Taking Anti Depressant Medication : A Qualitative Examination Of Internet Postings

Over the years the “rate of antidepressant use among all ages [have] seen an increase by nearly 400%...” even though deemed ineffective (Smith). This increase came about after more doctors were given a wider range of prescription rights; this allowed them to access a wider range of drugs, capable of delivering a greater level of high if misused. Patients are often prescribed medications without being fully evaluated, leading to treatments which might not be needed. As a result “‘… at least half the folks who are being treated with antidepressants aren't benefiting from the active pharmacological effects of the drugs themselves but from a placebo effect’ " (Hollon, Smith)which affects a person’s state of mind. The Placebo Effect creates the feeling that an ineffective drug is working because it is supposed to work even if the prescribed medication was a simple sugar-water mixture. The efficiency of antidepressants decrease as the prescriber moves across the classes. They are especially less effective when used to treat serious medical conditions but are often used instead of more serious

Two recent Cochrane Database Systematic Reviews were ranked Level A - Excellent attributable to the large number of trials (29-115 RCTs) that has been searched through computerised databases, checking bibliographies of relevant articles and to the extent of contacting researchers. This concludes as having the lowest risk of bias possible (Linde et al., 2008; Purgato et al., 2014). Both reviews concluded that standard anti-depressants are superior to HP however, HP was superior to placebo and HP resulted in the best tolerability in all

It is crucial for pastors to realize that sometimes a depressed person is suffering from an actual medical imbalance and needs to be treated as such. “It is abundantly clear from current research that certain kinds of depression have important biological roots and can be substantially relieved

Americans should be more aware of the false validity of the Chemical Imbalance Myth in our society today because of the immense usage of Antidepressants and the negative consequences they have on our physical and emotional health. The writers goal in writing this paper is not to say that mental illnesses are not real, rather, to point out some of the myths and traditions that are related to depression. We as a people tend to confuse normal emotions with clinical depression, in which they are prescribed antidepressants to make them feel better. The myth focused on in this paper is the “Chemical Imbalance” theory, which has been adopted by our society for years. The number of people in America that are currently on antidepressant medications is alarming and this issue must be addressed. A mistake that many well-meaning American’s make is taking pills when those pills are not necessary. These pills are rather damaging to an individual’s physical, emotional, and family health. When individuals take responsibility for their emotions and meet their core needs as a human, the normal emotion of sadness can be resolved.

In this paragraph, I will be presenting a counter argument as if antidepressants are really helping our culture. I will be using Robert Whitaker's point of view of how our society is overmedicating mental illness. I am using Whitaker as source of information because source is well-written and organized. Robert Whitaker is a journalist and author of Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. Whitaker states that antidepressants are overprescribed in America, harming those who do not need them. In fact, Researchers have proven that using medical substance don't improve behaviors. In the long run, using some sort of antidepressant can worsen the disease. Whitaker quotes "If 'wonder drugs'

The argument regarding the use of antidepressants has been increasing over time. With our lives more stressed than ever, the age in which they are being prescribed also become younger. As a society where ‘there is a pill for that’, have we completely ignored traditional medicine? Are we setting the youth up for failure for not addressing the underlining problem, or is the answer upping the legal age of the use? The answer is yes, we are essentially setting our kids up for an unsure future. With the uncertainty of these prescriptions, we allow their minds and bodies to be exploited for financial gain by the top rated pharmaceutical companies.

PSYCHOLOGY Custom Edition for Bergen Community College: (pages 150-151, chapter 4, altered states 4.7 & 4.8)

In spite of the concerns associated with antidepressants and their negative impact with certain therapy medicines and their potentially addictive qualities, they are still regularly used in drug rehabilitation. That's because their positives still outweigh the negatives, especially when dealing with the mental illness that often comes with illicit drug

This is an accurate representation of medication for depression. It does not make you want to live, it does not fix your thinking, it just makes you functional. It allows you to do things you wouldn’t usually be able to, and maybe after a while you will be able to function on your own.

Book Summary Peter Kramer’s book, “Listening to Prozac” investigates the use of the medication fluoxetine, or better known as Prozac. Prozac is a selective serotonin inhibitor (SSRI) which means that it affects chemicals in the brain believed to responsible for depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive symptoms. Prozac is prescribed to treat these mental illnesses and is currently one of the most widely-used antidepressants used in the United States. According to Kramer’s book, not only does Prozac treat depression but it make people feel better than well. It was explained in this book that Prozac can transform the client’s behavior.

Nevertheless, no scientific or medical progress could be made for citizens would be reluctant to take the medicine. Drug executives considered retesting a drug to be reflective of poor clinical practice. As one executive put it “there is no sense of urgency about patient need in Japan” (Watters 524). In order to advance in medical research, a drug must be widely prescribed not only in one country, but in the entire world. Before a company can approve a drug, it must teach the population the benefits of taking that medicine. Therefore, the GlaxoSmithKline companies needed to inform the Japanese people about the true meaning of depression and convince them to take SSRIs, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.

Psychological issues affect people with symptoms of depression and/or anxiety. Depression is a condition in which a person’s main emotions withdraw and there is a prolonged sadness over a long period of time. Main causes of depression consist of abuse in one’s lifetime, horrific or tragic events and or certain medications. “About 121 million people world-wide are believed to suffer from depression” (Naurt, 2008). Symptoms consist of low self esteem, disturbed sleep habits, appetite loss and the feeling of being not wanted; “It can lead to suicide and is associated with 1 million deaths a year” (Naurt, 2008). Antidepressants are the common treatment for depression, but music therapy is becoming increasingly popular. The biological perspective on the anti-depressants given to patients diagnosed with depression can have very horrific side effects. One such group of anti-depressants is Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs): “…there is also an established direct link between suicide and violent behavior and the use of SSRIs” (Tyrell, 2001). Most people stop using anti-depressants because of the drugs’ side effects. The SSRIs are just one example of malicious effects anti-depressant drugs that can create on people. Another research study completed by Kikuchi, Mimura, Suzuki, Uchida and Watanabe (2013), affirms their hypothesis that antidepressants has profound negative effects on patients with

The first step to treating many of these new cases of depression is the prescription and use of antidepressant medication, however this has cause a mass flooding of our society with unnecessary prescription drugs. Due to the ease of treatment, primarily with prescription drugs, and the large range of severity in depression is often over diagnosed, adding to the problem.

Using results from a meta-analysis, researchers have found that only 25% of patients from 2318 drug studies have actually responded to a real anti-depressant. 23.87% of the patients’ responses were due to depression history. Just over 50% of participants improved via the placebo effect. In an investigation by Benson & Freedman (1996) and Nesbitt Shanor (1999), evidence suggests that 60-90% of prescribed medications rely heavily on the placebo effect. Walter A. Brown, M.D. describes his post-flu cough that just would not go away. “Not only was speaking difficult, but the cough woke me up throughout the night, ruining my sleep.” He took a dose of cough syrup and it wasn’t proving effective. Walter called a doctor and was prescribed a cough suppressant, and was reassured that he’d feel a lot better. Being hopeful for his recovery due to the convincing by his doctor, Brown was cough-free within the

In total, the results of 1460 patients receiving antidepressant medication and 858 receiving a placebo sugar pill were analyzed. This analysis combined the results from these 19 different studies and generated an effect size (which is calculated as the mean of the experimental group minus the mean of the control group, divided by the pooled standard deviation SD). Once Kirsch and Sapirstein subtracted mean placebo response rates from mean drug response rates, they found a mean medication effect of 0.39 SDs (1). For each type of medication, the effect size for the active drug response to drug response is between 1.43 and 1.69, and the placebo response is between 74% and 76% of the active drug response. This means that 75% of the effect attributed to the perceived use of anti-depressants was due to the placebo. The perception of clinical benefit from antidepressants was largely attributed to the perceptions of the mind, and not to the actual chemical make-up of the pills patients were taking. The placebo effect shows us that the mind heavily influences our perceptions of wellness and health.