Sacramento Street Psychiatry

I believe Depressives have no underlying problems and what problems they do have are created by Depression which creates dysfunctional emotions. When the Depression is minimized to a successful degree, so go their problems.

Medicine helps calibrate the chronic depressives emotions.

The ''crutch'' theory is useful for the emotionally sensitive that fall into a caused Depression.

...and there are tons of studies that conclude chronic depression (and anxiety, and bipolar) creates or results from physiological abnormalities in the brain.

To say that people with depression have no underlying problems is false.

David Kaplan

...for writing this article. There are many people, including some psychiatrists, who believe that, once diagnosed, a person is destined to stay on medications forever.

I believe that, with proper medication and therapy, a person can be "healed" and discontinue meds when the efforts of the doctor and patient have crystalized enough.

I think what drives people away from psychiatry/psychology is the incessant need to for doctor to be ambigous. When a person is in pain and asks, "Will I ever get better?" - they don't want to hear, "Well that depends on you."

"I assured my patient that the antidepressant I was suggesting was indeed a crutch: a temporary means to relieve her suffering while her mind is healing. It would also help minimize further psychic injury from poor sleep, social withdrawal, undue pessimism, and perhaps suicidal urges. Like a crutch, when she is feeling better she will stop using it, secure in the knowledge it is available again if it is ever needed."

I think this statement should be part of any doctors treatment.

David Kaplan

http://bipolarblast.wordpress.com/2009/07/08/finally-the-happy-ending-co...
The link above tells of one womans story a woman in the helping profession like you. I racked my brain thinking how do I get through to you. The above link is the result I hope you read it.

The ad for pristique on this site did not go unnoticed by me. Is this yet another professional opinion bought and paid for by big pharma?

In case you don't read it here was my original bit I had to say in response to your story.
If I had a nickel for every time I had to write you are dead wrong about antidepressants I would be rich.
They are horrid drugs the side effects are hellish the withdrawals are worse. The fact that you do not tell your patients what else these drug do to hurt them in criminal. Then again you would not be the first authority I have had to educate. Take a look at paxilprogress.org theeffexoractivist.org antidepressantfacts.com should I go on there are thousands of these sites still nobody hears. If you are going to recommend a drug you should at least know what kind of hell you are sending these people to.

Some of the comments here fall into the trap of thinking that Big Pharma and its products have to be good or evil. This is a style of thinking that is always around, but seems particularly prevalent in young people, and in certain cultures (America seems particularly ideologically drawn to it compared to most Western countries).

It's worth bearing in mind that, contra US law, corporations are not persons. Large corporations have multiple causes behind their collective behaviours, good and bad, productive and destructive. Their products should be assessed for usefulness given the best data we have, and as far as possible marketing should be entirely ignored. (That's not to say that I wouldn't like to see them tamed with appropriate regulation/legislation, but actually I think the manichaean perspective makes this more difficult).

Steven seems to have the balance about right, on my reading.

SteveM - nothing in your tone makes it sounds like you're open to evidence on the issue. A transparent discussion of costs/benefits to any given treatment does not necessarily entail that someone needs to trot out whatever studies or anecdotes you happen to favour.

I don't really have an opinion on the issue, and don't know enough about it. I have read some studies and have some anecdotes (family member taking Zoloft, and happy and healthy for the first time in over 30 years), but I don't take them seriously enough to have fixed a general and universal position on drug treatment. I suspect if I were depressed, I'd resist drugs at least on a first treatment pass.

But your language and tone strongly suggest a Bushite "you're with us or your against us" attitude. This is on the admittedly low-bandwidth and lossy basis of a blog comment (which seems to bring out the 18-year old in most of us).

I am not a psychiatrist, I am currently a student working on my psych major but more importantly I take pristque and previous to this i have taken several other antidepressants for depression and anxiety.
I can understand where these arguments are being formed by the research, but honestly unless you have depression or anxiety or are bipolar and have had to deal with these issues on a day to day basis than I am less likely to believe you than my own experience no matter how many years of research or knowledge you have on the subject.
I think this article is absolutely true, the medications are a crutch but sometimes crutches are necessary. I am currently going to a psychiatrist so that i can function on my own without needing medication but until then I can live my life without the repercussions of a life with untreated anxiety and depression. I know the side effects well, not only did my doctor review them with me over and over but i also researched each medication prior to taking it. It took several to find one that works for me and yes there are downsides to it, for example when i run out of meds or am off them for whatever reason my body has physical and emotional withdraws that are intense, but as long as i follow the correct usage of the medication I am fine. (that Cymbalta example is just a good reason why they should monitor more heavily the patients that are taking these medications, if their Doctor actually recommended they stop taking it then they would know to slowly reduce the milligrams, you can't just stop taking hormones all at once without expecting withdraws)
It allows me to sleep at night, go out like a normal person, make it to class and work, have the energy to take care of my child, and do what most people are able to do on their own everyday. Best of all my doctor and I are working toward a day where i won't have to take it anymore, but in the meantime I find it very useful.

It is so comforting to know that there are actually psychiatrists out there that feel this way.