Posted by linkadge on November 13, 2003, at 16:01:44
In reply to dark thoughts, posted by estorianna on November 13, 2003, at 15:35:56
Unfortunately, and horribly, the incidence of suicide does significantly increase for a short while, when beginning of taking antidepressants.
This is true for many reasons.
1) antidepressants can initially have a disinhibiting effect. Something like alchohol.
You see when you're depressed the left prefrontal cortex is underactivated, this is the executive area of the brain, responsible for rational thought. This part of the brain does not fully click on, till many weeks of antidepressant therapy (and in some it doesn't). Anyhow when you first start taking the drug, you have an immediate rise in the neurotransmission in the limbic system. At the begginning, this can really intensify emotion. Sometimes if you have bad thoughts to start, some antidepressants can make them even more real. If a person responds to the drug however, then things do normalize.2) Side effects are immediate, while effect is not. A person will feel the nausia, the sweating, the nervousness, the insomnia immediately, while the theraputic effect takes much much longer.
3) The drugs *can* make you terribly apathetic at first. They can in many cases make suicide 'not a big deal'. Infact this is how they work in some respects. The disinhibiting effect can make the patient less afraid of facing there fears. But in the very depressed patient, it can make them feel more easy with the though about dying.
Personally, I found effexor the wrong drug for me. It did make me more suicidal then when I began it. I only took it for a week then I changed to celexa. Celexa did not give me the same thoughts, but it certainly did have side effects of its own. Fortunately I had a family in the house, who could recognize the symptoms I displayed.
This emphasizes one of the major drawbacks in the system. Doctors can prescribe a pill without initiating any supervision. As well, *nobody* truely knows the extent of the suffering better than the patient. And the main thing I think people don't understand is that many times (especially with Men) we tend to lie about our mood. We can easily say we're fine to a boss, and then go home and commit suicide, its in our genes to be self sufficiant, and many times that self suffiancy can keep us from getting the help we really need.The drugs do work, that doesn't mean that some don't still slip through the cracks. I have a feeling that effexor takes much longer to normalize the brain than do other drugs.
I wish you the best of luck, and commend you for your efforts to understand.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:279442
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20031111/msgs/279451.html