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Post by Admin on Mar 20, 2020 14:50:02 GMT
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Post by Admin on Apr 7, 2020 16:41:21 GMT
New Rat Study: SSRIs Markedly Deplete Brain Serotonin Study helps explain SSRI "discontinuation syndrome" Posted Nov 01, 2010 www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/mad-in-america/201011/new-rat-study-ssris-markedly-deplete-brain-serotoninDutch investigators will soon publish an article in Neurochemistry International that sheds light on how SSRI antidepressants affect the serotonergic system over the longer term, and why abrupt discontinuation of an SSRI can be so problematic. The study also serves as a reminder of how the public belief that SSRIs “increase” serotonin levels in the brain is belied by science. In the study, the researchers administered citalopram to the rats for two weeks (there was a control group as well), and then the drug-treated rats were either abruptly withdrawn from the drug or continued on it for another three days. The rats were then sacrificed and their brain tissue analyzed. The investigators likened this dosing regimen to a “long-term treatment paradigm.”
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Post by Admin on Apr 22, 2020 18:03:07 GMT
Antidepressant Misinformation Promoted on Popular Websites A new study indicates that popular online resources do not accurately present the scientific evidence on the risks and benefits of antidepressants. A newly released study examines the quality of information presented on popular websites about antidepressants. The researchers, Maryanne Demasi and Peter C. Gøtzsche, found that a majority of the sites they reviewed promoted the disproven “chemical imbalance” theory of depression, and the risks and benefits presented were not consistent with the scientific evidence, as they minimized risks and overstated the benefits. The authors write: “We found that the information about the benefits and harms of antidepressants on 39 popular websites contained information that conflicted with the scientific evidence.” www.madinamerica.com/2020/04/misinformation-antidepressants-promoted-popular-websites/
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Post by Admin on May 2, 2020 19:39:26 GMT
Guidance for psychological therapists: information for GPs advising patients on antidepressant withdrawal Stevie Lewis British Journal of General Practice 2020; 70 (694): 245. DOI: doi.org/10.3399/bjgp20X709685bjgp.org/content/70/694/245The Guidance for Psychological Therapists: Enabling Conversations With Clients Taking or Withdrawing from Prescribed Psychiatric Drugs1 was published in December 2019. I was invited to play a small part in its production as I am a campaigner bringing to the attention of governments, the NHS, and the public the difficulties that some people have with severe and protracted physical symptoms when trying to withdraw from SSRI antidepressants. We know from the advance research quoted at the beginning of the Guidance that 96.7% of therapists work with clients who take at least one psychiatric drug. Of the therapists surveyed, 93.1% reported they would find it either ‘useful’ or ‘very useful’ to have professional guidance to help them work more competently and confidently with such clients.1 This prompted the development of the Guidance as an accessible source of information for therapists about each class of psychiatric drug, how it works, what it is prescribed for, and what is known about its effects on the body and while it is exiting the body. Anything specifically written about a drug is referenced, and everything is evidence based.
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Post by Admin on May 18, 2020 17:30:01 GMT
Despite evidence that the long-term use of antidepressants leads to worsening outcomes, many people continue to be prescribed the drugs for years, or even decades. One argument for long-term use of antidepressants is that even if the person taking them no longer meets the criteria for depression, the drugs may prevent relapse and the return of depressive experiences. Now a new research article questions whether antidepressants actually prevent relapse. The evidence for relapse prevention is based on flawed data from biased trials. Real-world data shows that antidepressants do not seem to have this relapse-preventing effect. The article was written by Michael P. Hengartner at Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) and published in Therapeutic Advances in Psychopharmacology. Hengartner writes: “Currently, there is no reliable evidence that long-term antidepressant treatment is beneficial and there are legitimate concerns that it may be largely ineffective or even harmful in a substantial portion of users.” www.madinamerica.com/2020/05/antidepressants-ineffective-relapse-prevention/
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Post by Admin on May 23, 2020 15:40:49 GMT
Antidepressant Use Leads to Worse Long Term Outcomes, Study Finds Results from a 30-year prospective study demonstrated worse outcomes for people who took antidepressants, even after controlling for gender, education level, marriage, baseline severity, other affective disorders, suicidality, and family history of depression. www.madinamerica.com/2018/04/antidepressant-use-leads-worse-long-term-outcomes-study-finds/A new study by Michael P. Hengartner, Jules Angst, and Wulf Rossler found that those who took antidepressants were more likely to have worse depression symptoms after 30 years. This finding was independent of illness severity as well as a large number of other potential confounding factors. The authors, from Zurich University of Applied Sciences and the University of Zurich, published their findings online this month in the journal Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. The study followed 591 Swiss adults from the age of 20/21 until they were 49/50 years old. Antidepressant use at some point in the study was associated with worse depression symptoms at the end of the study—even when controlling for initial symptoms and other factors. “These findings are in line with a growing body of evidence from several naturalistic observational studies suggesting that (long-term) antidepressant use may produce a poor long-term outcome in people with depression,” Hengartner writes.
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Post by Admin on May 23, 2020 15:52:15 GMT
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Post by Admin on May 23, 2020 16:05:00 GMT
Antidepressant Withdrawal – The Tide is Finally Turning By MITUK admin -23/08/2019 www.madintheuk.com/2019/08/antidepressant-withdrawal-the-tide-is-finally-turning/In a recent paper in the journal Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences, Michael P. Hengartner, John Read and James Davies summarise the progress made in recent months when making the case that withdrawal from antidepressant drugs is often longer-lasting and more severe than guidelines or conventional wisdom suggest. They point out the lack of empirical research, noting that the first systematic review on withdrawal was not published until 2015 while almost 200 meta-analyses on the efficacy of new-generation antidepressant have been published between 2007 and 2014 alone. They also note the sometimes hostile critical reaction to raising the difficulties that some face when they try to withdraw. Withdrawal reactions when coming off antidepressants have long been neglected or minimised. It took almost two decades after the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) entered the market for the first systematic review to be published. More reviews have followed, demonstrating that the dominant and long-held view that withdrawal is mostly mild, affects only a small minority and resolves spontaneously within 1–2 weeks, was at odd with the sparse but growing evidence base. What the scientific literature reveals is in close agreement with the thousands of service user testimonies available online in large forums. It suggests that withdrawal reactions are quite common, that they may last from a few weeks to several months or even longer, and that they are often severe. These findings are now increasingly acknowl- edged by official professional bodies and societies. www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/8394C10FE317CA5A39B62B86793FC3ED/S2045796019000465a.pdf/antidepressant_withdrawal_the_tide_is_finally_turning.pdf
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2020 6:37:29 GMT
Lemon, ginger and honey tea, with the raw ingredients, is a natural boost for your mood, or so I find.
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Post by Deleted on May 26, 2020 10:56:06 GMT
Going for long walks and being around nature in a quiet space helps as well. Just the birds and animals/insects for company.
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Post by Admin on Jun 5, 2020 17:26:23 GMT
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Post by Admin on Jun 6, 2020 19:14:27 GMT
New Analysis: Antidepressants Still Linked to Suicide “This is remarkable for drugs that are used to treat depressive symptoms,” write the researchers. www.madinamerica.com/2020/06/new-analysis-antidepressants-still-linked-suicide/A new collaborative re-analysis of placebo-controlled trials of antidepressants finds that the drugs are still linked to an increased risk of suicide attempts. “Overall, we would consider an increased rate of suicide attempts, and possibly also suicides, among those treated with ADs a reliable finding in the Bayesian analysis,” the researchers write. Last year, researchers Michael P. Hengartner and Martin Plöderl re-analyzed a study that used what they described as an inappropriate statistical technique to measure whether antidepressants were linked to increased suicide attempts. The original study had found no link, but in their re-analysis, Hengartner and Plöderl found that those who were randomly assigned to antidepressant use in placebo-controlled trials were 2.5 times as likely to attempt suicide as those randomly assigned to placebo. Their article was criticized, though, for failing to use meta-analytic techniques that might have accounted for other factors. At the time, Hengartner and Plöderl responded to those criticisms, providing multiple different statistical methods, all of which found a link between antidepressant use and suicide attempts. In their reply to the criticisms, Hengartner and Plöderl also corrected their data: two of the suicide attempts were incorrectly listed as occurring in the placebo group, but actually occurred after the patients took the active antidepressant, strengthening their findings even more. Earlier this year, researchers Jakob André Kaminski and Tom Bschor argued that the analysis used by Hengartner and Plöderl (pooling all antidepressant drugs) may not have been the most appropriate analysis either. They re-analyzed the re-analysis with seven different statistical methods, and found varying results—some methods found a link between antidepressant use and suicide attempts, while others did not. According to Martin Plöderl (writing on Twitter), he and Hengartner reached out to Kaminski and Bschor to see if they could team up—collaborate to work on a new statistical analysis that would resolve their questions about differences in method. The final analysis was just published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. Commentary to “antidepressants and suicidality: A re-analysis of the re-analysis” www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0165032720309320
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Post by Admin on Jun 9, 2020 16:31:20 GMT
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Post by Admin on Jun 15, 2020 14:24:48 GMT
Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction Is Real and Devastating www.madinamerica.com/2020/06/post-ssri-sexual-dysfunction-real-devastating/Jack Menne Jack Menne is a 21-year-old high school graduate who lives with his cat in the Twin Cities metro area. A former inventory auditor for retail stores, he devotes his time to raising awareness of PSSD and promoting scientific research on the disorder.
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Post by Admin on Jun 16, 2020 14:12:10 GMT
JAMA Psychiatry Retracts Antidepressant StudyOnce an appropriate statistical method was used, the study findings were “no longer valid,” according to the editors of JAMA and JAMA Psychiatry. A study from February purporting to find differences in response rates to different antidepressants—presented as evidence for potentially “personalized” depression treatment—has been retracted. The original piece suggested that some subgroups might exist for whom antidepressants were more effective than placebo. However, according to the Editor of JAMA Psychiatry, Dost Öngür, and the Editor in Chief of JAMA, Howard Bauchner, “the original findings are no longer valid.” The two Editors collaboratively wrote a retraction notice for the piece: “In the Original Investigation, ‘Individual Differences in Response to Antidepressants: A Meta-analysis of Placebo-Controlled Randomized Clinical Trials,’ published on February 19, 2020, and in the June 2020 issue of JAMA Psychiatry, an incorrect analysis (coefficient of variation ratios) was conducted. When a proper analysis is used (random-slope mixed-effects model), the original findings are no longer valid. Thus, the article has been retracted.” www.madinamerica.com/2020/06/jama-psychiatry-retracts-antidepressant-study/Peter Simons www.madinamerica.com/author/psimons/Peter Simons was an academic researcher in psychology. Now, as a science writer, he tries to provide the layperson with a view into the sometimes inscrutable world of psychiatric research. As an editor for blogs and personal stories at Mad in America, he prizes the accounts of those with lived experience of the psychiatric system and hopes to create alternatives to the biomedical model.
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