even a fix and I know this from personal experience. All it ever did to me, was drag me further into the grey of indifference: not depressed and not joyful. While I agree that this effect may help a number of people in the short term (usually the ones selling the pills), it also keeps a section of these stuck in an expensive holding pattern of addiction for years.
Re: Anti-Depressants
"Anti-depressants", "clinical depression" = buzzword quackery.
deviantdragon said:
"Anti-Depressants DO work for countless people, like myself that have suffered from clinical depression for many years. Why not get the facts from people who are actually using them and finding them very effective in dealing with depression instead of some quack promoting his own DVD's ad books for profit."
Because "facts" spouted by junkies are usually not worth very much.
"Anti-depressants", "clinical depression" = buzzword quackery.
deviantdragon said:
"Anti-Depressants DO work for countless people, like myself that have suffered from clinical depression for many years. Why not get the facts from people who are actually using them and finding them very effective in dealing with depression instead of some quack promoting his own DVD's ad books for profit."
Because "facts" spouted by junkies are usually not worth very much.
The
problem with anti-depressants and any other psychoactive drugs is that the human system gets used to them so after a while they don't work. Like any other medication administered to a patient on a continual basis they need to be monitored by a physician and necessary changes to be made accordingly.
problem with anti-depressants and any other psychoactive drugs is that the human system gets used to them so after a while they don't work. Like any other medication administered to a patient on a continual basis they need to be monitored by a physician and necessary changes to be made accordingly.
Anti-Depressants DO work for countless people, like myself that have suffered from clinical depression for many years. Why not get the facts from people who are actually using them and finding them very effective in dealing with depression instead of some quack promoting his own DVD's ad books for profit.