Thursday, August 04, 2022

The confusing world of antidepressants

Here's an interesting explanation at The Conversation about how the "chemical imbalance" theory of depression caught on, and arguing that just because the theory is wrong, there is still a case for using the serotonin influencing drugs because they do work well enough anyway.   

 

1 comment:

John said...

It is confusing but I think the author might be ignoringhttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-04-antidepressants-quality-life.html

No long term benefit.

However it does seem to be the case that antidepressants work remarkably well for some people

There is an interesting article in The Conversation that argues in recent years Australia has spent a fortune providing free psych visits and massively increased antidepressant prescribing but the prevalence of anxiety and depression remain the same.

That they are now so desperate they are using ketamine(very stupid idea), and some hallucinogens suggests that antidepressants are clearly not good enough.