Study: Most antidepressants don't work for young patients
15 replies, posted
[quote][highlight]Background[/highlight]
Major depressive disorder is one of the most common mental disorders in children and adolescents. However, whether to use pharmacological interventions in this population and which drug should be preferred are still matters of controversy. Consequently, we aimed to compare and rank antidepressants and placebo for major depressive disorder in young people.
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[highlight]Interpretation[/highlight]
When considering the risk–benefit profile of antidepressants in the acute treatment of major depressive disorder, these drugs do not seem to offer a clear advantage for children and adolescents. Fluoxetine is probably the best option to consider when a pharmacological treatment is indicated.[/quote]
[URL="http://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(16)30385-3/abstract"]source[/URL]
[quote]LONDON (AP) — Scientists say most antidepressants don't work for children or teenagers with major depression, some may be unsafe, and the quality of evidence about these drugs is so bad the researchers cannot be sure if any are truly effective or safe.
In the biggest analysis yet conducted of previously published studies, researchers studied 14 antidepressants and found only one drug that seemed to be useful.
"We now have a hierarchy of pharmaceutical treatments and the only one that is better than placebo and other drugs is Prozac," said Dr. Andrea Cipriani of the University of Oxford, one of the study authors. He said psychological treatment such as behavioral therapy should be tried before prescribing drugs, echoing the recommendations of some current guidelines.
[...][/quote]
[URL="http://bigstory.ap.org/article/198b33aad59e4a6c8a3c4aeae27940c0/study-most-antidepressants-dont-work-young-patients"]source[/URL]
I think that most things for young people aren't a hormone or nutritional deficiency but just a shitty living environment. Stress from school, friends, family, eating habits, keeping up appearances, etc can just build up to become a depression disorder. But it's not necessarily the same as needing an extra dose of melatonin or serotonin / whatever.
Kids shouldn't be given antidepressants because they are still mentally developing. Putting them on pills robs them of this potential growth that could let them cope with their struggles on their own, and sets them up for a lifetime dependence on antidepressants.
[editline]9th June 2016[/editline]
[QUOTE=Daemon White;50486954]I think that most things for young people aren't a hormone or nutritional deficiency but just a shitty living environment. Stress from school, friends, family, eating habits, keeping up appearances, etc can just build up to become a depression disorder. But it's not necessarily the same as needing an extra dose of melatonin or serotonin / whatever.[/QUOTE]
Counseling centers and the need for psychologists has grown enormously in recent years on college campuses. A lot of the time the students just haven't grown thick skin or toughened up to the shit life throws at them at that age(independence, lack of parental protection, high expectations, opposing views...). Coping with this transition is a life skill and using antidepressants to deal with it prevents you from becoming an independent adult.
You do get students who actually fall into depression from actual life bullshit (death in family or of a friend, absurd student costs, a focus on grades rather than learning, personal injury) who need a hand, and people who for whatever reason are chronically depressed, but antidepressants are overprescribed to people who are just dealing with normal life issues.
Well if the root cause is not a genetic problem then that won't solve anything. The whole view of this thing called "mental illness" in the western world is not helpful at all. As a large amount of it can be broken down to trauma that was never dealt with. Which a lot of it can be solved with love, acceptance, compassion and real connection with others. Of course you must deal with the trauma as well.
Biggest issue there is most people do not want to leave the world of pretend and deal with such things. So instead they end up getting lost in fantasy, getting a big addiction, or something else that isn't going to solve the problem just to be distracted. As you've got to bond with something and if people won't validate what you feel, then a distraction will let you forget and bond with it instead.
In the eastern/tribal places where this is not a issue, it's not common for people to have these "mental illness".
When it does happen they also have it for a lot shorter time, and for the most part it goes away and doesn't come back. Of course if there is a reason for it like someone dying then that's a bit different if it comes back.
Also as I looked at this again, I would like to clarify the "" around mental illness is because it's a societal illness.
As in our society we no longer express feelings unless it's pleasant or people deny other people from that expression. Like oh what you're sad here have a beer that will make you feel better.
As well as way too big of a focus on work and succeeding which means you lose balance and end up being less effective, and less productive.
As all the money in the world can't solve a problem that is in the mind but not the body.
[QUOTE=RIPBILLYMAYS;50486966]Counseling centers and the need for psychologists has grown enormously in recent years on college campuses. A lot of the time the students just haven't grown thick skin or toughened up to the shit life throws at them at that age(independence, lack of parental protection, high expectations, opposing views...). Coping with this transition is a life skill and using antidepressants to deal with it prevents you from becoming an independent adult.
You do get students who actually fall into depression from actual life bullshit (death in family or of a friend, absurd student costs, a focus on grades rather than learning, personal injury) who need a hand, and people who for whatever reason are chronically depressed, but antidepressants are overprescribed to people who are just dealing with normal life issues.[/QUOTE]
Probably because of the immense workload required to gain a degree. Just to get my undergrad degree it was about 90 credit hours. Because the course I needed to take might only have 1 class that semester, I sometimes had 5 hours of classes back to back. One semester, I ended up having a month straight of classes because they rarely offered a bullshit geography class and the only time they were having it that semester was on the weekend. So, I had two classes Mon/Wed, a class Tues/Thurs, and the a class Fri/Sat/Sun.
University isn't much better. 18-26 credit hours per semester isn't uncommon.
[QUOTE=SadisticGecko;50487423]Probably because of the immense workload required to gain a degree. Just to get my undergrad degree it was about 90 credit hours. Because the course I needed to take might only have 1 class that semester, I sometimes had 5 hours of classes back to back. One semester, I ended up having a month straight of classes because they rarely offered a bullshit geography class and the only time they were having it that semester was on the weekend. So, I had two classes Mon/Wed, a class Tues/Thurs, and the a class Fri/Sat/Sun.
University isn't much better. 18-26 credit hours per semester isn't uncommon.[/QUOTE]
So if I'm reading this right you had 1 class a day and at a maximum 2 a day for a whole month? Sometimes 5 hours of class? Jeez man, that sounds Hella difficult!
Medication is usually the last resort for children dealing with intense anxiety/medication due to the unknown effects on brain development and side effects.
General practitioners and pediatricians usually don't give a shit.
They should not allowed to prescribe psychological drugs because they are trained little to not at all in the field other than maybe serving a short residency in a psych ward. GPs are often the doctors that over medicate or misdiagnose psychological disorders because they are not trained in the field. Anecdotally I know a few people in my family, like my mom, who were overly prescribed addictive psych meds that ended up doing more harm then good, and I have a cousin who was given Ritalin by a GP when they were improperly diagnosed with ADHD. GPs usually just prescribe whatever flavor of the month drug a pharmaceutical rep advises them to sell and believe that medication alone can solve depression and anxiety which is not true at all.
A psychiatrist is trained to know which medications help which populations, and understands the need for therapy and can pinpoint the correct dosage as well as side effects. A psychiatrist understands that the end goal of medication is to not need the medication anymore if possible, and understands that antidepressants anti-psychotics should never be used in absence of therapy because the two work best together and medication by itself is usually ineffective. Medication helps someone with depression to control their negative thought patterns, rumination, low energy, and suicidal thoughts, but therapy is required to change how the person views themselves, the world around them, and to make a positive change in their environment and their health.
[QUOTE=InvaderNouga;50487889]So if I'm reading this right you had 1 class a day and at a maximum 2 a day for a whole month? Sometimes 5 hours of class? Jeez man, that sounds Hella difficult![/QUOTE]
I literally meant that I had a month straight of classes.
Monday was two classes, both an hour twenty minutes.
Tuesday was one class at an hour twenty.
Wed had two classes, both an hour twenty with a 3 hour lab.
Thursday was class and lab, an hour twenty plus three hours.
Friday was 3 hours.
Saturday was from 8am to 4pm with an hour lunch break.
Sunday was four hours.
I did this for a month. It was straight up exhausting.
Stress from high COL and shitty wages.
I think kids need therapy more than medication. Kids are dealing with so much shit these days compared to people they used to put on medication.
Treating the symptoms and not the cause.
[QUOTE=AntonioR;50487980]Treating the symptoms and not the cause.[/QUOTE]
Well tbh when it comes to Mental Health care it is usually beneficial to treat the symptoms so that they're manageable enough for someone to actually focus on treating the cause.
[QUOTE=InvaderNouga;50488020]Well tbh when it comes to Mental Health care it is usually beneficial to treat the symptoms so that they're manageable enough for someone to actually focus on treating the cause.[/QUOTE]
Well I don't know how it is for other people but I'll explain for me. I was given meds to get rid of anxiety which worked. On the flip side though the only way I could get to the cause of the anxiety attacks was to experience them and analyze them. Which is how I solved my issues not by getting rid of the symptoms, instead I experienced them so I could analyze the pattern. With the pattern then known I used that to find the source. Which worked like a map with locations on it that you just had to follow.
Where the meds were more like here is a map except it's blank. Which doesn't really help you find the source, you more less just walk around aimlessly and hope you find the source. Which as they were once created out of fear and the best way to deal with fear is too run at it full force.
Though I don't know what works for other people, I just found that to be the best way.
[QUOTE=AntonioR;50487980]Treating the symptoms and not the cause.[/QUOTE]
With mental illness it's often hard to tell which is the chicken and which is the egg. And sometimes there is no addressable cause.
Gee, sure would be helpful if the full article was available and not behind a $31 paywall, that way I could read up on what it says about the drugs I'm taking, if anything.
Why do I have to pay $30 to read the study. I mean seriously, come on.
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