I think much of the evidence suggest that these drugs are being given to people whose depression is arguably mild and would clear up on its own with time and/or lifestyle changes.
I understand the drugs DO help the severely depressed. But there is so much money being made, and Americans are so used to the idea of quick-fix strategies that the net for these drugs has been expanded to the point that doctors can't (or don't want to) tell the difference between dangerous depression, mild depression and "life's ups and downs." Very troubling. Nancy Melucci LBCC -----Original Message----- From: Paul Brandon <paul.bran...@mnsu.edu> To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) <tips@fsulist.frostburg.edu> Sent: Thu, Jul 21, 2011 7:27 am Subject: Re: [tips] Do antidepressants cause depression? I think that the problem is defining 'depression'. The results seem to vary depending on how it is defined in terms of both severity and qualia, and thus on how subjects are selected. Paul Brandon Emeritus Professor of Psychology Minnesota State University, Mankato paul.bran...@mnsu.edu On Jul 21, 2011, at 9:24 AM, Beth Benoit wrote: This has made it to Google News, so I suspect it's soon going to be a topic of current conversation. The idea that the brains of people on antidepressants may lose their ability to make monoamine transmitters isn't new, but to say that people taking antidepressants may be condemning themselves to a lifetime of antidepressant use seems arguable. http://www.frontiersin.org/evolutionary_psychology/10.3389/fpsyg.2011.00159/abstract I don't know anything about the journal, Frontiers in Evolutionary Psychology, but I see on their website that they take advertisements. The abstract for this article doesn't appear to mention the possibility that people who don't take antidepressants may not be as severely depressed as people who do, though it says they controlled for covariates. Of course, there's also the longstanding argument that people have about the same rate of recovery from depression whether or not they have any kind of therapy at all. What think you, colleagues? Beth Benoit Granite State College Plymouth State University New Hampshire --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: paul.bran...@mnsu.edu. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13438.3b5166ef147b143fedd04b1c4a64900b&n=T&l=tips&o=11517 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-11517-13438.3b5166ef147b143fedd04b1c4a649...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: drna...@aol.com. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=12993.aba36cc3760e0b1c6a655f019a68b878&n=T&l=tips&o=11518 (It may be necessary to cut and paste the above URL if the line is broken) or send a blank email to leave-11518-12993.aba36cc3760e0b1c6a655f019a68b...@fsulist.frostburg.edu --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=11521 or send a blank email to leave-11521-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
