The world’s most popular antidepressant, which is taken by over 40 million people, has been deemed no better than a placebo in latest research carried out by department of psychology at Hull University.
The drug and others like it only showed a slight improvement in patients conditions over sugar pills in the cases of severe depression and little or no effect in other cases.
The study used new data as well as data from the manufacturers clinical trials which was previously unreleased and is expected to have serious implications on the prescribing of such drugs in the future.
Well, I do have to agree with the article. I took Prozac for my Bi-polar for several years. During that time, I found myself more depressed than I was balanced. After getting off of Prozac and onto something else, I haven't had as much depression episodes as when I was on it.
What good is taking a medication that is suppose to help depression when it usually makes you depressed anyways? :P
it's somewhat surprising how long this has taken in coming about, GSK(formely smithkleine beecham) was found to have buried research in the 90's that found several antidepressants they manufactured to not only have a neglible difference when compared to a placebo but also to cause suicidal tendencies in adolescents. This included seroxat which I used to take.
I was listening to the article on the news this morning and it was very amusing to hear people say "well it worked for me" when clearly it illustrated that they did not understand what a placebo effect was.
On the other hand I would have to contest the fact that antidepressants are completely ineffective, during my teenage years I took: mirtazapine(zispin), paroxetine(seroxat) and finally Cipralex(escitalopram) so while there is evidence to support placebo affects as there is with many drugs I would have to disagree with blanket statements on their effects as the cipralex made a massive difference to my mood while the other two didn't
Your doctor prescribed something only approved for unipolar depression for your bipolar disorder? Wow. No wonder the depression was bad. I'm sorry to hear you had to deal with it.
In the cases of unipolar depression, I'm sure that for some, fluoxetine and the other SSRIs work wonders. In my case, it made me have really rapid cycles. Also, when manic, it was much more intense and I was much more angry.
@story I don't believe that fluoxetine is wholly ineffective; however, I don't believe it works for everyone.
I thought I also hear a while back that CAT scans done on the brains of people taking Prozac were identical to the damage done to the brains of those on cocaine.
i could have told everyone this a decade ago... prozac doesn't make you less depressed, its makes you less functional all-round, esspeciallyu emotionally... my mother was prescribed this shit back more than a decade ago for "cronic depression" if didn't help, infact it made things much worse, but she couldn't see this effect... she became lazier (she wasn't very active beforehand); more couch potato like, depression was constant rather than in patches.
perosnally i think alcohol works better than prozac... lol
My doctor gave me prozac for bipolar as well. I'm not going to say it didn't work, I felt nothing most of the time. Very lethargic. Which, at the time, was better than dealing with the extreme highs and lows. I stopped taking it after a year. I wouldn't start again, not with Prozac. I couldn't sleep, so I had to take Ambien in addition. Right now I'm considering seeing a doctor for meds again, but all the meds seem to have so many side effects that they do more harm than good.
can illicit manic stages. Because it is a serotonin reuptake inhibitor it is supposed to improve mood and with someone that has a defiency and then a SURGE of catecholamines it can really mess you up.
You should talk to your doctor about that unless this was years and years ago in which case it may have been one of the only options during your depressed phases.
What you need is one of the newer drugs that works on the frontal lobe and the thalmic regions.
Bipolar disorder is a tricky one. There are so many great creative people susceptible to it that its not mainstream knowledge of how they should be living their lives.
Well, I have Mixed Bipolar, which is where I can go from Depressed to Manic or Manic to Depressed. I have more problems than just Bipolar though. Don't get my started on when I had to take Ritalin. :P
Problems usually start in the mind, then they become physical deficiencies. The physical deficiency is not the correct area to treat the problem anyway. The lack of a pill is not what caused the problem...
Won't entirely correct the problem but its almost essential to start with it when the patient has already become manic. Theres no amount of psychotherapy that will get through to someone who thinks they are god.
My doctor perscribed it for me when I went to her complaining of being depressed. The only good that I got out of it was the decent feeling of being stoned all the time. I'll stick with weed, at least it's natural.
While there might be few manic depressives that may be better assisted by a pill first, for most, if not all, a drug is unnecessary. Treatment for mania (aka bipolar disorder) is controlling the patient’s mind. Manics have massive swings in thoughts and mood, from one thing to the next in comparatively very little time to those considered “normal”.
Manics have very little control over their minds. For many, just as the lack of controlling their thoughts got them to be manic, regaining that control can reverse the process. The psychotherapist that does not attempt to reverse this problem back from the path simply isn’t doing his job correctly. He’s taking more health-related risks by taking unnatural, unproven shortcuts.
Let’s remember that an organic cause has never been found for this disorder. That is because the cause is primarily, if not 100%, caused by a lack of control of the mind.
After all, I used to be afflicted by this disorder. I got out of it without the assistance of depression drugs or the assistance of physiotherapists.
From Wikipedia: “Some studies have suggested a significant correlation between creativity and bipolar disorder. However, the relationship between the disorder and creativity is still very unclear.[3][4][5] One study indicated increased striving for, and sometimes attaining, goals and achievements.[6] While the disorder affects people differently, individuals with bipolar disorder tend to be much more outgoing and daring than individuals without bipolar disorder. The disorder is also found in a large number of people involved in the arts. It is an ongoing study as to why many creative geniuses had bipolar disorder.”
I believe that I understand why so many of these now creative geniuses had bipolar disorder. It’s because you must take control of your mind to get out of it... More control over you mind gives you greater thinking capacity and increases your creativity (aka “genius”). These people aren’t geniuses, they just have more control over their minds than other people. After all, genius is only the product of persistence and that in itself is the initial requirement to get out of depression.
Carl Jung gives the essence of what I’m saying in just one sentance.
“Nobody, as long as he moves about among the chaotic currents of life, is without trouble.”
IMO many tend to get way too caught up over the distant happenings the world over. That worry they experience is exactly what they want to avoid. Keeping a cool head and knowing that we must take one thing at a time keeps us just fine. Keeping it one thought at a time with a positive outlook of our choice produces positive results. Those who try it will be rewarded.
The reasoning behind obesity is also lack of control over your thoughts...only this time, it's thoughts of eating. It's an addiction to thinking hungry thoughts.
"In all chaos there is a cosmos, in all disorder a secret order." Carl Jung
