Someone just shared this article with me and asked what my opinion of it was. The subject of the article is the possibility of antidepressants causing a worsening of depression and possible long term depression.
Now Antidepressant-Induced Chronic Depression Has a Name:
Tardive Dysphoria
Robert Whitaker
June 30, 2011
Three recently published papers, along with a report by a Minnesota group on health outcomes in that state, provide new reason to mull over this question: Do antidepressants worsen the long-term course of depression? As I wrote in Anatomy of an Epidemic, I believe there is convincing evidence that the drugs do just that. These latest papers add to that evidence base.
Although this concern first surfaced in the late 1960s and early 1970s, when a handful of psychiatrists expressed concern that antidepressants were causing a “chronification” of the disorder, it was in 1994 that Italian psychiatrist Giovanni Fava, editor of Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, urged the field to directly confront this possibility. He wrote: “Within the field of psychopharmacology, practitioners have been cautious, if not fearful, of opening a debate on whether the treatment is more damaging [than helpful] . . . I wonder if the time has come for debating and initiating research into the likelihood that psychotropic drugs actually worsen, at least in some cases, the progression of the illness which they are supposed to treat.”
******My Response******
Now before I give you what I shared with her, let me say I greatly admire Robert Whitaker for the attention he has been able to bring to the issue of the dangers of and damage caused by antidepressants through his work.
That being said the following is my response to her:
“Well I did not have to read very far before giving you this answer….
“Who was it who wrote the first book on SSRIs in 1991 called “The Prozac Pandora?” with the second edition in 1994 called “Prozac: Panacea or Pandora?” and the third edition in 2001 titled “Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? – Our Serotonin Nightmare”?
“Yep! That was me! And I refer to Giovanni Fava’s work extensively in my book.
“And what was the main focus of my book from the very beginning? (I do believe you have a copy of the 2001 edition.) The main theme of the book is to show that the hypothesis behind antidepressants is completely backwards and that the existing research shows serotonin (5HT) itself is NOT low in depression, anxiety, etc., but instead is elevated. What is low is one’s ability to metabolize serototonin (5HIAA).
“Yet how do these drugs work? They increase serotonin by inhibiting the metabolism of serotonin even further than the initial problem the patient had with being able to metabolize the serotonin. They are, therefore, making the depression, anxiety, etc. worse, not better.
Has my opinion changed in the least? NO!!!!!! It has only grown stronger with research slowly backing up absolutely everything I said all along.
“Now do I think we need further research as suggested in this article?
“Absolutely not! The research was done decades ago. And all anyone has to do is READ IT! That is why I spent four years gathering it all to put it into one volume for anyone to read. It amazes me that so few in medicine read research! It makes you wonder why they ever even bother doing it!
To order Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? – Our Serotonin Nightmare! click link below:
http://store.drugawareness.org/?wpsc-product=prozac-panacea-or-pandora
To order Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant! in either CD or MP3 click link below:
http://store.drugawareness.org/?wpsc-product=help-i-cant-get-off-my-antidepressant
WARNING: In sharing this information about adverse reactions to antidepressants I always recommend that you also give reference to my CD on safe withdrawal, Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!, so that we do not have more people dropping off these drugs too quickly – a move which I have warned from the beginning can be even more dangerous than staying on the drugs!
The FDA also now warns that any abrupt change in dose of an antidepressant can produce suicide, hostility or psychosis. And these reactions can either come on very rapidly or even be delayed for months depending upon the adverse effects upon sleep patterns when the withdrawal is rapid! You can find the CD on safe and effective withdrawal helps here: http://store.drugawareness.org/
Ann Blake Tracy, Executive Director,
International Coalition for Drug Awareness
www.drugawareness.org & http://ssristories.drugawareness.org
Author: “Prozac: Panacea or Pandora? – Our Serotonin Nightmare – The Complete Truth of the Full Impact of Antidepressants Upon Us & Our World” & Withdrawal CD “Help! I Can’t Get Off My Antidepressant!”
Original article: http://www.madinamerica.com/2011/06/%EF%BB%BFnow-antidepressant-induced-chronic-depression-has-a-name-tardive-dysphoria/
