60 Minutes excerpt about antidepressants: "Is There A Placebo Effect?"

If you're interested in hearing some different viewpoints about the efficacy of antidepressants, here's a link to a 14-minute excerpt from "60 Minutes" (2012). Fascinating stuff! Great to see some doctors challenging the status quo too.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/treating-depression-is-there-a-placebo-effect/

 

 

P.S. The sidebar mini-interviews are great too! Worth watching if you're considering antidepressants or are already on them. Very illuminating, honest talk from doctors who are asking the tough questions about how drugs work.

Thank you for that.  No anti depressants for me, but the more info about it all the better. 

You're welcome! I think that if there's honest talk about these antidepressants, then that can hopefully bleed over into the benzo world. These docs are challenging the status quo. We need more like them! I also wanted to share these things because lots of people wonder if an antidepressant will help them deal with benzo withdrawal. People really need good info about meds before taking them.

Thank you, Lapis, for posting this.  It bums me out there are so many people on here who just want to run to another pill for relief.

 

We live in an instant culture and discomfort and pain are not tolerated, when the reality is that they are part of life.

I just think that benzo withdrawal is so hard that people are looking for relief. As someone who has suffered for such a long time, I can very much understand it. The info in this news item isn't widely known, and the popular literature/media might be giving people the wrong idea about how antidepressants work.

 

If I could dream out loud, it's to find an antidote for benzo withdrawal. I don't see that's it's possible, but it's nice to dream.

Lapis,

 

Thank you for posting that. Interesting that the researcher shows how the drug companies are able to get drugs approved by only submitting the studies that show a positive benefit, and disregarding the 100's of studies submitted to the FDA showing no benefit. I'm glad we have someone swimming against the tide out there, it takes courage though. There are a few.....

Yes, it's a bit like what Dr. Peter Gotzsche is doing. He's a Danish doctor/professor/researcher who has recently won an award for his book "Deadly Medicines and Organised Crime". This man's work is so important to challenging widely-held beliefs and in showing the truth when it comes to medications (studies, sales, overprescription, resultant harms).

Thank you, I am going to order that book from the library:) So glad to hear it won an award, that means it's getting read! I watched "American Addict" a couple days ago and an investigative reporter on there compared western medicine to a cartel.....

There are a number of videos online with Dr. Peter Gotzsche, if you want to watch something. He's most vocal about antidepressants and antipsychotics and their resultant harms. It's powerful viewing. He's highly respected by many, so let's hope that he continues to make waves. By the way, the award was a British Medical Assoiciation award -- 1st place!

Even better! Thank you, so good to know. I will check him out online, just saw a little on youtube, and will read the book for sure.

Cool! Happy reading to you! And do share what you learn. That's the beauty of this BB thing -- the sharing.

By the way, there's also Robert Whitaker, and American investigative reporter. His book is called "Anatomy of an Epidemic". He was on CBC Radio awhile ago and really stirred things up with his info about antidepressants.

Hello Lapis,

 

I guess it's a bit off topic but being Canadian I wonder if you're at all familiar with the work of Dr. Abram Hoffer?

 

He was great Cdn psychiatrist and a pioneer, along with Linus Pauling, in the field of orthomolecular medicine.

 

http://www.orthomolecular.org/history/hoffer/index.shtml

 

I thought it might be of some interest to you.

 

Take care.

 

Chinook

No, I haven't heard of him, Chinook, but I'll have a look.

 

I think the important point is that psychiatry isn't a hard science like other medical fields. You can't do a blood test or an x-ray and determine that a person is depressed or anxious or whatever. That leaves a lot of leeway for personal opinion, and as we can see, there are many, many opinions out there. The Diagnostic and Statistic Manual (DSM) keeps getting bigger each time, and it seems like there are more and more psychiatric diagnoses out there.

And the more people taking psych drugs that actually do a great deal of harm.  Cha CHING$$$ for big pharma-the largest lobbying group in the USofA...

You got it, my friend! It's wrong on all levels. This is a bioethical issue. I have to say, though, that there are different models of health care in different countries. It seems the US model encourages certain things.....

Good - and surprising - to see that on 60 Minutes.  Thanks for posting.

 

Here, regarding the DSM ...

 

"Psychiatrist and author, Allen J. Frances, believes that mental illnesses are being over-diagnosed. In his lecture, Diagnostic Inflation: Does Everyone Have a Mental Illness?, Dr. Frances outlines why he thinks the DSM-V will lead to millions of people being mislabeled with mental disorders. His lecture was part of Mental Health Matters, an initiative of TVO in association with the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health."

 

 

I will definitely have a look at that! I have great respect for The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH). I recently heard the founder of CAMH (Dr. Paul Garfinkel) on CBC Radio. He talked about the state of psychiatry now, including antidepressants (ADs), medication of young children and a number of other pertinent issues. Apparently, the success rate of ADs is about 35%! Unbelievably low. Sad, really.

 

Anyway, I was so heartened to hear Dr. Garfinkel speak -- a lovely, intelligent, sensitive man who understood that there's a lot of work to do in the field of psychiatry.

Hi everyone,

 

I just finished watching the lecture given by Allen J. Frances about the DSM. So glad to hear there are physicians like him out there. Well, if clinicians went by the DSM, 80% of the population is walking around with a mental illness..... Of course we know that is not true. They have complied a manual to give a medicalized label to all the human emotions and behaviors that are a part of being a normal, healthy human being: part of the human condition. Will report back after reading one of the books. Thank you all for the info. (also liked the orthomolecular link)

 

PS. According to the DSM, I "suffer" from "binge eating disorder"....strange, I didn't ever binge eat until I was given Seroquel (Dr. Frances suffers from it too:)

 

 

Hi,

I'm going to watch that program as well. Sounds interesting! It also sounds like what Dr. Peter Gotzsche and Robert Whitaker are saying about the DSM. The more voices raised like this, the better. I'm so glad to see it come from people in respected positions. Hopefully, they're considered credible spokespeople, and I hope there will be more and more like them.

Yes, me too Lapis. Someone is giving voice to this, well, "epidemic." I watched some of Dr. Gotzsche as well. Hopefully the library will have his book, or Whitaker's book.

 

I wish I would have listened to my mother's wisdom, who grew up on a farm, and raised us using all the herbal remedies she grew up with.  She believed wholeheartedly that most ailments could be treated without medicines. She was a child during WWII and refugee in war torn Europe, yet is one of the most resilient people I know. I'm glad I've had a chance to tell her that she was right all along...

Oh, I just got goosebumps reading your story about your mom. Yay for Mom! Great story, and yes, there's such wisdom there. The body is an amazing thing, and once we take these meds, we alter the neurotransmitters. I have such regret now.

This Allen Frances guy was on the Chair of DSM-IV.  He's now retired and I must admit I'm raising an eyebrow as to why he's only speaking up now!?  He couldn't speak up while he was taking a pay check and actively creating all those beyond absurd diagnoses ... but now that he's able to freely publish and sell a book, and do speaking engagements ... now he suddenly has a conscience?!  

 

Sad state of affairs but, hey, better this way than nothing at all, I guess.

 

Hindsight?