So last year for my research paper I wrote about the reverse effects antidepressants can have on adolescents. In doing so I had to read up on a lot of different stories about cases where antidepressants went wrong. I came across this great website that contains all of these different stories about kids our age who took medication and became even more depressed. Many cases resulted in suicide or murder. It's kind of a heavy topic so be prepared to be disturbed but I think it's important to be aware of the flaws in today's medicine. Play around with the website a little; the stories are short but there's a lot of information throughout the site. It also tells you exactly what medication the kids were on so I thought that was pretty cool because we are familiar with most listed (ex Zoloft). While reading the cases, think about the argument that medicine does us worse than it does better. Is it possible that there are stronger, more effective alternatives out there to remedy psychological disorders other than pills?
The fact that antidepressants led to the most reports of violence, far more than mood stabilizers and antipsychotic drugs was both shocking and seemingly contradictory. Most people, including myself, would probably tend to believe that those who are depressed would not be the ones most likely to commit acts of violence. Depression is not the same as anger, so it was surprising to see the dangerous effects of antidepressant drugs.
ReplyDeleteI browsed through a few of the stories, and the one which struck me most involved a fourteen year old girl named Elizabeth Bush who shot and wounded a classmate in a Catholic high school. This story was especially interesting as so many elements of it do not fit our prototype of a criminal - girl, Catholic school background, fourteen years old. However, I think it does show the potentially dangerous effects of antidepressants, in this case, Paxil.
Bush said she stole a .22-caliber pistol from her father's collection and brought it to school because she wanted people to feel the pain she felt from being teased. Although this young girl was clearly in a great deal of emotional pain, I do believe that the antidepressant may have increased her negative emotions overall. While medicine in general clearly saves and improves the lives of many people, nothing is 100% guaranteed. The story of Elizabeth Bush is an example of how medicine can be flawed and how other methods, such as therapy and mind exercises, should also be considered in helping a depressed patient.
Before I even had the chance to read any of the stories I came across a disturbing fact that startled me, and shed some much needed light on this serious topic: “Antidepressants have been recognized as potential inducers of mania and psychosis since their introduction in the 1950s.” This is a fact that I was completely unaware of, and I would be willing to guarantee that almost the entire population remains similarly unaware. These are not facts that drug producers willingly and readily tell the public, for fear of money loss. After hearing this fact and browsing through just some of the general information, it became clear that this is a topic that flies under the radar in the general public. I would be willing to bet that most people just assume that anti-depressants successfully fulfill their purpose of ‘curing’ depressed people. This website clearly showed otherwise. I know just from a personal experience that when it comes to people facing depression I have been rather sheltered, as I have never come into direct contact with a struggling person. I have never had a family member or close friend struggle with depression.
ReplyDeleteBecause Prozac is the anti-depressant I am most familiar with I went to the story concerning a student in Oregon who was suffering from the drug withdrawal and went on a shooting rage in his school. This story presents a strong case for the argument that medicine actually does us worse than better. Kip Kinkel murdered his parents and his high school classmates as a result of this drug. Court exchanges indicated that Kinkel, only a teenager, stopped taking the drug before the shootings and therefore relate withdrawal as the source of the problem. This teenager, who was around the same age as all of us, will have to face 25 years in prison. His life is over and the anti-depressant is partially to blame. Of course there were likely to have been more serious underlying issues undermining Kinkel’s condition, who once made a statement that he “has to kill people.” He reported, “I don’t know why. I have no other choice.” I have heard about similar stories to Kip Kinkel’s but I have never read enough into it to have it hit home. In this case, and as well as in many others, I would say that there are stronger, safer, and more effective alternatives out there for depressed people. Doctors and Experts should try various therapies, courses, and exercises before immediately heading for the medicines.
From just reading your brief synopsis, I was very shocked to see that children were having this reversal of medicine on them. These stories seemed very relatable to today because they are our, own age and most were taking medicine that we either (maybe) take, heard of, or are around today. This website clearly showed how this topic goes unnoticed by everyone. I know before browsing there some of these stories that I never heard of antidepressants not fulfilling their “job.” The one story that caught my eye was the story of Toby, a fifteen year old that shot two teachers and then hinted to other students that he would not live much longer. This clearly demonstrated the effects of antidepressants. He was a shy boy, who had the day before this shooting had been suspended from school because of another obscure incident. Toby the day of the shooting walked through the school and had shot two teachers who he first saw; one tried to get away, but was shot in the back. Toby then after shooting the second teacher went up ahead and ended his life himself. I found really startling that he would tell his friends that he would be going to heaven soon and couldn’t make it to a party later in the week because he would be there and that he wouldn’t make it to his next birthday, but his friends never saw this as a hint to get him help or tell anyone. I think that’s the most important lesson in today’s society. Everyone is scared to do something when found in this type of situation. Although, I was never in that type of situation before, I feel as though I would, too shy away because I just “don’t want to get involved.” I think that if someone saw his train of path that had continued he wouldn’t be dead right now. In this case, medicine did worse than all predicted. I think that there are stronger, more effective alternatives out there to remedy psychological disorders other than pills. The parents of Toby could have brought him to a therapist, psychologist, and another exercise that will help instead of putting him and giving him pills. Toby was more than just depressed and angry; some part of his mind was clearly “messed up”. I think people just go right to the pills because it’s easier, but sometimes like in all these stories that’s not the case.
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ReplyDeleteThe first thing that jumped to mind when I saw this website was a person that I saw on the news years ago, talking about his theory that the drugs that the pharmaceutical industry possesses are much more powerful than those on the market; his assertion is that consumer drugs are formulated to make the public dependent on the drug industry for more. Though the side effects of drugs do not deal with this theory, I think it highlights the importance that we must be fully aware of what we take to make us "better" by any means. I can't help but think back to the biological unit that we covered a few months ago, especially how certain drugs enhance some neurotransmitters or endorphins and others inhibit them. The endless reports on this website are more than enough to testify that we shouldn't mess with our systems via drugs; the consequences can be fatal. Perhaps there are alternative methods to adjusting our -- maybe to correct a chemical imbalance that leads to depression or Alzheimer's, or introducing a flood of more endorphins to soothe pain. Things like acupuncture and pressure-targeting massages are natural to our bodies; maybe if we discovered and promoted other natural or organic solutions such as these, we could reduce the issues of unforeseen side effects.
ReplyDeleteThese articles, especially the ones about the school shootings, are devastating. And the argument for and against is definitely a heated one. This reminds me of the musical Next to Normal in which the mother, who has bipolar disease struggles with her disease and the affects of her medication. There's a song called My psycho-pharmacologist and I and at the end of the song, after she goes through a montage of weeks of taking different does of medicine, he asks her how she feels. She responds "I feel nothing at all" and he responds "patient stable". It wasn't until she was numb and not feeling any of her bipolar symptoms that the medicine was deemed successful. Is it really worth giving up your personality and your feelings in order to stabilize your disease? When is living not really living at all? But then again if it is a biological issue, what is the alternative? I think the best course is to go through therapy along with medication if it is absolutely necessary Here's the link to the song it's a really thought provoking musical.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htFsdiyxxXM&feature=related
I always see those Zoloft commercials on tv - the commercial starts with grey backgrounds and people looking sad. Yet, by the end of the commercial everyone is happy and walking in a park with a big smile. This implies that antidepressants can only have positive effects. However, while those pictures light up the screen, a hushed, hurried voice in the background rattles off dozens upon dozens of possible side effects. As they announce these side effects, they really never mention what can happen when regular Zoloft users go off of the medication. I read an article about a man suffering from Zoloft withdrawal who opened fire on a college campus, wounding 20 and killing 5. They never mention on the commercials that withdrawal from the drug can cause erratic behavior, like this man's. This just reinforces my belief that antidepressants can actually cause more harm than good. What is even scarier is the fact that the man who opened fire was described as a nice, caring person by his girlfriend. So, you have to wonder how much the Zoloft changed his personality. Perhaps people suffering from depression should seek other forms of treatment, like therapy or hypnosis.
ReplyDeleteI think that medicine can be helpful when used properly, but I think therapy and other alternatives like hypnosis should be tried before resorting to antidepressants. I think many people in today’s society are quick to diagnose themselves with disorders and feel they need medicine to cure them. I think it is this overdependence on drugs that gives medicine a bad name. People are living much longer today than years ago because of advances in medicine. I think pills become harmful if they are unnecessarily prescribed or taken without a prescription. When a doctor feels like antidepressants are the best choice, I think there should be a better system in place for monitoring the patients. I read a few of these stories, and they were incredibly sad, but after I read them I wondered about the doctors who treated these patients and the patient’s families. I would expect that the doctor would request a follow-up visit after prescribing an antidepressant with potential harmful side effects and tell the patient’s family to call the doctor’s office if there was any behavioral change. It really frightens me a little to know that these kids’ families didn’t realize or didn’t acknowledge that their kids were having such a tough time or were so depressed that they shot people or took other rash action. I think medicine can be good, when the right dosage and drug is prescribed and if these people have someone who cares enough about them to realize something’s wrong before it escalates to the point of a shooting.
ReplyDeleteI, probably like most other people, was unaware of the reverse effects antidepressants can have on adolescents. I figured there were probably some cases in which antidepressants did not work for a patient, but was so shocked to hear of the several thousands of cases the website talks about. Who knew medicine could cause so much harm? This website brings awareness to a topic not frequently discussed. I believe that it would be beneficial to all people who are thinking about taking antidepressants to navigate through this website before making the choice to take the antidepressant. Yes, it might freak them out, but these stories are all real and patients should be aware of the reversal effects of the drugs before something bad happens to them.
ReplyDeleteWhat story stood out to me the most was "Senior in High School Threatens to Kill 4 Classmates: Facebook Involved: Bail Denied." I believe that this story is relatable in a sense to us- we all can admit to spending hours on Facebook and we all are seniors in high school. I am sure that many people have personal stories about people they know who have take antidepressants, but I cannot say that I personally know someone who has. Therefore, these stories came very shocking to me. This story in particular, Patrick Dittmar Crider had an online conversation in which threats were made to kill four students the next day. After the shootings, Crider intended to declare his love for a girl and shoot himself in the head (talking about dying for the one you love!). Dr. Vanessa Camperlengo, a psychiatrist specializing in children and adolescents, said that Crider had reported side effects such as feeling “speeded up,” which may have affected his behavior at this time. It is crazy to think that the side effects of a drug he was taking could have caused him to kill four of his classmates!
Personally, I do not believe that medicine does people worse than it does better. Yes, there are many cases which this website talks about in which medicine did do people worse, however the website is bias and does not talk about the cases in which antidepressants had actually helped adolescents. I do, however, believe that there are other effective alternatives that could be used to remedy psychological disorders other than pills. I think that people have become very reliable on pills and believe that the pills will "do the trick" and they fail to be open to other methods that could cure psychological disorders. Patents should be open to any treatment that could possibly help their disorder.
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ReplyDeleteI know that Danielle brought up this topic to look at the effects that antidepressants have on adolescents, but when I spent some time on this website, what caught my attention even more than the horror stories about adolescents and high school students reaching their breaking points and acting out in crazy ways were the stories about normal adults—the kinds of people that we all expect to have enough of a handle on their lives (more-so than we can assume the adolescents do) that they can navigate the tricky path of antidepressants and medications pretty successfully. However, clearly this is not the case.
ReplyDeleteThe story I read was about a 60-year-old woman who worked as a school bus driver and one day took a dangerous mixture of antidepressants and painkillers before she drove a busload of students. She was prescribed antidepressants after she fell into a state of depression after the death of her partner of 31 years shortly before the incident. On this particular day, she found someone cleaning out her partner’s room and she took 2 antidepressants and then 2 painkillers before she picked up the children for her normal route. What struck me most about this article was the relationship that this woman had with the students she drove. It was said that “the kids were everything to her” and she was so upset by what happened—her reckless and dangerous driving that could have potentially killed the kids on her bus or people out on the street—that she broke down hysterically crying because she could not understand how she allowed herself to go ahead with what she did.
This woman clearly had emotional issues that she was dealing with, and the fact that a doctor prescribed her antidepressants shows that at least she was aware of her problem and was trying to get help. But it makes you wonder: if she had been able to cope with the loss of her loved one without drugs, would this situation ever have taken place? She dangerously mixed two different kinds of medicines and drugs that were not meant to ever be combined. If she had been seeing a therapist and undergoing non-medicinal treatment, perhaps she would have never had the opportunity to risk her own life and the lives of the people around her. Danielle raises a really good and interesting point- isn’t there a better remedy for psychological disorders like depression than taking drugs for the disorder’s symptoms? I, with my limited knowledge on the subject, have to think that perhaps instead of masking or glazing over her instability and depression with medicine, this lady would have been better off if she underwent treatment or counseling that could go deeper to the root of her problem and try to eradicate the traces of her issues at the heart.
I was so surprised when I first read Danielle’s synopsis. I had no idea that there have been cases when anti-depressants go wrong. I enjoyed reading the stories because they were about people around our age; this made them somewhat relatable. One story that caught my eye was a story about a boy who before he made his killing called his closest friend, his girlfriend, and said goodbye. His girlfriend said there were no clues to lead her to assume that he was going to do this. She could not believe when cops called and said her boyfriend had gone back to their alma-mater and had killed five and wounded twenty people in a lecture hall. Jessica, his girlfriend told reporters that they were presenting him as a monster and he wasn’t. She also said that he had been taking Prozac and a few weeks before the shooting he had stopped because it made him feel like a zombie. After he went off of it he was a “little quicker to get annoyed.” If only someone had known about what he was planning to do. Somebody could have helped him. The psychiatrist could have changed the drug he was using to something that made him feel less like a zombie. The story could have ended so much differently if he had the right prescription.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Danielle's question as to whether or not there's a more effective way to treat psychological disorders than pills I really don't know. I think there's a tendency to blame the drug itself rather than to more closely examine whether or not the treatment was effective for that specific ailment. It's easier to prescribe a bottle of pills to treat a patient rather than consider a combination treatment of both therapy and medication. I found the article about Andrea Yates particularly interesting because I had heard of her story before, yet not in as much specific detail. Yates suffered from postpartum psychosis and drowned her children in the bathtub while in a delusional state, likely elevated by the cessation of the strong anti-psychotic drug Haldol. Her daily dose had increased to twice the recommended maximum dose. Instead of realizing that Yates was not stable enough to function on her own in society, more medication was given to her in order to mask this greater need. If Yates had been checked into a mental health facility where she could safely receive the treatment necessary for her condition, this extremely mentally ill woman and her family may not have suffered the fatal repercussions.
ReplyDeleteI thought this site was very interesting, because everything seems more real to me when I can link a story that actually happened with what is being spoken about. I read the story about the boy named Toby who always bragged about having a gun with him, and eventually came in to school one day and killed two teachers, and then proceeded to kill himself. This is a tragic situation, and I can only think about how badly Toby needed significantly more help than he was receiving. He was being given medicine for his emotional problems as well as counseling with the Department of Mental Health. Although he was taking an antidepressant, it clearly was not having the impact on him that was supposed to happen. When someone is taking these medications and seeking professional help, there should be some change in the behaviors of the person. Toby was not having the slightest change emotionally or psychologically. One line from the article that I found really interesting was "The Physician's Desk Reference, a guide to medications commonly used by doctors, warns that the medication may not eliminate the ``inherent risk of suicide'' that comes with depressed patients." This is because it more or less says that although the medicine is supposed to help, there is no positivity. In response to Danielle's question, I do believe that people (of all ages) who have psychological and emotional problems need to go further than just receiving medication and seeing a counselor. I know that is much easier said than done, because after all with the fast paced lives everyone leads it is difficult to take the time and figure out what other steps can be taken to improve the situation. Maybe people with these suicidal thoughts (as well as people with emotional and psychological problems) can talk to people who were once in the situation that they are currently in. One thing that I thoroughly believe is that whatever steps that are taken for one to recover from this mental state need to be taken over a long period of time. If a troubled person only talks to someone who has been through this before one time, then they may not get anything out of it. If they go multiple times, they are more likely to gain insight from the other person and realize there are ways that they can turn their lives around.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this website, because it made the topic of antidepressants and the impact (or lack thereof)that much more real for me.
One of the names that stood out to me on this website was Cymbalta. This antidepressant always has commercials on TV and they always start off with a sad woman or man and questions like, "Do you have no energy?" or "Do you not find yourself not interested in things you used to be interested in?". Then it introduces Cymbalta and how it can help your depression with the same man or woman up and about, happy. After introducing the antidepressant, it names all their side effects, or most of them. Many of these side effects are very serious, one I always remember is "thoughts of suicide". Why would antidepressants make you want to commit suicide? Aren't they supposed to help you not think about suicide? I guess not in all cases.
ReplyDeleteI don't want to completely say "antidepressants are bad" because for some people, they really do help them. But I guess that for majority of them, it doesn't.
This website was very intriguing. It talked about how antidepressants are really bad in some cases. As upsetting as these cases are, they are equally as interesting. Some of these cases are very scary and worry me a bit. But, I doubt that the medical field will ever get rid of pills as a "remedy" for psychological disorders. There may be other effective alternatives for a remedy but some things will help some, while it won't help others, like these pills.
Overall, I enjoyed this website and reading what antidepressants can do to someone.
This is definitely a tricky issue to tackle, as there are both benefits and drawbacks to antidepressants. Most of us (thankfully) were not too aware of the averse effects of antidepressants before reading this article -- the only information I had knowledge of that pointed to these dangerous side effects came from commercials, much like the ones some of you guys have already mentioned. Like Sami mentioned, the Cymbalta commercial did come to mind for me..."Cymbalta can help....side effects include thoughts of suicide." How could these two points ever go together?
ReplyDeleteI know Danielle had mentioned cases of childhood depression and medication going wrong -- which I think is more common than in adults simply because children are still changing and developing -- but I also found some of the adult cases quite intriguing. I clicked on workplace violence and found this case of one librarian killing his co-worker out of the blue. It was weird because the murderer claimed to have a type of amnesia where he basically would not remember events/his own actions over a period of time (a few hours usually) after they happened. Convenient, right? He was also taking multiple different medications, which I feel like is the situation with a lot of these cases: patients seem to be continually mixing medications that should not be mixed, and this needs to be prevented from happening.
I think all of these cases make it clear that antidepressants are not always helpful, but I think they also show that antidepressants must not be abused. I don't know personally, but it makes sense that they would help more when used correctly than when used contrary to the intended prescription. I also think there is definitely something to be said for therapy and other techniques before immediately jumping to drugs, which I feel happens a lot.
Just like everyone else, I was shocked when I was going through this website. I could not believe that depressed people were turning into violent onces with just the consumption of anti-depressant pills. Maybe the reason for this is because these depressed people are so used to not wanting to do anything with their lives, so once these pills start to work, their anger for being depressed all these years comes out and they take it out on others or themselves. Obviously I'm no doctor so I have no idea if that is true but that is how I see it in my mind. The one story that stuck out to me was a story was the story of an elderly woman, Hazel Powell, who stabbed her husband 35 times before stabbing herself 50 times. I looked into this article because she was from New Jersey, but what I thought was most interesting was the fact that she was 77 years old. When I think of someone who is depressed, I think of teenagers or people in their 20s and 30s. I would never picture someone at that age of 77 needing to take anti-depressants because I feel like people at that age have gone through life and should not have much to be upset about. Even though these pills cause so many deaths, they probably save many lives as well so I do not believe that they are going to get rid of these pills. Maybe they can make new ones or find a way to control this anger, but finding a different remedy for saving a depressed person would be very difficult.
ReplyDeleteI thought it was really disturbing to read that since medication, like Prozac, has been introduced (Dec. 1987) to seemingly "help" those who are depressed or have other anxiety disorders, the diagnosis rate almost tripled from 1% to 2.6% of the population (almost one out of every thirty eight people). It's scary to think that maybe certain people are being misdiagnosed just because a drug is available. it really makes you think; are people being really examined and taken care of for their own benefit, or is a doctor just pushing a pill on them to keep them quiet and move on to the next patient?
ReplyDeleteGoing through the different articles was shocking because so many of the drugs mentioned are ones that we (or at least me) know someone who has taken them or have at least heard about them. It is so sad to see that these antidepressants that are said to help so many people are actually hurting a great deal of people. The amount of suicides, murders, and other violent crimes that happened AFTER the use of these "helpful" drugs are staggering and should really make a person question how quickly they are to accept a diagnosis.
Granted, these medications do help some people, but it seems that the less violent patients became more aggressive after taking the prescribed medications, which is scary. Another aspect that is pretty frightening, I thought, was the antidepressant were the drugs that seemed to cause the biggest mood change among patients, rather than the actual "mood swing" medication.
The age range in victims could have been one of the most disturbing to me. The fact that a seven year old boy was put into such a mental state that he felt hanging himself was okay, and even worse, a better way out, is terrifying! At seven years old, a person is still so young an developing--to put in something so unnatural is really questionable. I understand that, as a parent, a person wants to do everything in his or her power to help our his or her child, but I don't know if such serious medications are really the answer. I mean in this little boy's case, anyway, those medications seemed to inhibit him from getting better, permanently.
I think this article was really important for us to read because when we think of drug use, I think we often go to illegal substances that people have to sneak around. I think that is why this is so much more dangerous--because these drugs are prescribed! I think this just proves that we have to really be safe and pay attention when we are prescribed medication.
It seems that anti-depressants are counter-productive or contradictory, as they led to the most reports of violence in connection to antipsychotic drugs. It's shocking to see that a drug that's supposed to help someone with their problem often provokes more problems. It surprised me to read that anti-depressants have been reported to increase mania and psychosis since the 1950's and there has been little effort to educate people on the potential damage or little research on alternative drugs. As I read on, I pondered that perhaps these drugs are being misused. I think people often look to anti-depressant medication as a quick fix for their anxiety or other psychological issues and assume it will automatically fix their problem. People may not recognize that anti-depressant medication should be complemented with intense therapy and close observation.
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