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Thread: Results of World’s Largest Antidepressant Study Look Dismal

  1. #1

    Exclamation Results of World’s Largest Antidepressant Study Look Dismal

    Results of World’s Largest Antidepressant Study Look Dismal

    Joanna Moncrieff, MD


    A few months ago I was surprised to receive a request from an obscure journal of consciousness studies to review a paper. I was surprised because, although it was not immediately obvious from the title, the paper contained the first reports of the primary outcome measure of the massive and notorious STAR-D study, 14 years after the study was finished.

    What in the world were the main findings of the world’s largest ever antidepressant trial doing being presented now in a little known journal? The answer may lie in the fact that they show how miserably poor the results of standard medical treatment for depression really are!

    With 4041 participants, the STAR-D study is by far the largest and most expensive study of antidepressants ever conducted. The intention of the study was to see how antidepressant treatment combined with high quality care performed in usual clinical conditions. It did not involve a placebo or any sort of control. All treatment was provided free for the duration of the study to maximise engagement.

    The paper I was asked to review, which is now published in Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research and Practice, is written by a group led by Irving Kirsch and based on the original data obtained through the NIMH.1 Shannon Peters describes its findings in detail.

    Kirsch’s group point out that the paper that describes the design of the STAR-D trial clearly identifies the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression (HRSD) as the primary outcome.2 This makes sense since the HRSD is one of the most commonly used rating scales in trials of treatment of depression, especially trials of antidepressants. As the STAR-D authors note in the study protocol “the HAM-D17 (HRSD), the primary outcome, allows comparison to the vast RCT literature” (cited in (1)).

    Yet the outcome that was presented in almost all the study papers was the QIDS (Quick Inventory of Depressive Symptomatology), a measure made up especially for the STAR-D study, with no prior or subsequent credentials. In fact, as the authors of the present paper point out, this measure was devised not as an outcome measure, but as a way of tracking symptoms during the course of treatment, and the original study protocol explicitly stated that it should not be used as an outcome measure.

    The analysis found that over the first 12 weeks of antidepressant treatment, people in the STAR-D study showed an improvement of 6.6 points on the HRSD. This level of change fails to reach the threshold required to indicate a ‘minimal improvement’ according to the Clinical Global Impressions scale (a global rating scale), which would be 7 points. It is also below average placebo improvement in placebo-controlled trials of antidepressants. A meta-analysis of paroxetine trials, for example, found that the average improvement in placebo-treated patients was 8.4 points on the HRSD.3 A meta-analysis of trials of fluoxetine and venlafaxine reported average levels of improvement on placebo of 9.3 points over just 6 weeks.4 Another meta-analysis found placebo improvement levels of between 6.7 and 8.9 points in placebo groups across trials involving a variety of antidepressants.5

    The proportion of people classified as showing a ‘response’ (using the arbitrary but commonly used definition of a 50% decrease in HRSD score as per the original protocol) was 32.5% in the STAR-D study, and the proportion classified as showing remission (HRSD score ≤7) was 25.6%. The meta-analysis of placebo-controlled trials of fluoxetine and venlafaxine reported response rates of 39.9% among people allocated to placebo, and remission rates of 29.3%. In another antidepressant meta-analysis, the response rate on placebo was just above the STAR-D level at 34.7%,6 and in another it was just below at 30.0%.7

    The authors of the current paper point out, however, that improvement is lower in placebo-controlled trials, even in the people treated with antidepressants, than it is in trials that compare one antidepressant against another without placebo controls. This is presumably because people in placebo controlled trials are told that there is a chance that they will receive a dummy tablet, while in comparative trials, they know they will receive some sort of active drug. Therefore they compare the results of the STAR-D study to the results of a large meta-analysis of comparative trials (cited in (6)). These find average HRSD improvement levels of 14.8 points; response rates of 65.2% and remission rates of 48.4%. Therefore the STAR-D results are approximately half the magnitude of those obtained in standard comparative drug trials.

    The authors propose that the reasons for this poor performance of antidepressants in the STAR-D study is due to the selection of more complex patients. Industry studies in particular exclude people with ‘co-morbid’ conditions and symptoms or history of self-harm, and often recruit people via advertisements. It may also be due to the intensive attention and assessment procedures people undergo in industry-funded studies, and the added placebo effect of being in a trial of a ‘new’ treatment, which most trials involve.

    Whatever the reason, STAR-D suggests that in real life situations (which the STAR-D mimicked better than other trials) people taking antidepressants do not do very well. In fact, given that for the vast majority of people depression is a naturally remitting condition, it is difficult to believe that people treated with antidepressants do any better than people who are offered no treatment at all.

    It seems this may be the reason why the results of the main outcome of the STAR-D study have remained buried for so long. Instead, a measure was selected that showed results in a slightly better light. Incidentally, even then results were pretty poor, especially over the long-term, as Piggott et al have showed in a previous analysis.8

    Whether this was deliberate on the part of the original STAR-D authors or not, it was certainly not made explicit. There should surely be uproar about the withholding of information about one of the world’s most widely prescribed class of drugs. We must be grateful to Kirsch and his co-authors for finally putting this data in the public domain.


    Kirsch I, Huedo-Medina TB, Pigott HE, Johnson BT. Do outcomes of clinical trials resemble those “real world” patients? A reanalysis of the STAR-D antidepressant dataset. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research and Practice 2018;Sept 2018. ↩
    Rush AJ, Fava M, Wisniewski SR, Lavori PW, Trivedi MH, Sackeim HA, et al. Sequenced treatment alternatives to relieve depression (STAR*D): rationale and design. Controlled Clinical Trials 2004;25:119-42. ↩
    Sugarman MA, Loree AM, Baltes BB, Grekin ER, Kirsch I. The efficacy of paroxetine and placebo in treating anxiety and depression: a meta-analysis of change on the Hamilton Rating Scales. PLoS One 2014;9(8):e106337. ↩
    Gibbons RD, Hur K, Brown CH, Davis JM, Mann JJ. Benefits from antidepressants: synthesis of 6-week patient-level outcomes from double-blind placebo-controlled randomized trials of fluoxetine and venlafaxine. Arch Gen Psychiatry 2012 Jun;69(6):572-9. ↩
    Kirsch I, Moore TJ, Scoboria A, Nicholls SS. The emperor’s new drugs: an analysis of antidepressant medication data submitted to the US Food and Drug Administration. Prevention and Treatment 2002;5. ↩
    Rutherford BR, Sneed JR, Roose SP. Does study design influence outcome?. The effects of placebo control and treatment duration in antidepressant trials. Psychother Psychosom 2009;78:172-81. ↩
    Walsh BT, Seidman SN, Sysko R, Gould M. Placebo response in studies of major depression: variable, substantial, and growing. JAMA 2002 Apr 10;287(14):1840-7. ↩
    Pigott HE, Leventhal AM, Alter GS, Boren JJ. Efficacy and effectiveness of antidepressants: current status of research. Psychother Psychosom 2010;79(5):267-79. ↩
    https://www.madinamerica.com/2018/10...y-look-dismal/
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner



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  3. #2
    Results of World’s Largest Antidepressant Study Look Dismal Depressing

    Fixed it.
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  4. #3
    A good read:

    Psychiatric Drugs: Cure or Quackery?
    http://www.wayneramsay.com/drugs.htm
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  5. #4
    Antidepressants are used to get people high and disable their natural Mental Defense Mechanisms. Kind of like brainwashing someone, where just one of several techniques applied is Sleep Deprivation. I think what has happened is that many peoples Defenses have been overwhelmed and coerced to the point where those people feel that the faults of society are their own. Our society today accepts no responsibility for the consequences of its actions. You better learn to manage your money. No no, youre broke because you just cant manage your own money. What really happened is money itself has been weaponized against the individual. And money is only one of a thousand faults of society that constantly blame the individual, not society.

    Did you fail school, or did school fail you?

    There are plenty of times to understand why you got a bad grade. Didnt care so you didnt try. Thats fine. There are plenty of valid reasons why a person might not bother doing homework. Subject isnt interesting or useful, or perhaps they are preoccupied with 3 jobs just to put food on the table. Well, food comes first. Then the Bad Grade is issued. The Bad Grade is just negative reinforcement for ignoring demands to place the values and commands of authority before your own needs and desires. You NEVER grade the teacher or the institution, which makes it a one way street of accepting every opinion of society as your own fault. This is very similar to the stuff that Zippy tends to write about Money. You should just accept society for what it is instead of understanding both society and our money system have some serious faults which not only destroys the individual, but shifts all blame from the system to the victims. The psychological tactic is more like Group Psychology Stockholm Syndrome.

    The thing I cant stand about the drugs they issue is it is yet another level of bull$#@! on top of a mountain of bull$#@!. There is a major Symbolic issue with the drugs. When a person swallows the pill, they are swallowing responsibility for how society has failed them as being their own fault. The only real solution for many people with Depression is to recognize they ARE victims, and REJECT the Symbol that the pills represent, which is Responsibility.

    Sociopaths twist everything so their victims learn to blame themselves. Psychology is another level of bullshittery. Schools teach Psychologists that Conspiracy Theorists are WRONG to think the way they do. Being a Conspiracy Theorist is nothing more than the minds attempt to defend itself for problems which are NOT the fault of the individual, which IS healthy. It is NOT your fault that they are thieves. It is NOT your fault that the Nazi shot your family. It is NOT your fault for failing school. You did NOT fail school, and were NOT irresponsible with money. The idea is very very deep in the minds of Psychologists and Psychiatrists that rejecting responsibility for the faults of a manipulated society that their entire Mental World View defends that idea at every single turn. Victims of Sociopaths internalize guilt and blame for the problems caused by the Sociopaths because they are manipulated to do so. Shrinks are unable to recognize they have been just as manipulated. They are also taught to reinforce the Passing Judgement of Authority of an individual back to the individual because the Shrinks themselves refuse to see the world for what it truly is, $#@!ed up, and their own involvement only makes things WORSE, not better.

    John Taylor Gatto read a paper about the Purpose of Education, written by a Harvard Psychologist, who was in on the entire game. Education is no longer a source of Learning or Self Betterment, but Indoctrination. The $#@! we see like "use Emotional Words" to describe how you feel about your parents is a perfect example. Lets take a quick peek at the 5 Purposes of Education:

    • FIXED Habits of Reaction to Authority
    • Catalog
    • Sort
    • Hygienic
    • Replenishment


    Lets simplify the list a bit. The Sort function is just to organize children into groups where their only value is their age and gender. Catalog function is used to determine the childs likely destination in life. Replenishment function serves the Status Quo by identifying which students have the potential to grow up to become new members of the Status Quo. Hygienic function is quite critical as it excludes those who reject the lessons of Public Education from having any meaningful influence on others. Thus, they are excluded from the Workforce, Media, and Gene Pool when they become adults.

    By far the most important purpose of Public Education is the Pavlovian training of creating FIXED Habits of Reaction to Authority. Pavlovian meaning Associative Behaviors with Involuntary Reactions. Involuntary. Involuntary meaning a person has NO choice but to respond only in the ways in which they are taught to react. This is where the training for accepting the problems of society come from, thus, Depression itself. We are taught to blame ourselves, judge others who are not figures of authority and NEVER challenge authority. We do NOT issue grades to the Teachers. We are NOT ALLOWED to EVER write up our bosses or supervisors in jobs, even if they are total $#@!ing selfish morons. Authority is a ONE WAY STREET, and the source of how all bull$#@! rolls down hill, NEVER up. When we take on roles of Authority ourselves, we practice the same things we have been taught. We are taught to issue judgement of others, and reject all challenges to our own authority.

    That is the thinking that needs to STOP. True Leaders may get a bigger portion of the pie because they truly serve a purpose to their community. They will be the first to throw themselves on the sword and die to defend those that they lead. Thus Leadership is NOT about Authority, but Responsibility for the actions and well being of others. Our Mental Image of what Leadership has been programatically displaced by a version of the idea that is the exact opposite of what it is naturally, and protects the Status Quo from very pissed off people. I must be off my rocker, but these Sociopaths are not stupid, and teach each other just as we teach each other, and they have been making collective efforts for THOUSANDS of years to find ways to control the masses. If we are to make ANY meaningful changes, we need to deeply understand how their methods of control work.

    We need to understand Group Psychology and the Viral nature of Learned Behaviors, including things like, but not limited to, Glorification of Stupidity. When we reject certain societal views, we need to replace those views with a positive and more stable idea. We need to recognize there is a very very legitimate reason that WE THE PEOPLE have TRUE authority over those that govern us. It should be our common goal to Balance ourselves with each other, while being able to see these Sociopaths as genuinely being different from us, and having NO ABILITY to feel remorse or guilt or shame for their actions. They have MANY tactics, and if Freedom itself is to have any chance of surviving, we MUST be able to overcome EVERY method of manipulation to once again be in charge of our own destiny.

    This is why I continue to repeat myself in damn near every other post about Belief, Money, and Violence. These are the means that they use to control your minds, and turn you against yourself, cause you be Depressed, and turn to your abusers for solutions. You wont find Genuine Solutions in their versions of Psychobabble Manipulation, so stop looking. Stop seeing people in Lab Coats as being more worthy or smarter than you. Its an Illusion, the same way as Antidepressant Pills are Symbols, another Illusion of you blaming yourself. Yes, there are legitimate cases where a persons brain has a chemical imbalance. There are legit times that medications genuinely help. For the most part, they are taught that Pills are the Panacea for ANY and ALL forms of Depression by the Rulers manipulating the definition and distorting Cause and Effect. People that become depressed are experincing a NORMAL reaction to the problems of society because they have NEVER been taught any other ways to mentally defend themselves. The levels of Brain Chemicals that have heavy influence on our behaviors seem to be the EFFECTS and NOT THE CAUSE of many peoples depression. They put the Cart before the Horse as a means of manipulatively persuading the victims to blame themselves, and staying away from the Business of the societal destructive Sociopaths while they continue to go about their way ruining the world for their own pleasure.

    STOP BLAMING YOURSELF

    Time and time again, I have to repeat this. You have been manipulated to think you are not their victim but the source of your own problems. Youre not. You ARE a victim who has been deceptively manipulated with Learned Behaviors and given no way to defend yourself. Their Drugs only further worsen the problem the same way as you probably cant commit to higher functioning while under the infuences of any kinds of drugs. Yet, we expect Pills to just fix all our problems. Their pills are the Gateway Drugs, as well as Symbols of Responsibility for their bull$#@!.

    There are things even more powerful than pills, and thats Group Psychology. The Stanley Milgram experiments show that Group Psychology causes about 80% of people to respond to Illusions of Authority, and it works on a neurological level, literally altering the perceptions to believe falsehoods. It works on most people. Those who are left, the 20%, you, who even dare to challenge the idea and concepts of your abusers, seek answers and knowledge to repair yourself. Youve been set up. You turn to the abusers for genuine self healing in an effort to rebalance yourself, and are given POISON, both in chemical and mental forms. The solution to eating Rat Poison is not to eat more Rat Poison, yet, thats what the Psychologists and Shrinks genuinely believe is the best treatment for you. The Shrinks think they are immune to their own bull$#@!, and are unable to see they have been perfectly molded to conformity to be a cog in the machine of a self destructive system which only serves the Status Quo, which is why people need to learn Psychology for themselves and STOP looking to those with a License.

    Those who have been issued a License to practice anything in Psychology have been recognized as being sufficiently indoctrinated enough as to perpetuate the system. If you learn how to manipulate others, you can learn both how you have been manipulated, and mentally freed from the mental prisons those types of thinking cause.

    YOU DID NOT FAIL THE SYSTEM. THE SYSTEM FAILED YOU.

    Lets get to the Real Reason your pills probably dont work. If you feel Depressed, there is probably a valid source for your depression, and its probably not your fault. You might have money woes. You might feel rejected. Marital problems. Kids arent acting the way you think they should. Neighbor is an $#@!. Your boss is an idiot. Your employees are retards. You might feel shunned by your peers. You might feel as if there is no place in the world you belong. And worst of all, you're right.

    To solve any problem, the problem must first be identified. This does NOT mean that you should admit to yourself that you are the source of all the problems. You might see problems in others, and the consequences they have on you. What may help is if you take a proper level of responsibility for what ever the problem is. Now, if your problem is shared, do not attempt to take 100% responsibility. Thats a trap and a mistake. Dont reject all responsibility either. If you have an issue with one person, then accept 50% of responsibility. Take on only as much as you can handle at any given time. As long as you can make a little progress, focus on that. Fixing problems should become a source of pride and self confidence and self esteem for you. Things dont have to be perfect, or even completed. See yourself as a person that has made some progress.

    Theres a thousand and one self help books out there. This is not supposed to be one of them. This is supposed to be what self help is NOT. Self Help is NOT about immediately taking pills to fix your problems. Self Help is about taking some responsibility, and should show you HOW to think instead of telling you WHAT to think. If the world had a Balance to it, then learn to see everything in a polarized way. Learn to see both what the world is, and what the world is not. This changes your perceptions, and should enable you to grow. Thats how real self help works, not perpetuated dependency on others, poison ideas, or pills.

    There is NO PILL you can take that will get you out of debt. NO PILL to correct the Learned Behaviors of others. $#@!s will always be $#@!s. There is NO PILL you can swallow that will unscramble an egg, fix a flat tire, replace a broken window, adjust the behaviors of others, make OTHERS smarter or expand their consciousness, prove or disprove that God exists, do math for you, or ANYTHING else BUT to slightly adjust the way your brain chemistry works. To see the world in Balance here, know both what the pill DOES and DOES NOT do. You may have a legitimate need for certain medications. They are the best that we can come up with today. The real change to truly heal is going to be painful, but should also be an opportunity for growth. Only take it on when youre ready. Taking it on too soon can be like trying to walk on a broken leg after a few days of recovery. Give yourself some time, but dont put it off forever. You, and ONLY you will know when you are ready to cope with things.

    There is a word in the english language which I consider to be more offensive than ANY other word, period, and that is the word "JUST". The word can have several meanings. The one Im talking about is the one that over simplifies solutions. "JUST" do it my way. JUST do what your told. JUST do this. JUST do that. There are times that solutions truly are simple, and effective. Those are appropriate uses of the word JUST. Such as, to fix a glitch in your computer, first JUST restart it. Typically most computer issues are fixed by a quick restart. JUST should be applied to simple solutions, so dont stop using the word entirely. To Balance, we need to know when NOT to use the word JUST. Such as "JUST deal with it", or "JUST grow up", or "JUST have this Judge rule in my favor" or "JUST deal with all your mental issues". It is during those times that the word JUST is interpreted subconsciously as very very undermining. The subconscious is mentioned because the weight of the word JUST is not quickly spotted by the conscious mind due to the frequency of use. Learn to spot this word being used, and how often people genuinely think that solutions to your problems are simple. Important times to recognize inappropriate usage of the word come to play with "JUST see your doctor" or "JUST take this PILL twice daily".

    Your simple problems probably are simple, but your complex problems are complex, and inappropriate times to use the word JUST. If you are in a wheelchair due to an injury or illness, if someone tells you JUST get off your ass, they may as well be saying JUST run a marathon. Those people remained trapped in shallow thought and have failed you to understand the circumstances of your situation. That is where Society fails you. You didnt fail, society truly does have some problems, and this knowledge should enable you to have at least a partial Defense against Society when you become burdened with its failures. This is a mental technique to help you stop blaming yourself for the problems of society so you can feel better about yourself. You may not be perfect. You dont have to be. And, you dont have to JUST accept this way of thinking because it is very very challenging to alter the way you see the world. It IS disorienting, confusing, and often very frustrating to learn to reject the shallow judgement of others. The word JUST underpins the efforts that are necessary to make those changes. Those that offer the JUST Solutions have very little potential to improve themselves, thus, it is important to not blindly accept their passing judgements of you.

    The most important thing to remember is JUST taking any pill or drug wont fix anything outside of your body.

    ---

    tl;dr - Tough $#@!, better go read the whole thing. There is NO short version that the Status Quo will ever give you to defend yourself against their influences. They do NOT want you able to EVER defend yourself from their power.
    Last edited by DamianTV; 10-13-2018 at 04:47 PM.
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Our central bank is not privately owned.

  6. #5
    I believe this is part of the reason the leftist are coming unglued--decades of being place on mind-altering drugs.
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  7. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by donnay View Post
    I believe this is part of the reason the leftist are coming unglued--decades of being place on mind-altering drugs.
    If we have a disaster, how will all these people addicted to these mind altering drugs behave? Will they truly lose their $#@! and bring forth the total collapse of society?
    1776 > 1984

    The FAILURE of the United States Government to operate and maintain an
    Honest Money System , which frees the ordinary man from the clutches of the money manipulators, is the single largest contributing factor to the World's current Economic Crisis.

    The Elimination of Privacy is the Architecture of Genocide

    Belief, Money, and Violence are the three ways all people are controlled

    Quote Originally Posted by Zippyjuan View Post
    Our central bank is not privately owned.

  8. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by DamianTV View Post
    If we have a disaster, how will all these people addicted to these mind altering drugs behave? Will they truly lose their $#@! and bring forth the total collapse of society?
    Never attempt to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time and annoys the pig.

    Robert Heinlein

    Give a man an inch and right away he thinks he's a ruler

    Groucho Marx

    I love mankind…it’s people I can’t stand.

    Linus, from the Peanuts comic

    You cannot have liberty without morality and morality without faith

    Alexis de Torqueville

    Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it.
    Those who learn from the past are condemned to watch everybody else repeat it

    A Zero Hedge comment

  9. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by DamianTV View Post
    If we have a disaster, how will all these people addicted to these mind altering drugs behave? Will they truly lose their $#@! and bring forth the total collapse of society?
    They are prescribing these drugs like candy too. I sure hope more light shines on this problem.
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner



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  11. #9
    Antidepressants Cause Severe Withdrawal Symptoms Like Hallucination, Mania, & Anxiety, Study Reveals

    Published 2 days ago on October 21, 2018
    By Collective Evolution

    IN BRIEF
    The Facts:Another study has emerged outlining the harmful health consequences of taking antidepressant drugs. Not only do pharmaceutical companies lie about their benefits, but they also conceal their harm.
    Reflect On:There are other ways to deal with depression that are more effective than medication. Placebo, for example, exercise, a plant-based diet, meditation etc.
    This article was written by Sayer Ji, founder of Greenmedinfo.com. Posted here with permission. You can sign up for their newsletter here.

    A concerning new study published in the journal Addictive Behavior and titled, “A systematic review into the incidence, severity and duration of antidepressant withdrawal effects: Are guidelines evidence-based?,” reveals that antidepressants are far more addictive and harmful than previously assumed, and vindicates the long time activism on this issue spearheaded by American psychiatrists like Kelly Brogan, MD and Peter Breggin, MD.

    Highlights from the paper are as follows:

    More than half (56%) of people who attempt to come off antidepressants experience withdrawal effects.
    Nearly half (46%) of people experiencing withdrawal effects describe them as severe.
    It is not uncommon for the withdrawal effects to last for several weeks or months.
    Current UK and USA Guidelines underestimate the severity and duration of antidepressant withdrawal, with significant clinical implications.
    This study aimed to assess the veracity of the the U.K.’s current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence and the American Psychiatric Association’s depression guidelines which state that withdrawal reactions from antidepressants are ‘self-limiting’ (i.e. typically resolving between 1 and 2 weeks).

    In order to accomplish this goal the systematic review used the following methods:

    “A systematic literature review was undertaken to ascertain the incidence, severity and duration of antidepressant withdrawal reactions. We identified 23 relevant studies, with diverse methodologies and sample sizes.”

    The results were reported as follows:

    “Withdrawal incidence rates from 14 studies ranged from 27% to 86% with a weighted average of 56%. Four large studies of severity produced a weighted average of 46% of those experiencing antidepressant withdrawal effects endorsing the most extreme severity rating on offer. Seven of the ten very diverse studies providing data on duration contradict the UK and USA withdrawal Guidelines in that they found that a significant proportion of people who experience withdrawal do so for more than two weeks, and that it is not uncommon for people to experience withdrawal for several months.”

    Side effects were wide-ranging, lasting several months or longer (including permanent dysfunction), such as:

    “Typical AD withdrawal reactions include increased anxiety, flu-like symptoms, insomnia, nausea, imbalance, sensory disturbances, and hyperarousal. Dizziness, electric shock-like sensations, brain zaps, diarrhoea, headaches, muscle spasms and tremors, agitation, hallucinations, confusion, malaise, sweating and irritability are also reported (Warner, Bobo, Warner, Reid, & Rachal, 2006, Healy, 2012). Although the aforementioned symptoms are the most common physical symptoms, there is also evidence that AD withdrawal can induce mania and hypomania, (Goldstein et al., 1999; Naryan & Haddad, 2011) emotional blunting and an inability to cry, (HolguinLew & Bell, 2013) long-term or even permanent sexual dysfunction (Csoka & Shipko, 2006).”

    The study concluded:

    “We recommend that U.K. and U.S.A. guidelines on antidepressant withdrawal be urgently updated as they are clearly at variance with the evidence on the incidence, severity and duration of antidepressant withdrawal, and are probably leading to the widespread misdiagnosing of withdrawal, the consequent lengthening of antidepressant use, much unnecessary antidepressant prescribing and higher rates of antidepressant prescriptions overall. We also recommend that prescribers fully inform patients about the possibility of withdrawal effects.”

    The researchers also noted that the rising numbers of antidepressant prescriptions used throughout the world may be fueled by the antidepressant drug withdrawal side effects themselves:

    “As the lengthening duration of AD use has fuelled rising AD prescriptions over the same time period, we must understand the drivers of such lengthening use. The evidence set out suggests that lengthening use may be partly rooted in the underestimation of the incidence, severity and duration of AD withdrawal reactions, leading to many withdrawal reactions being misdiagnosed, for example, as relapse (with drugs being reinstated as a consequence) or as failure to respond to treatment (with either new drugs being tried and/or dosages increased). This issue is pressing as long-term AD use is associated with increased severe side-effects, increased risk of weight gain, the impairment of patients’ autonomy and resilience (increasing their dependence on medical help), worsening outcomes for some patients, greater relapse rates, increased mortality and the development of neurodegenerative diseases, such as dementia.”

    The concerning implications of this study to millions around the world who are on antidepressants were immediately recognized by the media, as evidenced by mainstream reporting on the topic with the following headlines:

    BBC News: Antidepressant withdrawal ‘hits millions’
    The Guardian: Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms severe, says new report
    The Times: Painful price of coming off drugs for depression
    Independent: Antidepressants cause withdrawal symptoms in over half of patients who try to quit them, review shows
    Thanks to a small but courageous group of professionals who have been raising awareness of the profound, unintended adverse effects of psychiatric drugs and the abject absence of objective criteria for determining “mental disease,” not only are there already resources available to the public today to better understand the dangers of psychiatric drugs, but there are also programs and protocols in place to help those who are on them to come off of them safely and with the support of others who have done the same already. For instance, the program put together by Dr. Kelly Brogan — Vital Mind Reset — has produced powerful outcomes. Take a look at the testimony wall here to learn from the first hand experiences of those who underwent the program and came out drug-free, often with their psychiatric symptoms and comorbid conditions reduced or completely put into remission.
    https://www.collective-evolution.com...zen.yandex.com
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner

  12. #10
    Quote Originally Posted by DamianTV View Post
    If we have a disaster, how will all these people addicted to these mind altering drugs behave? Will they truly lose their $#@! and bring forth the total collapse of society?
    With a little bit of luck, they'll strangle the anti-science people that post here.

  13. #11
    Did you get your degree from Bill Nye the Science guy?^
    “The spirits of darkness are now among us. We have to be on guard so that we may realize what is happening when we encounter them and gain a real idea of where they are to be found. The most dangerous thing you can do in the immediate future will be to give yourself up unconsciously to the influences which are definitely present.” ~ Rudolf Steiner



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