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POPS5-HTTLPR and Depression So the short allele assumes that we avoid risk and have great support systems. What if we don't? "Only" 40 percent of the S variant in countries of European origin is still close to half. Most of my family is short on serotonin, and we're Scandinavian/English. There's currently no way to make more. SSRIs only make more of what you already have available for neurotransmitting. Help, medical science!
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POPSBarbara Ehrenreich: Are women getting sadder? Not necessarily
More: So why all the sudden fuss…? Mostly because it's become a launching pad for a new book by the prolific management consultant Marcus Buckingham…a cookie-cutter classic of the positive-thinking self-help genre…all bookended with an ad for the many related products you can buy, including a "video introduction" from Buckingham, a "participant's guide" containing "exercises" to get you to happiness, and a handsome set of "Eight Strong Life Plans" to pick from… It's an old story: If you want to sell something, first find the terrible affliction that it cures. In the 1980s, as silicone implants were taking off, the doctors discovered "micromastia" -- the "disease" of small-breastedness. More recently, as big pharma searches furiously for a female Viagra, an amazingly high 43% of women have been found to suffer from "Female Sexual Dysfunction," or FSD. Now, it's unhappiness, and the range of potential "cures" is dazzling: Seagrams, Godiva, and Harlequin, take note.
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POPSHerbal Supplements For Depression Please read the full article on side effects and interaction with other drugs. Herbs should be treated like drugs and mentioned at DR. appointments-etc. and before starting any new medications.
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POPSDrugs and Pharmacology, Tenth Edition Looking for the latest news about drugs and pharmacology? Here is all the information on novel biological approaches to battling memory impairment to the bloody side effects of taking SSRIs and NSAIDs together.
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POPSDepression Sources Mispresented by Media We've been taught this in every single Psychology course I've taken (nearly a dozen) and there's always some idiot who says, "But the Zoloft squiggle says it's a chemical imbalance!" Seriously, people. If Corona told you their beer would fix a chemical imbalance, would you believe them? One company is the same as the other. The job of advertisements is to SELL. I'm so glad to see all of this new unbiased data on anti-depressant effectiveness. Why on earth does the FDA let companies do their own testing? Ridiculous. </rant>
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POPSAnti-Depressants a Scam for the Depressed New research shows they are useless and that outdoor exercise is better therapy. Hard outdoor work does wonders to vent frustration and relieves anxiety and stress while enabling yourself to think and resolve issues while you work. The old adage of "going to chop some wood" still has merits.
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POPSProzac - hidden killer? The article suggests that reporters covering violent events check to see what medication the killer was taking.
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POPSScared Away from Meds, Risking Suicide There is such a thing as being too depressed to commit suicide. Antidepressants like SSRIs were linked to increased suicide in young people, but my observation is that they became just energetic enough following treatment to attempt suicide. The drugs were not to blame so much as the process of climbing back out of dangerous levels of depression.
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POPSAn argument for better restraint in prescribing brain meds I have lived with depression since I was about 6 years old. I found myself wary about depression medications as they became popular, thinking, these things are altering you BRAIN, for God's sake, these are chemicals with effects on the tissues that have you apprehending who you ARE, interpreting sensory data, making decisions! It is a delicate precision instrument that should not be fucked with chemically when one can help its problems organically (say, with cognitive therapy, persistence in behaviors counter to those the illness compels, etc.) Brain drugs most definitely have their place, but they have seeped out of that place in the last 25 years or so. For the sake of general public safety and health, I hope that trend reverses itself. If more folks like this Doc speak up, there is hope for that.
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