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Re-Analysis of Medical Study Reverses Conclusions -- Paxil Unsafe For Teenagers
An anonymous reader writes: The NY Times is covering a new paper in the journal BMJ which re-analyzed data from a 2001 paper, coming to the opposite conclusions of the earlier study. The BMJ paper covers the effectiveness and safety of two antidepressant drugs for adolescent use, and the authors were able to re-analyze the original data after the release of previously confidential documents. The BMJ editors call into question some of the integrity of previous publishing, noting that none of the authors listed on 2001 paper actually wrote the original manuscript, and call for results of clinical trials to be made freely available so the science community can verify and self-correct results. The BMJ has released the study and provided an accompanying press release (PDF).
Don't blame just "Big Pharma" Parents prefer the drugs because it's less humiliating than thinking something went wrong with their parenting and at any rate it's a less time consuming fix that going to a physiologist. Teachers prefer the drugs because they let them keep kits seated for longer. Doctors prefer the drugs because it's easier than trying to get a child/teen to eat properly.
Big Pharma can hardly be blamed for selling us all something we begged them for in the first place.
I was put on Paxil (Aropax in Australia) at 16. It was literally life-changing. Previously I had random panic attacks, with no specific trigger - sometimes up to 4 a day. Leaving the house to go anywhere but school without triggering an attack was impossible, and even school could be hit-and-miss. Add OCD to the mix, and lets just say, it wasn't exactly a lot of fun.
Two weeks after beginning paroxetine, I went to a friends house for a sleep over for the first time in just under a decade. I remember leaving my house without any feelings of anxiety or dread, and remarking to my Mum that "this is how normal people must feel!".
Yes, I'll agree that in some cases these drugs are prescribed too quickly, and too easily, and they aren't side-effect free (hellooo ridiculously easy bruising!). But for the rest of us, they're worth their weight in gold (ie: the only way you'll take them off me is from my cold, dead, anxiety-sweat drenched hands).
You can learn a lot about a person if you just take the time to inject them with sodium pentathol
The amount of fraud and incompetence in medical and psychological "studies" (along with the utter *fail* of peer review make me think that Medicine and Psychology drove off the rails into Snake Oil World many decades ago.
"I don't know, therefore Aliens" Wafflebox1
Even a broken clock is right now and then by sheer luck.
Why Scientology disregards this shit is still batshit crazy rantings, and has nothing to do with science ... it has everything to do with the aliens trapped in your brain you haven't paid Scientology to remove yet.
That insane ramblings of people who believe stupid things occasionally coincides with actual facts doesn't lend any credibility to those insane ramblings of people who believe stupid things.
Sorry, but a "religion" written by a science fiction author who basically said "the real money is in starting a religion" isn't credible just because they disagree with anti-depressants.
The culmination of this belief system is Tom Cruise jumping on a couch spouting off about what he'd been trained to say.
Lost at C:>. Found at C.
as a kid I took Paxil briefly for depression, but never received any therapy so it was basically worthless. the drug was pretty brutal. I could function at school, but at 14 i felt like i was a drugged 40 year old junkie. I was exhausted all the time and had a near constant headache. between the nervousness and weight loss after the first year, i certainly wasnt depressed anymore but i was an emotional tire fire. I became violently opposed to the idea of dating, physical contact, or interpersonal relationship and extremely paranoid around adults. I still dont rememeber why this was, but I kept a notebook log of places to avoid and things people said.
And it got worse. Kicking paxil after highschool took an entire year of auditory hallucinations, nightmares, suicidal thoughts, crying, you name it.
Good people go to bed earlier.
I was prescribed Paxil due to a misdiagnosis. Wow, that was awful. Whatever positive things it was supposed to do never happened, but if you wanted your sex drive destroyed and to have every sleeping moment be the most vivid dreams it did that for me. Of course, all of the dreams were directed by Steven King and I woke up screaming in a cold sweat but they were vivid. And if I could get back to sleep I'd have another just as bad on a new topic (they didn't repeat). I watched a friend be driven into paranoia by SSRIs. As the affects of the drug ripped her life apart, her doctor kept increasing her dose to 'fix it'. When last I heard from her, she'd lost her license, been fired and lost most of her friends -- an addicts journey except that she was following her doctors instructions.
It's interesting to me to see that some people have really been helped. That suggests that doctors need much narrower guidelines for prescribing these drugs.
That's BS. My son was diagnosed with HFA and PDD when he was in grade school and the psychologist wanted to put him on a course of 5 drugs. She had the little pharmaceutical pads, pens, etc all over her office. Of course we refused but she pushed hard.
I am confident that he would have been ruined if we had relented. Don't tell me that there isn't a profit motive here for pharmaceutical companies! Without the advertising for drugs (for those who are younger this used to be outlawed) and doctors pushing the stuff there would be very few parents clamoring for the stuff.
love is just extroverted narcissism
As a Psychiatrist and long-time Slashdot reader I feel really disappointed reading the reactions of people whose oppinion in technical matters I respect a lot. But after > 20 years of "in-the-trench" psychiatry (public and private settings) I've seen (BY FAR) more good than harm as consequence of our practice. I can say I helped a number of people, lots of them using SSRI. We are aware of the industry and its tactics, and the wax-and-wane of science. But most of my colleagues act in good faith following procedures tested in our gold-standard double blind placebo-controlled trials. Medicine CAN do harm sometimes, that's not new. But when you add all up, there's a net benefit. Just my 0.02
La culpa no es del chancho...
Paxil got me out of the house when I was 24, bumming around playing WoW in depression with while my girlfriend worked after my mom died.
The tapering off was a bitch though, but I'm super grateful for it. Stopped having panic attacks and anxiety, built a career in software that fulfills me 10 years later.
Would a placebo have worked the same or even better? Quite possibly.