Hello, would like to suggest the following corrections:
1) Serotonin is not the happiness hormone. There is no basis to the assumption that excess serotonin "slopping around" improves mood. The serotonin deficiency hypothesis was debunked decades ago. No one knows how antidepressants "work"; there is a lot of debate as to whether they reliably "work" at all.
2) Never, ever skip doses of a short-acting drug, as are most antidepressants, to taper. Half-life tells the story. Doctors are well aware patients get withdrawal symptoms when they forget a dose and blood level of the drug fluctuates. Telling them to skip doses to go off the drug is a recipe for severe withdrawal symptoms -- which are then very often misdiagnosed as "relapse."
3) It is indisputable that they antidepressants cause physiological dependency. Whether they meet the legal definition of "addictive" is a burning question for some psychiatrists but not relevant to patients experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Discussions among physicians about psychiatric drug dependency issues focus excessively on defensive arguments about "addictiveness" and not enough on what patients are going through.
Hello, would like to suggest
Hello, would like to suggest the following corrections:
1) Serotonin is not the happiness hormone. There is no basis to the assumption that excess serotonin "slopping around" improves mood. The serotonin deficiency hypothesis was debunked decades ago. No one knows how antidepressants "work"; there is a lot of debate as to whether they reliably "work" at all.
2) Never, ever skip doses of a short-acting drug, as are most antidepressants, to taper. Half-life tells the story. Doctors are well aware patients get withdrawal symptoms when they forget a dose and blood level of the drug fluctuates. Telling them to skip doses to go off the drug is a recipe for severe withdrawal symptoms -- which are then very often misdiagnosed as "relapse."
3) It is indisputable that they antidepressants cause physiological dependency. Whether they meet the legal definition of "addictive" is a burning question for some psychiatrists but not relevant to patients experiencing withdrawal symptoms. Discussions among physicians about psychiatric drug dependency issues focus excessively on defensive arguments about "addictiveness" and not enough on what patients are going through.
Thank you.