{"id":47633,"date":"2014-07-09T13:47:47","date_gmt":"2014-07-09T17:47:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/?p=47633"},"modified":"2014-07-09T14:01:07","modified_gmt":"2014-07-09T18:01:07","slug":"antipsychiatry-sentiment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/1boringoldman.com\/index.php\/2014\/07\/09\/antipsychiatry-sentiment\/","title":{"rendered":"antipsychiatry sentiment…"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Psychiatric drugs are doing us more harm than good<\/a><\/div>\n
As with benzodiazepines in the 1980s, the UK is prescribing SSRI antidepressants at a staggering rate – and to no good effect<\/div>\n
The Guardian<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n
by Peter Gøtzsche<\/div>\n
30 April 2014<\/div>\n

We appear to be in the midst of a psychiatric drug epidemic, just as we were when benzodiazepines [tranquilisers] were at their height in the late 1980s. The decline in their use after warnings about addiction led to a big increase in the use of the newer antidepressants, the SSRIs [selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors]. Figures released by the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry, which was set up to challenge many of the assumptions commonly made about modern psychiatry, show that more than 53m prescriptions for antidepressants were issued in 2013 in England alone. This is almost the equivalent of one for every man, woman and child and constitutes a 92% increase since 2003.<\/p>\n

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The problem is that many of these drugs simply do not work as people suppose. The main effect of antidepressants is not the reduction of depressive symptoms. They are no better than placebo for mild depression, only slightly better for moderate depression, and benefit only one out of 10 with severe depression. In around half of all patients, they cause sexual disturbances. The symptoms include decreased libido, delayed orgasm or ejaculation, no orgasm or ejaculation and erectile dysfunction. Studies in both humans and animals suggest that these effects may persist long after the drug has been discontinued. The US Food and Drug Administration has shown that antidepressants increase suicidal behaviour up to the age of 40, and many suicides have been reported even in healthy people who took the drugs for other reasons [for example, for stress or pain]. Another report also said that, among people over 65, antidepressants are believed to kill one out of every 28 people treated for one year, because they lead to falls and hip fractures. Indeed, it is not clear whether antidepressants are safe at any age.<\/p>\n

My studies of the research literature in this whole area lead me to a very uncomfortable conclusion: the way we currently use psychiatric drugs is causing more harm than good. We should therefore use them much less, for shorter periods of time, and always with a plan for tapering off, to prevent people from being medicated for the rest of their lives.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Attacks on antidepressants: signs of deep-seated stigma?<\/a><\/div>\n
The Lancet<\/font><\/strong><\/div>\n
by David J Nutt, Guy M Goodwin, Dinesh Bhuqra, Seena Fazel, and Stephen Lawrie<\/div>\n
May 27, 2014<\/div>\n
[full text on-line<\/a>]<\/div>\n

Psychiatry is used to being attacked by external parties with antidiagnosis and antitreatment agendas. However, the recent disclosure that a doctor [Professor Peter Getzsche] had joined a new group, the Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry, whose launch was accompanied by newspaper headlines such as "Antidepressants do more harm than good, research says" and "Psychiatric drugs are doing us more harm than good" in The Times<\/font><\/strong> and The Guardian<\/a> plumbs a new nadir in irrational polemic. What is especially worrying is that this doctor is a co-founder of the Nordic Cochrane collaboration, an initiative set up to provide the best evidence for clinical practitioners. What is the truth about antidepressant efficacy and adverse effects, and why would Professor Getzsche apparently suspend his training in evidence analysis for popular polemic?<\/p>\n

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Of course, all active drugs have adverse effects, but for the new antidepressants these are rarely severe or life-threatening, even in overdose situations. Indeed, the new antidepressants, especially the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, are some of the safest drugs ever made. In our experience, the vast majority of patients who choose to stay on them do so because they improve their mood and well·being rather than because they cannot cope with withdrawal symptoms when they stop. Many of the extreme examples of adverse effects given by the opponents of antidepressants are both rare and sometimes sufficiently bizarre as to warrant the description of an unexplained medical symptom. To attribute extremely unusual or severe experiences to drugs that appear largely innocuous in double-blind clinical trials is to prefer anecdote to evidence. The incentive of litigation might also distort the presentation of some of the claims.<\/p>\n

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Whatever the reasons, extreme assertions such as those made by Prof Gøtzsche are insulting to the discipline of psychiatry and at some level express and reinforce stigma against mental illnesses and the people who have them. The medical profession must challenge these poorly thought-out negative claims by one of its own very vigorously.<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
I picked these two articles because at first reading they seem like antipodes – two diametrically opposed takes on the same thing. Dr. Peter Gøtzsche has become a lightning rod for criticism since writing Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime: How Big Pharma Has Corrupted Healthcare<\/a>, a book whose very title makes his position clear to all. And yet his conclusion doesn’t strike me as particularly radical – more like good advice:<\/div>\n