Warning over patients left on antidepressants for decades

[Sly Saint]

Thousands of older patients are being left on antidepressants for decades that puts them at risk of memory problems and life-threatening falls, experts warn.

More than one in five over-65s are now taking antidepressants – more than double the number of 20 years ago.

Doctors warn that as patients age, complications from taking the pills become more likely. Research also suggests older patients could be at greater risk of withdrawal symptoms.

Despite this, some experts accuse GPs of allowing patients to remain on antidepressants indefinitely and failing to offer elderly people safer forms of depression treatment, such as talking therapy.

More than eight million people in the UK take antidepressants. There are no NHS guidelines setting out the length of time patients should stay on them, though they are told to take them for at least six months after symptoms subside.

‘Many of these older patients are never seen by a mental health specialist, they’re just bunged on antidepressants by their GP,’ says one psychiatrist. ‘And then, because the GPs don’t check up on them, these patients remain on the tablets indefinitely.’

However, the GPs disagree. ‘The elderly often get depressed because they’re lonely and socially isolated,’ says Professor Dame Clare Gerada, former president of the Royal College of General Practitioners. ‘Treatment which involves some social engagement, like group counselling or therapy, would be great for these patients.

‘But NHS waiting lists for these treatments are years long, largely because so many young people have mental health issues now.

‘So there’s not really any other option other than antidepressants. However, we need to get better at working out which patients can eventually come off them.’

Warning over patients left on antidepressants for decades

(last part is quite ironic given who Clare Geradas husband is!)

 

[MeSci]

In case anyone doesn't know, her husband is notorious ME-dismissing Professor Sir Simon Wesseley.

 

[rvallee]

Despite this, some experts accuse GPs of allowing patients to remain on antidepressants indefinitely and failing to offer elderly people safer forms of depression treatment, such as talking therapy.

Oh, yeah, that ought do it. Easy peasy. When all you have are bad options because the systems are utterly dysfunctional and incapable of meeting basic demand and would rather keep doing the same copy-paste junk indefinitely, the answer is so simple: just do more psychobehavioral pseudoscience. It solves nothing at all, but where you had one problem now you have two!

A delusional model built on con artistry has long been unsustainable, but all they can think of is more of the same junk, which no doubt would be in addition to the other past junk that was built largely through con artistry.

Just smash the "MORE BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL" button a few times, that'll fix nothing, but apparently it feels comforting, or whatever.

Both my parents take ADs. So do two of my aunts. I think my sister, too. I think there are at least a couple in my family, too. None of them is for 'depression'. Not a single one of them. Because ADs have been used as a 'universal' pill for decades, and these fools' solution is to use the other universal fake thing. This is what a corrupt "Imagine a world"-based system leads to: chaos, failure, and apparently it makes some people feel good about the whole thing. And they will change nothing at all, as they are incapable of learning anything because they can't ever even admit to a single mistake.

 

[Sean]

‘Treatment which involves some social engagement, like group counselling or therapy, would be great for these patients.

It is telling that when suggesting social engagement all she can come up with is formalised 'therapy'. Not construct a society that helps the elderly (and everybody else) find an appropriate level of non-clinical social engagement, like hobbies, social groups, better public spaces, better public transport to get around, enough resources to meaningfully engage in all of that. Etc.

As usual Gerada is engaged in nothing more than drumming up business for her own tribe and protecting her own ego from having to face up to appalling damage she and they have inflicted on this world.

 

[rvallee]

‘Treatment which involves some social engagement, like group counselling or therapy, would be great for these patients.

It is telling that when suggesting social engagement all she can come up with is formalised 'therapy'. Not construct a society that helps the elderly (and everybody else) find an appropriate level of non-clinical social engagement, like hobbies, social groups, better public spaces, better public transport to get around, enough resources to meaningfully engage in all of that. Etc.

As usual Gerada is engaged in nothing more than drumming up business for her own tribe and protecting her own ego from having to face up to appalling damage she and they have inflicted on this world.

Yup. For people who claim to work holistically, they literally cannot think about anything that doesn't happen outside of a clinic run by clinicians or therapists. This biopsychosocial approach is even less holistic than even old time medicine.

Because all those things are not health care. They would not be managed by health care professionals. They are socioeconomic programs and policies that require a global outlook at what health is and what is the function of a society in the well-being of their citizens.

But they have a hammer, and that hammer wants to get paid.

 

[bobbler]

‘Treatment which involves some social engagement, like group counselling or therapy, would be great for these patients.

It is telling that when suggesting social engagement all she can come up with is formalised 'therapy'. Not construct a society that helps the elderly (and everybody else) find an appropriate level of non-clinical social engagement, like hobbies, social groups, better public spaces, better public transport to get around, enough resources to meaningfully engage in all of that. Etc.

As usual Gerada is engaged in nothing more than drumming up business for her own tribe and protecting her own ego from having to face up to appalling damage she and they have inflicted on this world.

This

 

[MrMagoo]

Well, obviously people shouldn’t be on antidepressants. I’m not saying depression isn’t real, but you do find that it’s people who think they’re depressed that take them. If I feel a bit down I go out for a walk. I don’t wallow in it and perpetuate it. Also, young people are inventing mental health problems to sound “cool” on the internet.

So you see, Dr Gerada and husband are in full agreement: people need to stop having shit life syndrome and the NHS should stop giving out expensive pills and treatment. Obviously /s