Fda Forced To Re-evaluate Ssri Antidepressants ?

Q: For years the Food and Drug Administration has debated whether Prozac and related antidepressants could trigger suicide or other violent acts. For the most part, the agency has dismissed such concerns as rare or unrelated to the medications.

A:are there any studies done, that you know of, on the dangers of bipolars taking SSRI's without any corresponding mood stabilizers like Depakote or lithium? It seems to me that many bipolars are mistakenly put on AD's alone. Granted, not the whole story but definitely a contributing factor. Concerns about possible risks of switching to mania associated with antidepressants continue to interfere with the establishment of an optimal treatment paradigm for bipolar depression. My psychiatrist has mentioned that "normal" antidepressants exacerbate bipolar disorder, so at least some of these folks are aware of the problems. That;s good to know - i truly hope it is true and a medical marker for bipolar disorder; it would make Lithium a magic bullet contrary to Dr. Healy's hope that there are such drugs in psychiatry. I would agree that there no magic bullets...except maybe ourselves. Jake, what do make of assertion that remission rates are, in fact, lowered with a combination of medication and CBT. Do you imagine that it is the CBT working by itself...if so, you need to get published as you are putting a great deals of psychiatrist's to shame. :) Let's suppose the risk is this: The brain is extremely complicated. Our understanding of it is rudimentary. (I think we all agree with that.) So, when we attempt to "medicate" it we run the risk of causing bigger potentially unseen problems that may manifest themselves in people later, or sooner, in the case of children and suicide. So, do we wait until we have a "more" complete picture of the brain's workings? We may be waiting a while. Moreover, haven't we been trying to understand mind-body dualism for milleniums. Aren't we still trying? Isn't psychiatry the modern day equivalent of this quest. While I understand the concerns of the anti-psychiatric movement surely the psychiatric movement's their belief in the efficiency and importance of both cognitive behavioural therapy and medication in achieving more frequent and longer lasting MDD remissions isn't complete hyperbole and nonsense.

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