MetaFilter posts tagged with drugs and Depression

Long-term effects of ecstacy

homunculus — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 22:13:05 -0800

Ecstasy's long-term effects revealed. "Enough time has finally elapsed to start asking if ecstasy damages health in the long term. According to the biggest review ever undertaken, it causes slight memory difficulties and mild depression, but these rarely translate into problems in the real world. While smaller studies show that some individuals have bigger problems, including weakened immunity and larger memory deficits, so far, for most people, ecstasy seems to be nowhere near as harmful over time as you may have been led to believe." [Via]

Ouch

timsteil — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 12:34:55 -0800

I honestly do not remember a time in my life when I didn't have headaches Wilco's Jeff Tweedy discusses his lifelong battle with migraines, panic attacks, depression, drug addiction, and the influences of all on his music.

Prozac doesn't work better than placebo

Rumple — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:58:54 -0800

A new peer-reviewed meta-analysis of clinical data demonstrates that four widely-prescribed SSRI anti-depressants, including Prozac and Effexor, are not more effective than placebos. Summary from the Guardian. The review breaks new ground because Kirsch and his colleagues have obtained for the first time what they believe is a full set of trial data for four antidepressants. They requested the full data under freedom of information rules from the Food and Drug Administration, which licenses medicines in the US and requires all data when it makes a decision. The pattern they saw from the trial results of fluoxetine (Prozac), paroxetine (Seroxat), venlafaxine (Effexor) and nefazodone (Serzone) was consistent. "Using complete data sets (including unpublished data) and a substantially larger data set of this type than has been previously reported, we find the overall effect of new-generation antidepressant medication is below recommended criteria for clinical significance," they write.

Anti-depressants, Serotonin and Depression

OmieWise — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 08:12:07 -0800

"Researchers found that failing to publish negative findings inflated the reported effectiveness of all 12 of the antidepressants studied." See also: Serotonin and Depression: A Disconnect between the Advertisements and the Scientific Literature. NEJM paper referenced. (Subscription required) Older: Antidepressants Versus Placebos: Meaningful Advantages Are Lacking,
but, Small Effects Are Not Trivial From a Public Health Perspective.

The uneasy path to death

Gyan — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 15:41:36 -0800

How NOT to commit suicide

How much does your lawyer get paid?

monju_bosatsu — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 17:30:51 -0800

Lawyers appear to missing out on the growth of the leisure class. Despite American's growing leisure time, and despite another round of pay increases for starting associates, lawyers seem to be working more hours than ever. As long as lawyers are tied the billable hour, it seems that greater salaries for associates inevitably means longer hours for associates. Law professor Pat Schiltz argues [pdf] that the longer hours for new associates combined with the high pressures of law practice means that those lawyers often suffer from depression, anxiety, alcoholism, drug abuse, and suicide at very high rates, and are often forced into unethical practices just to meet the requirements of the law firm.

When drug companies hide data

Lusy P Hur — Sun, 06 Jun 2004 13:48:17 -0800

When drug companies hide data.

"The attorney general's civil suit accuses the drug giant GlaxoSmithKline of committing fraud by concealing negative information about Paxil, a drug used to treat depression. The suit says that the company conducted five clinical trials of Paxil in adolescents and children, yet published only one study whose mixed results it deemed positive. The company sat on two major studies for up to four years, although the results of one were divulged by a whistle-blower at a medical conference in 1999 and all of the studies were submitted to the Food and Drug Administration in 2002 when the company sought approval for new uses of Paxil. At that time it became apparent that Paxil was no more effective than a placebo in treating adolescent depression and might even provoke suicidal thoughts.

My Dad was on Paxil until 26 days ago..... that's when he shot himself.

Zoloft Found Safe, Effective in Children

Wicker — Tue, 26 Aug 2003 14:42:59 -0800

Zoloft Found Safe, Effective in Children The study was funded by Pfizer Inc., which makes Zoloft. Visit The International Coalition For Drug Awareness to find out what SSRI Meds can really do to your kids...

And they work how exactly?

grahamwell — Sat, 09 Aug 2003 13:12:43 -0800

Anxious? Depressed? - you need more brain cells. Just take one of these twice a day. New research shows that antidepressants may not work as we thought at all, rather they actually stimulate growth of cells in the hippocampus area of the brain. This may all be for the good - but it seems strange that we release millions of happy pills and market them as safe without knowing for sure what they do. Perhaps its the money talking.

Tubes — Mon, 01 Oct 2001 15:27:09 -0800

Depression leads to brain changes lead to depression leads to... Augh! Is anyone else aggravated by an article that starts right out by sounding confused?

"Antidepressant therapy may reverse the structural changes that take place in the brain as a result of depression... Researchers are unclear about the exact brain changes that lead to depression..."

Ezrael — Tue, 06 Jun 2000 19:05:13 -0800

Hmm. Why am I not surprised? Muddling with your serotonin in such a drastic way has always struck me as an overreaction to depression. Let's be honest. In a world jam-packed with aggressive apes who deny that they are apes, a little depression is a healthy response. Taking a serotonin re-uptake inhibitor just because you feel blue is like taking 10000 micrograms of Acid because you like the Harry Potter books.