@danharvey3096

1 year ago

This was presented in a deliberately vague way, with the predictable pharmaceutical lobbyist as a "guest" for a corporate media channel that relies on funding & ad revenue from pharmaceutical adverts.. What this doesn't say is that it isn't just any "study" it is a comprehensive umbrella review of around 550 peer reviewed studies and investigative reviews of other studies, each reviewing many other studies. They broke down the 550 studies to get down to 17 high quality meta-analyses, some which themselves analysed studies involving 150,000 people over a period of years. So they looked at all this information, going back decades, encompassing 100s of thousands of people across multiple studies & meta analysis's of multiple studies and other meta analyses. And came to the the conclusion that there is no convincing evidence that depression is caused by low serotonin. Even in studies where serotonin was deliberately reduced by environmental factors, it didn't convincingly show an increase in depression. In many cases there was evidence that showed that long term use can in fact reduce serotonin levels (in the same way long term supplementation of Melatonin decreases production of melatonin, as the body does what is most efficient) . Rather the comprehensive study suggests that depression is a reaction to external & environmental factors, economic factors, past trauma, daily stresses, current stresses, loss, loneliness, existential dread etc. As someone who has tried numerous antidepressants that never ever worked, i can say truthfully that while i tried them for depression & anxiety, i was never as suicidal as i was on antidepressants. Particularly that of Aropax, which was later banned as it was proven to increase suicidal ideation in much the same way that Zoloft was. Of interest is the fact that many different SSRIs are in fact basically the same as older versions, just tweaked slightly to renew the patents, even though it is effectively the same medicine. And this goes for even banned medicines like Aropax. Throughout my years i went on them, off them, changed to different types, & went off them, SSRIs, Triciclics, SNRIs, & SSRIs again, but the side affects & numbness of emotion, the dry mouth & lack of concentration, occasional shakes & dizziness, & the complete reduction of libido, were always worse. And of course i knew what was the cause of my depression, & that was my reality of having been fostered, plus having no roots & no family, plus later having gone through an earthquake that destroyed much of what was dear to me, of the places & vibrant scene in my city that i came to be a part of & the base of the family of friends that i met along the way.. I tried many SSRIs to try to balance out the symptoms of all that, but always found the same conclusion, that for me at least, the side affects were worse.. But what ultimately worked for me was a combination of meditation, exercise, therapy, magnesium to reduce muscle tension, Chicken bone broth, working on my own issues, & adrenalin inducing activities that force me to focus on the moment like Downhill MTB or skateboarding, particularly Downhill MTB.. I know some people that SSRIs worked for, but many that they had the opposite affect, & others who became essentially addicted, & it was largely no different coming off them than any other addictive drug that also alters brain chemistry.. From my experience, & my own long suspicion, this huge meta analysis of many other meta analysis's, the gold standard of reviews, vindicates my own experience & thoughts on these drugs.. And my suspicion of the profit motive pushing what is best for the profit motive rather than focusing on root causes..

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