Psychologists, who are well trained mental health professionals with doctoral degrees. provide "talk therapy" to treat depression with much success. Research by Dr. Jonathan Shedler found that both psychodynamic and cognitive behavioral therapy were more successful than other treatments for depression, including better than drugs alone. I wish every medical doctor would recommend that their depressed patients talk to a psychologist, the side effect is a better life!
Not necessarily doc. I've seen 3 different therapist and it has done nothing to help me except letting me vent some of my frustration. 2 of them told me to set a goal, something simple. This didn't help in the least. I set a goal like they recommended, but when it became time to achieve my goal, I couldn't care less about achieving it. That doesn't mean I will quit trying talk therapy, or my depression meds. I hate being this way and want to get fixed. I've had at least 7 concussions in my life, and after reading the latest findings on concussions. It leads me to believe that at least part of my problems are related to that.
Consider me - a> objective; b> reasonably well-educated; c> part of the mainstream medical public; d> a non-pill-taker skeptic; e> someone who understands the placebo effect; f> values controlled peer-review studies; g> someone who has personal and inter-generational experience with this issue. I beg to differ with this "expert". Different drugs have different effects. A prescription for a specific anti-depressant/psychological drug (perhaps as a situational/temporary resort) makes all the difference between being incapacitated and feeling normal. Please do not use my name without my permission first, but feel free to contact me if you want more feedback. This issue is personally timely and important. I have recent (and a history of) experience with this - in Minnesota and with health care providers (Mayo Clinic Rochester, St Lukes Hospital and the Benedictine Health Center in Duluth,MN) over several generations and in a number of disparate situations.
I don't think a+b+c+d+e+f+g really makes you like many other readers or viewers. In fact it shows that you do really know a lot of stuff, or that you think you really know a lot of stuff. My mother was that type of person. No wonder no one would listen to her! Good luch with your electro shock.
At last a healthy dose of skepticism towards psychotropic drugs and the psychiatrists that shill for them in the U.S.A!
Thank you for showing the alternative perspective to the use of dangerous SSRI drugs pushed by the masses of modern psychiatrists. This is a story that people need and want. This story will benefit the wellness of Americans by raising a critical consciousness in the realm of modern psychiatric treatments.
I began to suffer depression in early 1970s. I spent 10 years medicating myself with alcohol. I went to psychiatrist after psychiatric and could not get better, feeling worse and worse all the time. I was very suicidal by the time I found a psychiatrist who said he would try me on Prozac. It was about 1982. I took Prozac for four days. By the end of the four days, my depression was magnitudes worse. The only reason I would have gotten out of bed would have been to kill myself. I called the doctor and stopped the medication. A week later he said he wanted to try zoloft. I was resistant but agreed to take it. Within two weeks I quit drinking and I have never had any temptation to drink since. People said I looked happy for the first time in years. Without zoloft, I would not be alive today. I know that deep in my heart. If the placebo effect were in play, why did I suudenly feel so much worse when I took the prozac. There is an inverse way of seeing the drugs effectiveness. Look at the powerfall reverse affect they can have. That should also be a measure of the possibility of their success. They can move depression up or down dramatically. It was a very good story, but I would like to submit a request. If you created a 30 year timeline along which you measured the increase in the number patients seeking help and the increase in the use of anti-depressant medication, placebo effect, it would show the drugs were very effective in the begining because there were fewer and sicker patients being offered thos drugs. As time went on and the drugs were advertised on TV and so on, more and more patients claiming to be depressed started recieving treatment and more and more of those patients were being prescribed these medications, but as the patient population increases there is less stringent diagnose of what depression is. By the year 2000, if someone got a bad haircut, they got a prescription for an antidepressant. If someone gained a little weight over the holidays, the person would go and get an antidepressant. With the early record of success the medications had, insurance companies began telling patients and doctors they wouldn't pay for talk therapy because all the data from the early uses of the medication showed how effective they were, when talk therapy would have been more appropriate. But here is the unfortunate thing about your story-and it will effects millions of patients and families. When I was lying in bed in the early 1980's, contemplating killing myself, if I had heard one more person say depression is all in your head, you need to get up get moving, you're not depressed, you are just a lazy alcoholic, you are weak,and so on, I would have killed myself andprobably the person who made the comment. I was a desperately sick person who was only staying around because I had a wonderful wife and family. The data is skewed along the timeline I mentioned earlier and more and more people who are sick and getting worse will be told...you're not depressed, you don't need medicine, you don't need talk therapy, just put on a smile. Mental anguish can be much worse physical pain. That's why the chances of someone killing him or herself if they have depression is many times higher than suicide rate for people suffering from the most painful cancer treatments there are. I hope you will tell people that if someone in their family says they are depressed, and they are, it would be terrible unkindness, an unkindess on a par with manslaughter, to tell that person they just need to get off their behind, quit complaining, and spread the sunshine. The dark side of the moon is always in shadow. It never gets any light from the sun. Real depression is like living on the dark side of the moon.
I think the addictive and negative effects of antidepessants such as cybalta are not stated by doctors. I was put on cybalta by a pain clinic for fibromyalgia along with pain medications and antisezure drugs...all of which should not be taken together. At first I thought it was great and helped me...after a time I became a zombie and realized I needed to get off these drugs and am now using herbal remidies to manage my fibromyalgia and although I do have some pain..I am an alert normal person. There is a web site called cymbaltawithdrawal.com that tells the addictive properties of cybalta and that doctors do not warn patients about these issues prior to putting people on this highly addictive drub.
A good percent of prescription medication historically were derrived from natural sources. An herbal treatment is a medication! It is sad that people perceive them as "safe" because they come from nature. Unfortunately very few of these products has undergone regulated testing. They can get away with it, because they are packaged as "nutritional supplements" and in fine print will say that they are "not intended to treat...". So while it might make you feel better (placebo effect - that's okay), do we really know the safety profile?
Good for you Barnmom. Many, many people I know have been helped by herbal remedies and natural alternatives. Pharma goes after these entities and would make Vitamin C a prescription drug if they only could.
The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.
Reply to Comment The posting of advertisements, profanity, or personal attacks is prohibited. By using this Web site you agree to accept our Terms of Service. Click here to read the Rules of Engagement.
I beg to differ with this "expert". Different drugs have different effects. A prescription for a specific anti-depressant/psychological drug (perhaps as a situational/temporary resort) makes all the difference between being incapacitated and feeling normal.
Please do not use my name without my permission first, but feel free to contact me if you want more feedback.
This issue is personally timely and important. I have recent (and a history of) experience with this - in Minnesota and with health care providers (Mayo Clinic Rochester, St Lukes Hospital and the Benedictine Health Center in Duluth,MN) over several generations and in a number of disparate situations.
Thank you for showing the alternative perspective to the use of dangerous SSRI drugs pushed by the masses of modern psychiatrists. This is a story that people need and want. This story will benefit the wellness of Americans by raising a critical consciousness in the realm of modern psychiatric treatments.
Good job 60 Minutes!
Sincerely,
Adam Howell
Durango, CO