Script-happy Doctors Accused Of Poisoning The Elderly

Q: I have been prescribed a drug that is more harmful than the alternatives. It is just about last on the list of "desirable" drugs for my condition. So why do I have to take this one? Because for me, the others don't work. People are, as Kerry observed, individual. My observations re antidepressants and old people are that depression in the elderly is severely under-treated resulting in far more old people living lives of flatness, sleep disturbance, poor appetite and general low functioning than would otherwise be the case. I think this is because the depression has often crept up slowly so the affected person doesn't realise, and those around him/her take it for granted that these indications are "just part of growing old".

A:My observation is that sorrow, loneliness, and low self-esteem is rife amongst the elderly, and (IMO sometimes sadly) drugs can ease those symptoms. That's not disagreeing with your statement that (clinical) depression amongst the elderly is underdiagnosed either. I think that delving deeply in to the individual is more important first step than tailoring a pharmaceutical cocktail to "restore balance" after assuming that medication is the best course of action. http://www.erowid.org/ask/ask.cgi?ID=2846 I bow to your superior knowledge of this Brian. They are similar but

quite unique in and of themselves. However it still concerns me that a "similar drug" is being given to these kids way too freely, and I suspect more often than not, for the parents sake more than the kids. It works amazingly well. There was a kid with severe ADHD in my son's class at school. He was antisocial, violent, and disruptive and had been suspended several times at age 7 or so. On Ritalin, he was a normal kid - and a nice kid. I was at school camp with him, and the teachers forgot to give him his pill one morning, alerted to this when he reverted to his tasmanian devil natural self. Perhaps unsurprisingly, he came from a severely dysfunctional family.