Of course the answer is yes. And, the good news is that there are Doctors of Alternative Medicine all across the country that are waiting to assist.
All we have to do is ask them to help us.
Quotes:
"Another of the world's leading authorities on SSRI's, Dr David Healy, also says that the effectiveness of SSRI's has been exaggerated, and the actual data reveals that only one in 10 patients on SSRI's can be shown to respond specifically to the drug rather than a nonspecific factor or a placebo." [3]
According to an Associated Press report, about 19.2 million prescriptions for Effexor were filled in the U.S. alone in 2005, statistically that means thousands of Americans could experience "homicidal ideation" - murderous thoughts - as a result of taking just this one brand of antidepressant drug." [4]
'The pooled results [of the studies in a recent FDA review] showed that an older class of antidepressants, known as tricyclics, was actually more effective, belying all the hype about the "revolutionary" new antidepressants [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, SSRIs].... The most disturbing finding was that more than twice as many depressed adults on new antidepressants kill themselves than those taking placeboes. The difference was 8.4 versus 3.6 suicides per 1,000 patients, a year respectively.' [5]
Newly unearthed evidence about the potential side effects of Prozac should be of great concern. “There does seem to be hazards with these drugs. The research showing testicular shrinkage could be a real issue for teenage boys. There have been so few tests on these drugs that we simply don’t know if there is a risk there or not.” [6]
"Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors have no clinically meaningful advantage over placebo"; "[c]laims that antidepressants are more effective in more severe conditions have little evidence to support them"; and "[m]ethodological artifacts may account for the small degree of superiority shown over placebo." [7]
“There is now unanimous agreement among commentators that the mean difference between response to antidepressant drugs and response to inert placebo is very small. It is so small that, despite sample sizes involving hundreds of participants, 57% of the trials funded by the pharmaceutical industry failed to show a significant difference between drug and placebo. Most of these negative data were not published and were accessible only by gaining access to US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) documents. The small difference between the drug response and the placebo response has been a "dirty little secret," known to researchers who conduct clinical trials, FDA reviewers, and a small group of critics who analyzed the published data and reached conclusions similar to that of the authors. It was not known to the general public, depressed patients, or even their physicians. The authors are pleased that their effort facilitates dissemination of this information.” [8]
"Many patients are led to believe, by their physicians and by advertising, that antidepressant drugs will act on the biological cause of their depressed state by rectifying a “chemical imbalance”. On the contrary, our analysis indicates that there are no specific antidepressant drugs, that most of the short-term effects of antidepressants are shared by many other drugs, and that long-term drug treatment with antidepressants or any other drugs has not been shown to lead to long-term elevation of mood. We suggest that the term “antidepressant” should be abandoned." [9]
Although it is often stated with great confidence that depressed people have a serotonin or norepinephrine deficiency, the evidence actually contradicts these claims." [10]
“A serotonin deficiency for depression has not been found." [11]
"Indeed, no abnormality of serotonin in depression has ever been demonstrated." [12]
"We have hunted for big simple neurochemical explanations for psychiatric disorders and have not found them." [13]
"Some have argued that depression may be due to a deficiency of NE [norepinephrine] or 5-HT [serotonin] because the enhancement of noradrenergic or serotonergic neurotransmission improves the symptoms of depression. However, this is akin to saying that because a rash on one's arm improves with the use of a steroid cream, the rash must be due to a steroid deficiency." [14]
"Given the ubiquity of a neurotransmitter such as serotonin and the multiplicity of its functions, it is almost as meaningless to implicate it in depression as it is to implicate blood." [15]
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