Findings From a Survey of 530 British Antidepressant Users

Antidepressant users report urgent need for services to assist with withdrawal.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/.../202309/findings-from-a-survey-of-530-british

• In a survey of British antidepressant users, 70% experienced "severe withdrawal effects" when trying to stop.
• 70% reported that the withdrawal process "reduced social activities"; 54% reported "impaired work function."
• Only 8% reported that "services have been helpful and adequate to help me stop antidepressants."
• Only 3% had been told about the risk of withdrawal effects when first prescribed the drugs.

The last one is the most damning. 70% experience severe effects. Severe. And yet only 3% are ever told anything about it. I never was told anything, and must have been prescribed by at least 10 different MDs. Those adverse reactions are covered up, there is no informed consent here. It's even well-established that SSRIs only benefit a small % of people, are handed out to that many people with the reasoning that it's worth it, all thanks to covered up severe withdrawal effects.

This is almost as criminal as what the tobacco industry did. They are hiding the truth about a product used by hundreds of millions. Except "they" here is not a for-profit industry, it's the medical profession. Massive reforms are needed to move from the current system of secrecy and cover-ups. If the truth is favorable, than honest rigorous research will validate it. If not, the truth matters more.

This has been known for decades, reported widely. And yet those are almost never found in the larger studies, questions unasked because the answers don't look good. Just as the harm of GET has been covered up, this basic truth has been suppressed. This is a systemic pattern in medicine, small benefits are overhyped while harms are suppressed, even when reported by a majority.

This is completely incompatible with the mission of medicine. Things need to radically change in how we handle health and who gets to make decisions about it, because we simply cannot trust the way things are being done right now.

 

The pharmaceutical industry backs up the medical industry, information-wise re drugs. If the pharma industry says it's good, or fine or some such positive message, then it appears OK to provide prescriptions for drugs that might have received bad press at some point.

I don't know what it's going to take to turn the antidepressant ship around. I don't know at what level of proof, and magnitude of protest this will change. There already seems to be proof that these drugs don't work.

At a micro level, I've known a couple people who were taking 2 types of antidepressants at the same time, and were still miserable.

 

I was never told anything about it, although that may have more to do with the fact that I never really had any actual continuous care, but I'm fortunate to be in those who have fewer side effects. Mostly the damn brain zaps, but I stopped quickly several times in the past. For sure I am never getting any of this crap again. I had the zaps when beginning to take them as well, so it's not just withdrawal.

I was actually expecting the antidepressant market to be far larger than this, but I've seen somewhere in the $20B per year. It's still a potent force, but I think that this pales in comparison with medicine's inability to take responsibility. This isn't just an issue of money, it's about credibility first. About egos.

That's why the issues with fraudulent research aren't limited to drug companies, academics and clinicians do just as poorly in terms of hyping meager benefits while covering up the bad stuff. Just as we see with everything psychosomatic, which despite pretense otherwise, is still the dominant view among MDs. Or something like it, it's all so generic and non-specific, ironically.