Antidepressant blues
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ|Aug/Sep 2023
SSRIs impair the brain’s reward learning system, new research finds. Celeste McGovern looks at safe ways to get off antidepressants and alternative treatments
Antidepressant blues

Psychiatry is in crisis. Among the problems plaguing the profession are soaring mental health statistics, patient recovery rates that have flatlined for decades, and a growing stack of evidence that the primary tools of the trade psychoactive drugs including super-selling antidepressants don’t work so well and are linked to an expanding litany of damaging side-effects that are increasingly hard to ignore.

Depression remains the number one cause of disability in the United States, as it is across the Western world. Younger adults and adolescents are most affected, and increasingly at younger ages; suicide is now the second leading cause of death for youths aged 10 to 19. Mental illness is the leading cause of disability in children, outpacing physical disabilities like cerebral palsy or Down syndrome. A staggering 2.7 million American children ages 3–17 received a depression diagnosis in 2016–2019.

By far the biggest consumers of antidepressants are women, however. More than 17 percent of American women had taken antidepressants in the past month in 2015–2018, according to the CDC, and for women over the age of 60, that number rose to nearly one in four (24.3 percent).

Doctors used to prescribe antidepressants for people with rare “melancholia” back in the 1960s and ’70s, but the old drugs, like tricyclics, had grim side-effects and their use was limited.

In the late ’80s, a new line of antidepressants called SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration. SSRIs block the reuptake of the chemical messenger serotonin into neurons and thereby are believed to make more serotonin available to improve transmission of messages between neurons.

Denne historien er fra Aug/Sep 2023-utgaven av What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

Denne historien er fra Aug/Sep 2023-utgaven av What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ.

Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.

FLERE HISTORIER FRA WHAT DOCTORS DON'T TELL YOU AUSTRALIA/NZSe alt
Metalhead
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

Metalhead

Could toxic heavy metals be making you ill? Here's how to spot the signs and symptoms, says Dr Leigh Erin Connealy, and your action plan for effective detox

time-read
6 mins  |
Aug/Sep 2024
Good bones
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

Good bones

There's a lot of fearmongering when it comes to the risk of fractures in older women, says Marcelle Pick. Here's what you need to know and how to look after your bones naturally

time-read
6 mins  |
Aug/Sep 2024
Supplements in the spotlight
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

Supplements in the spotlight

Confused about supplements? Dr Jenny Goodman has the lowdown on why we need them, how to choose a top-quality product and the ingredients to avoid

time-read
10+ mins  |
Aug/Sep 2024
Essentially balanced
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

Essentially balanced

These essential oils can help you soothe stress, balance your hormones and feel like your best self again

time-read
7 mins  |
Aug/Sep 2024
An integrative approach to breast cancer
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

An integrative approach to breast cancer

Blending the best of integrative medicine with the best of conventional medicine gives the greatest chance of healing breast cancer, says Dr Leigh Erin Connealy

time-read
9 mins  |
Aug/Sep 2024
THE NEEDLE'S EDGE
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

THE NEEDLE'S EDGE

An intriguing new theory says it's not what's in the jabs but how the needles are inserted that explains the rampant and varied Covid vaccine damage. Celeste McGovern investigates the Bolus Theory

time-read
10+ mins  |
Aug/Sep 2024
How sugar causes cancer
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

How sugar causes cancer

Amajor breakthrough in cancer research has discovered that sugar-usually from fast food-switches off our cancer-fighting genes

time-read
5 mins  |
Aug/Sep 2024
The illusion of the magician
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

The illusion of the magician

Howrelative risk makes a drug seem effective when it’s not

time-read
3 mins  |
Aug/Sep 2023
Of pesticides and PMS
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

Of pesticides and PMS

Detoxing from a hormone-disrupting herbicide, along with getting the right nutrition, was the answer to a patient’s debilitating PMS, says Dr Jenny Goodman

time-read
4 mins  |
Aug/Sep 2023
Not just a phase
What Doctors Don't Tell You Australia/NZ

Not just a phase

Is your workout working against your hormones? Debra Atkinson explains why and how to exercise with your hormonal cycle for the best results

time-read
5 mins  |
Aug/Sep 2023