Daily Mail Online Bullshit

Headline:

Millions More of Us Should Be Taking Antidepressants.

Makes me sick.

Headline:

 

Millions More of Us Should Be Taking Antidepressants.

 

Makes me sick.

It's not limited to the Daily Mail. Every major newspaper is carrying much the same headline. The Guardian's headline is "The Drugs Do Work".

It's all based on a piece of meta-research that was published in The Lancet yesterday. The widespread inclusion of the research in every newspaper since precisely midnight last night suggests a highly coordinated media campaign.

What is deeply, profoundly shocking is that not one article I have read actually thoroughly examines the research - they all accept the findings as fact, and take it's headline claims at face value.

I've just read the research paper, and in the middle of the methodology section it is revealed that the research only looks at outcomes eight weeks after someone starts taking an antidepressant. I'm sure lots of people do feel better after being on them eight weeks. But the research ignores how people feel after that, the long term effects, and the horrifying problems that many people have when they decide to discontinue the drugs. People encountering problems with antidepressants the longer they take them such as on for example libido and emotional blunting, and the sometimes horrifying withdrawal syndrome are all established in the medical literature, yet all of this is ignored.

That such a glaringly obvious shortcoming in the research is ignored by pretty much everyone just beggars belief.

Ironically, how very, very depressing.

So the medical community comes up with a study saying that what they are doing works and they should be doing more of it.

Shocking!

Yes, Joe, it is deeply depressing. It is also worrying. I dread to think what will happen in a decade or two when 15-20-30% of people are on some sort of psychotropic drug. My daughter is twelve and I imagine that one in every five of her friends will be on something when she is in her twenties. Disgusting.

And then comes the inevitable...

Ah the Daily Wail. There she blows again!

It is ironic the Guardian use that headline when their sister paper the Observer recently ran this : https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/is-everything-you-think-you-know-about-depression-wrong-johann-hari-lost-connections

I've been on Amitriptyline, Mirtazipine, Citalopram and Sertraline over the years. At times some of them as helped but what would have helped more would be someone working out what causes ME/CFS and getting my life back.

I am beyond seething as Here in the UK the usually respected TIMES newspaper has joined the ranks of the other fodder mongers with the headline:

'More people should get pills to beat depression- Millions of sufferers would benefit, doctors told'.

                            Talk about giving them  a free LICENCE TO KILL !

                              UNADULTERATED  GREED AND UTTER MADNESS

It may have been disseminated by The Science Media Centre. As someone with ME I am only to aware of how that spins stuff to all the papers and allows lazy journalists to simply rewrite press releases.

You could get involved with this lot : http://cepuk.org

Are you going to write a letter to The Times?

Good!

I have started following CEPUK on Twitter.

Racksha - a well worded letter from the patient perspective might provide a different viewpoint they might find worth publishing.

Since ADs are not my problem I can't write that one. When the benzo withdrawal story finally breaks (and it will) I will write.

Finally, some sanity: Furthermore, the trials only covered short-term antidepressant usage (8 weeks) in people with severe or moderate depression.  Around 50% of patients have been taking antidepressants for more than two years, and the study tells us nothing about their effects over the long term. In fact, there is no evidence that long-term use has any benefits, and in real-world trials (STAR-D study) outcomes are very poor.

Lastly, and perhaps most importantly, the study does not bury the controversy around the damage caused by unnecessary long-term prescribing, the costs lost to the NHS, and the associated harms and disabling withdrawal effects these drugs cause in many patients, which often last for many years.

Thank you, benzohno!!

I saw Johann Hari on Fox News and that was frustrating cause I usually disregard stuff on Fox news but this guy had some good points.

I don't really watch any of the other commentary shows on Fox but I watch Tucker Carlson every chance I get and he talks about the dangers of psych drugs all the time. Matter of fact I posted a thread about it on the news board recently if you want to check it out.

I've just read the research paper, and in the middle of the methodology section it is revealed that the research only looks at outcomes eight weeks after someone starts taking an antidepressant. I'm sure lots of people do feel better after being on them eight weeks. But the research ignores how people feel after that, the long term effects, and the horrifying problems that many people have when they decide to discontinue the drugs. People encountering problems with antidepressants the longer they take them such as on for example libido and emotional blunting, and the sometimes horrifying withdrawal syndrome are all established in the medical literature, yet all of this is ignored.

If you only use a snapshot in time you can play a shell game that allows you to paint these drugs in a much better light. If someone asked me if AD's were helping me at 8 weeks off I probably would have told them that they were effective.

The book Anatomy of an Epidemic exposes these drugs for what they are by examining the effects of taking them long term, and that gives us an entirely different view.

In the UK even the idiots think Fox News is insane... At least I like to think they do....Ah I love my leftist liberal echo chamber!

Rude comment, and politics aren't allowed to be discussed here.

When the benzo withdrawal story finally breaks (and it will) I will write.

Me, too. My personal experience is such than benzos have been 1,000 times more detrimental to me than antidepressants. Although, I am very leery of these articles encouraging people to just hop on antidepressants. These should be very carefully weighed, individual, fully informed decisions.

In the UK even the idiots think Fox News is insane... At least I like to think they do....Ah I love my leftist liberal echo chamber!

 

Rude comment, and politics aren't allowed to be discussed here.

Sorry!

I did take the piss out of my own lefty liberalism as well though so hopefully that is at least balanced.

Response from Dr. Peter Goezche on CEPUK: 

"Cipriani review does not add anything "

http://cepuk.org/2018/02/22/peter-gotzsche-cipriani-review-not-add-anything/#comments

Ah the Daily Wail. There she blows again!

 

It is ironic the Guardian use that headline when their sister paper the Observer recently ran this : https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/is-everything-you-think-you-know-about-depression-wrong-johann-hari-lost-connections

 

I've been on Amitriptyline, Mirtazipine, Citalopram and Sertraline over the years. At times some of them as helped but what would have helped more would be someone working out what causes ME/CFS and getting my life back.

Our stories are very similar.

I was given Amitriptyline to help with ME/CFS and it ruined my life.

I had no depression, no anxiety just bad fatigue and leg pains and they put me on bloody amitriptyline. I was naive, i din't even know it was an anti depressant.

When i stopped the amitriptyline as i hadn't really felt any benefit and the drugged sleep wasn't restorative, my whole world collapsed.

Daily panic attacks, and a whole host of other symptoms, which is when they put me on the benzos, and i don't even need to tell you what happened after that.

I know i'd be in a much better place if i never went near any of those drugs, will never trust those bastards in white coats ever again

In the UK even the idiots think Fox News is insane... At least I like to think they do....Ah I love my leftist liberal echo chamber!

 

Rude comment, and politics aren't allowed to be discussed here.

Not exactly. We have a general policy discouraging such topics, but not a total ban on comments. And, to be frank, the comment Ajusta is more of statement of fact: Fox News is/was held in very low regard by the vast majority of the British public.

http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-41887613

So, no 'echo chamber'. That would refer to people who cut themselves off from broader opinion - not those expressing views which are held commonly, across political (or other) lines (within the UK).

In the UK even the idiots think Fox News is insane... At least I like to think they do....Ah I love my leftist liberal echo chamber!

 

Rude comment, and politics aren't allowed to be discussed here.

 

 

Sorry!

 

I did take the piss out of my own lefty liberalism as well though so hopefully that is at least balanced.

Your comment was fine. Fox News is not a 'protected group'.

Ah the Daily Wail. There she blows again!

 

It is ironic the Guardian use that headline when their sister paper the Observer recently ran this : https://www.theguardian.com/society/2018/jan/07/is-everything-you-think-you-know-about-depression-wrong-johann-hari-lost-connections

 

I've been on Amitriptyline, Mirtazipine, Citalopram and Sertraline over the years. At times some of them as helped but what would have helped more would be someone working out what causes ME/CFS and getting my life back.

 

Our stories are very similar.

 

I was given Amitriptyline to help with ME/CFS and it ruined my life.

 

I had no depression, no anxiety just bad fatigue and leg pains and they put me on bloody amitriptyline. I was naive, i din't even know it was an anti depressant.

 

When i stopped the amitriptyline as i hadn't really felt any benefit and the drugged sleep wasn't restorative, my whole world collapsed.

 

Daily panic attacks, and a whole host of other symptoms, which is when they put me on the benzos, and i don't even need to tell you what happened after that.

 

I know i'd be in a much better place if i never went near any of those drugs, will never trust those bastards in white coats ever again

Indeed! I have a complete phobia combined with hatred for most doctors. I have been treated apallingly by them for over 20 years.

I have sentvyou a PM.