Re:SSRI Stories: Antidepressant nightmares
by Bartweiss on Monday May 02, 2016 @04:44PM
(#11615430)
This article is alarmingly sloppy, even without getting into questions of core accuracy.
Statements like "it is important to withdraw slowly from these drugs, sometimes over a period of a year or more" paints with an unconscionably broad brush. The drawdown period for antidepressants is completely dependent on the actual drug, and some (like bupropion) have no withdrawal symptoms at all.
Similarly, the claim that antidepressants cause people to lose their fear of death treats an open question like settled science. The antidepressant-suicide correlation is complicated and ill-understood - failing to even mention that there are other theories (e.g. antidepressants treat low energy faster than low mood, which enables but doesn't cause suicides) is downright dishonest.
It's worth learning about SSRIs if they're relevant to your life, but this piece skips over open questions and conflates nearly-unrelated drugs to the point where it's essentially useless.
Statements like "it is important to withdraw slowly from these drugs, sometimes over a period of a year or more" paints with an unconscionably broad brush. The drawdown period for antidepressants is completely dependent on the actual drug, and some (like bupropion) have no withdrawal symptoms at all.
Similarly, the claim that antidepressants cause people to lose their fear of death treats an open question like settled science. The antidepressant-suicide correlation is complicated and ill-understood - failing to even mention that there are other theories (e.g. antidepressants treat low energy faster than low mood, which enables but doesn't cause suicides) is downright dishonest.
It's worth learning about SSRIs if they're relevant to your life, but this piece skips over open questions and conflates nearly-unrelated drugs to the point where it's essentially useless.