Posted by cpallen79 on August 29, 2004, at 18:29:50
In reply to Re: permanent damages by antidepressants ?, posted by linkadge on August 29, 2004, at 18:01:25
I have to say I agree with this. Could SSRIs do "damage"?? maybe, but then again, whats the trade off? Furthermore, chemistry changes as you age. Problems that may not have surfaced when you were young may bubble up as many of us have learned. I personally find some of Dr. Breggin's information suspect. I have also found that avoiding medication when I needed it most because of believing Dr. Breggin and his follower's dribble has made recovery from my problems a much more painful and lengthier process because my most recent depression was very traumatic, and I am STILL feeling the shockwaves from it. Avoiding medication was one of the worst things one can do in a situation like this... My mom went through a serious depression years ago, avoided medication and spent 3 YEARS in hell. I say, ignore Dr. Breggin and his agenda and get medication when you need it.
> The only thing that I can offer for consoladation is the following.
>
> Certain people are genetically missing MAO-A genes. Which means that they are virtally devoid of MAO-A. They have elevated serotonin and norepinephrine. Do these people's brains naturally dammage themselves ???
>
> I think that serotonin levels vary from person to person. If you take excessive doses of AD's for long periods of time I can see there being a problem, but I think that the correct dose is probably not harmful.
>
> Anyother thing, If I recall correctly, is that the only studies that he sites, are the ones that used fluoxetine in doses of 50-100 times the maxiumum human dose.
>
> Another thing, is that depression most of the time, is neurodegenerative by nature. The majority of the well planned studies show that
> *untreated* depression leads to significant hippocampal atrophy, and that antidepressant treatment ameliorates that shrinkage. It could be quite possible, that you would be a lot *worse* if you didn't medicate.
>
> My mother describes my great-grandmother who went through 4- clinical depressions in her lifetime, *pre antidepressants*. She said this: "she recovered from every depressionm but a little peice of her was not the same"
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> Linkadge
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>
poster:cpallen79
thread:383758
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040825/msgs/383803.html