Anti-Depressants - 30 MILLION PRESCRIPTIONS!!!

[OnZephyrstdayofXmas]

The medical system in this country is a joke. There is a report on channel 4 news about anti-depressants, including Seroxat. My friend was on seroxat and it totally screwed her up. She committed suicide 2 years ago leaving behind a 3 year old and a 1 year old. There was a documentary at the time highlighting how dangerous these things are and they are still prescribing them?!?!?!?!

it is indeed very worrying and I feel sorry for your poor friend's children....how terrible.There was a big expose of seroxat about 2 years ago as I recall and as a result it was banned for under 18s as it was found to lead to suicidal feelings, but surely it must encourage the same feelings in over 18s too? I have taught in secondary school for nearly 14 years now and know several 16 - 18 year olds who have been on prozac, some for years as opposed to weeks or months.It horrifies me.Personally I did suffer from low level PND after my forst child was born and the GP told me it would be the easiet=st thing in the world to prescribe me prozac or similar but that he didn't want to, and I thank God he didn't.

Just goes to show that choices on your medical care should involve you. I never to what doctor tells me to just because he told me too. I have to be convinced why a medicine is a good idea. They probably hate me for it, but too bad.

I would never take an anti-depressant (but then I've never needed one so I guess it's easy for me to say that).

Very sad about your friend. Was she married? How horrible for him, and for the kids of course.

I take seroxat for OCD, i dont have depression, just other issues. I think the use of the drug depends on the indiviuals circumstances.

Until I needed them, I would have said that I would never take an anti-depressant either, but depression is a vile illness that you can't explain to anyone who hasn't suffered with it, and I for one am glad that there is treatment available. However, I do think that sometimes GPs reach for the prescription pad sooner than would be necessary in an ideal world - the problem they face is that alternative treatments such as counselling and cognitive behavioural therapy have hugely long waiting lists, and I think the general feeling is that treating depression with anti-depressants has to be the first line of attack, simply because it's so difficult to access any other form of treatment.

I'm sorry to hear of your friend, Zephyrcat, but in my case anti-depressants saved my life. I'm not on Seroxat, which does have an awful history of causing suicidal feelings, but after having PND for three and a half years I was actively suicidal, and ads have brought me to the point where life has meaning again and I'm starting to recover. Maybe another form of treatment would have worked just as well, but with the constraints on the NHS it just wasn't available to me.

I agree with WWB that it seems doctors prescribe ADs as the first option when confronted with a depressed patient because it's the cheapest and easiest option.

I can only talk from my experiences, my GP is wonderful. Its not all cut and dry, i have seen councillors and head docs and nothing worked for me. I have serious problematic days and i think sometimes drugs are the answer.

I wrote all that quickly in temper whilst the report was on, and I agree that a) in the right circumstances they can save lives b) everyone is different so would react differently to the effects of ad's c) I am just mostly concerned about the continued use of Seroxat.

My friend was 25 and married. She was depressed because she broke her pelvis giving birth to her second baby and had to have several operations and pins inserted.

I don't understand why, when it is common knowledge and has even had tv documentaries made on it's dangers, Seroxat is still being so widely prescribed. It makes me really angry.

I am certain that I suffer from depression of some sort due to a whole list of things that i feel and think which i won't bore you all with but the thought of ad's scares me to death and that pushes me to try and work though my problems within myself - whether it'll work or not is another thing!!!

Zeph, I understand where you are coming from, but in my case my issues are hard to work threw as they are medical. i suffer with OCD, panic attacka and im a hypocondriac. I spend most of mys days in fear of something. Germs , illness, panic. Seroxat is a drug that im hoping will calm me down and put rational thoughts back into my head.

totally understand where you're coming from tammylove and i think that if it can work for you to make your life better then great - it just worries me when they know what can go wrong and dont withdraw it. I sincerely hope it works for you though :)

I do think ADs are over-prescribed but also agree with WWB. When faced with a patient presenting with depressive symptoms a GP can either prescribe ADs or put them on the 12-month waiting list for a once-a-week, hour-long therapy session. It's a no-brainer, really.

ADs can be wonderful, lifesavers. But when they don't work, the back-up treatment and support just isn't there (maybe that's a whole other thread though) and that's the real issue that needs to be addressed.

Completely agree NoMoomAtTheInn

do you not think that they are given out too easily?

Sorry, was that for me Zephyr?

I think that possibly they are given out too easily, yes, and for the wrong reasons (i.e. economic). I would be very concerned about taking Seroxat after the recent news stories. I've only ever been prescribed Prozac but have now stopped taking them because I felt they were not appropriate for me. Have taken them before and they were effective.

OMG, she broke her pelvis giving birth? OUCH! Makes me value the caesarean option all the more.

I think a lot of the problems started when things like Prozac and Seroxat first came onto the market and were seen as "lifestyle drugs" or "happy pills" rather than as medication for clinical depression. I do think this has encouraged some people to believe that happiness can be found in a packet of pills, and when they feel a bit down they ask for treatment for depression.

Obviously this isn't the case for everyone who takes ads (as I said, they have been a life saver for me), but I think it does account for part of the rapid rise in popularity of ads.

sorry had to go and clean the kitchen, wash the dishes etc etc LOL

I just meant generally - not throwing it at you NoMoomAtTheInn :)

Uwila - after it happened to her I was terrified to give birth!! I loved my two caesareans!

No worries Zephyr

Absolutely agree WWB. 'Prozac Nation' has a lot to answer for, imo.

and not just Prozac Nation - also Talking Back to Prozac, and the media articles hyping Prozac suggesting it would change your personality/turn you into a social butterfly etc.

Whatever the rights and wrongs of prescribing ADs, I do agree with your concerns, Zephyrcat about why Seroxat is so commonly prescribed when there are 5 or 6 other very similar SSRI drugs which don't have the same bad reputation re:side effects and withdrawal. Seroxat gives particular withdrawal problems due to the short-half life, which the other SSRIs don't have.

agree with most posters on this thread...tragic that lack of money means that a prescription is the first recourse of any GP for anything (including depression)...

for the first time ever Uwila, I totally agree with your post! and i think my GP thinks i'm a pain in the bum too! :o

Zephyr - as to your question about them being given out too freely - quite possibly so - in that people aren't being given enough choice/information about the different medications on offer (and potential side effects/withdrawal problems), and they aren't being offered information about "talking cures" for want of a better word, and aren't necessarily being referred to counselling/psychotherapy in combination with ADs and given advice on lifestyle changes/diarying. I also think that hormonal problems/depression/mood swings as possible side effects of hormonal contraception aren't taken seriously enough by GPs.

I think this due to a combination of lack of resources and on occasion lack of knowledge by GPs. There are particular problems with shortage of CBT practitioners in the NHS - some types of anxiety disorders such as OCD aren't helped by counselling. If CBT is available, your only real choice is ADs.

donnie - current thinking about ADs such as Prozac is that it is best to take them for at least 12 months to avoid a relapse after you stop taking them, which may explain why kids are taking them for years rather than weeks or months.

of course that feeds into the general issues about appropriateness of SSRI medication for under 18s.

promise this will be my last consecutive post on this thread

but wondered if you were aware of the changed government guidelines on prescribing ADs - for mild depression GPs are suppose to look at counselling/exercise rather than ADs, for anxiety disorders to look more frequently at referring to psychologists for CBT etc.

info from bbc website:
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/4071145.stm

new government NICE guidelines:www.nice.org.uk/page.aspx?o=235619

I didnt realise they had changed the guidelines - I might ask my mum about it - She's been a medical secretary for about 10 years so gets to know all the 'behind the scenes' stuff at the docs!! Her surgery currently has around 20,000 for i think maybe 11 doctors. It is virtually impossible to get an appointment! UI think part of the problem in surgeries like that is that they just try to rush through as many appointments as they can and sometimes overlook what kind of help they should really be offering. Since we moved and changed our doctors it's like a different world - our doctor will actually sit and listen and answer questions rather than make you feel like you're being timed before the next one is due in!!

I wasn't trying to suggest that anti depressants are ' bad' per se - I just recall that there was a concerted effort by whichever pharmaceutical giant markets seroxat to suppress research which proved it increases the risk of suicide in under 18s and I though that was dreadful.Interesting point about the 12 month period recommended for prozac which again I appreciate, but again the worry for me was that children ( 15 yr olds ) were on it for years. I do see that ADs are life savers though an do know people who have found them very helpful .