Posted by bleauberry on January 23, 2019, at 8:48:48
In reply to So what's the general consensus on SSRIs?, posted by Martinchen978 on January 22, 2019, at 13:31:06
I had been on Paxil for a year and my doc gave me the Depression Questionnaire to see how I was doing. I scored real well on everything except - interest in hobbies and activities, which scored the worst possible. And because of my total score on that test, my doc said I was in remission and my depression was gone.
Well wait a minute! If a person has no interest in anything in life, then that is not really a good therapy! Hello???
I think the goal of therapy should be to restore the person to who they were before. We don't really see that. What we see is "symptom management", crisis management, and nobody asking the most important question....what's wrong in this person's body causing the brain to misfire? Nobody is asking that, except maybe me and a bunch of Lyme doctors. And we have answers. Real answers.
> So what's the general consensus on SSRIs? What is your SSRI-experience? Your opinion...
>
> A funny doctor I know is famous in my mind for his quote that SSRIs makes people "lazy, uncaring, and anorgasmic". He says it tongue-in-cheek because it's ostensibly true. This is, in his reasoning, why he does not use that particular antidepressant unless his patients specifically ask for it, or it becomes necessary or if most other options have been exhausted.
>
> Zoloft was intolerable because it made me feel like a zombie. It has stolen 1,5 years of my life. It turns out that SSRI medications can, in fact, cause an apathy/indifference syndrome. So I don't like them ^^
>
> Most prescribers are not aware of this side effect of these drugs. This probably because apathy/indifference sounds a lot like lack of interest in formerly pleasurable activities or lack of energy or lack of motivation. All of these quoted symptoms are also part of major depression. So, it can be hard to know the difference between medication-induced apathy versus inadequately-treated depression. Also, the prescribing information for SSRI medications (which includes the official, FDA-reviewed statement of side effects) does not list apathy or indifference. On the other hand, the prescribing information does include fatigue and decreased libido. These could possibly be manifestations of apathy. Despite the general lack of awareness of this side effect, the medical literature nonetheless contains several case reports and reviews of SSRI-induced apathy. Notably, these reports often mention that the apathy worsens with increased dose of the drug. The presence of such a dose-response relationship supports the notion that the drug actually causes the apathy.
poster:bleauberry
thread:1102905
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20181024/msgs/1102919.html