Goodbye Prozack

Maybe I will do another regular segment and call it "Things You Should Know." Hmm. It is all just gelling.

Anyway, here is something you should know. Prozack, Effexor, Serzone, and Paxil, in a recent study, were found to be as effective as placebos. According to the meta study analysis in which several colleges and universities participated in the findings, these popular antidepressants are not particularly helpful to treating mild depression (or even moderate) anymore than a suger-pill would.

These findings suggest that, compared with placebo, the new-generation antidepressants do not produce clinically significant improvements in depression in patients who initially have moderate or even very severe depression, but show significant effects only in the most severely depressed patients.

This is fairly big news. Several clients and friends of mine are on these medications, prescribed by physicians. There is no counselling, no talk therapy, nothing. Just the meds. We all want that magic happy pill to make us feel a little more fulfilled or satisfied with our situations. We are even will to undergo the side effects (sleeplessness, sexual dysfunction, slowness of thoughts, among other things), just for that little boost that we believe may get us out of bed.

The brilliant thing about this study is that, for those of us who fit the above description, any positive results we have felt then, may have been as much as mind over matter. We believe the pills help - therefore they do. Only, they don't. It is our own inner ability and belief system that creates the sense of positive change.

So, yes, I am making this into a plug for hypnosis. If your mind mind can use a pill to make you believe you are happier, imagine what hypnosis could do for you - and without the side effects.

Yet, I feel the need to add a disclaimer here. I am not suggesting or recommending that you just go off the pills without talking to your doctor first. Though it is your choice to do what you feel is best, if you are taking such medications, let the good doctors know that you want to go off them and try another route. It is your mind and your body.

Source:
PLoS Medicine