Gli scienziati avvertono la ritirata antidepressiva minimizzata da studi “finanziati dall’industria”

Yeah it ain’t fun, I arguably came off venlafaxine faster than I should have, and it was brutal, wish I can my medical cannabis back then, would have helped wonders with the intense insomnia from the withdrawals.

I ended up in hospital trying to come off of an SNRI I was put on to help with a sleep issue. This issue needs to be everywhere and widely understood.

If anyone wants more information or support in safely coming off SSRI’s and SNRI’s whilst minimising side effects then please google Dr Mark Horowitz. He literally wrote the [new] book on safely tapering off SSRI’s and SNRI’s, there are entirely new guidelines that haven’t yet filtered down to most GP’s. His YouTube channel is a fantastic resource – Outro Health.

Oh boy, wait until people learn that the NHS’s advice after diagnosing PSSD (https://www.pssdnetwork.org/faq) is “that sucks, we can’t help, maybe try joining a support group”

Whoever is in charge of PR at Big Pharma inc. deserves some recognition. They managed to shift public opinion so much that we went from most people being sceptical of the industry to people demanding involuntary vaccination in about half a generation.

About 70% of people on antidepressants shouldn’t be on them – there is nothing wrong with their neurochemistry, it’s just that life sucks for them right now… They need social support, a relationship, a dog, some new healthy habits; a little pill with a chicken on it is not going to change that.

Eta: I work in preclinical pharmaceutical development and it is a very sketchy field. Things go wrong, outliers are included/excluded at will, statistical analyses are ‘tweaked’. I’m aware of at least two current clinical trials that are being conducted without any consideration of the preclinical findings leading to increased adverse event rates. Sex-differences in particular need more attention – it’s common to find AEs at a higher rate in one of the sexes.

There’s so much to unpack here

– I generally agree with the authors of the Independent article that short term studies don’t give us the best view of withdrawal effects for those coming off antidepressants after very long periods

– The authors of the Independent article are a bit of a joke in academic circles. Their entire careers are based on predictably shallow criticism of various concepts/approaches in psychiatry. Funnily enough, despite what they say about the conflicts of interest regarding supposed financial incentives for the authors (more on that below), they themselves are selling books/talks etc from the point of view of being anti-medications. The exact thing they are criticising the authors of the research article for.

– Their criticisms regarding ‘close ties to industry’ are insidious and underhand. Those of us who work in the field know that for a large number of researchers, it’s right to be open about COIs but I know for a fact that the particular study they are criticising was not funded, guided, or edited by anyone in industry. The general public have a very poor, conspiratorial understanding of how to interpret COIs.

– In general I don’t agree with the conclusions of the paper and would probably have done things differently had I been involved.

– If you’re someone who has had bad side effects withdrawing from antidepressants then I feel for you. I had them too having come off several antidepressants. Studies like this don’t help for the minority of those who do experience this, especially those on medications for a long time. I wish the paper had looked at more long-term data by way of comparison rather than only looking at short studies and not considering how this may have been interpreted/reported.

“Just a short course of antidepressants..”

decades later they are still stuck on them.

Wait until you learn that the epidemic in chronic depression might be down to the introduction and chronification of neurotransmitter dysfunctions caused by SSRIs via them modifying your serotonine metabolism and serotonine receptors. In other words, if you want to be cynical, the industry might just engineer its own consumer base by hooking them up on drugs that many of them can’t come off easily.

Used speed to get myself off SSRIs a few years back. Worked really well. I’m back on them now but whenever I want to stop it’ll be amphetamines that I use to avoid the devastating withdrawal.

This is one of several reasons why i didn’t want to go on antidepressants for my MH. Potential for permanent side effects even upon ceasing medication was the number 1 reason opted against them.