Antidepressants to treat grief? Psychiatry panelists with ties to drug industry say yes

[Ms. Toad]

61. Celexa is not so inoffensive.

My daughter is currently on medical leave from college in large part because of the disastrous side effects of Celexa.

She is one of the few people who experienced the paradoxical side effect that it created hypersexuality. She is, to our knowledge, currently free of STIs. But at the point at which she was told by a friend of a friend that she had been exposed but not by whom so she couldn't ask to what she had been exposed, she weaned herself off of it and withdrew from college because of the combined effect of unmedicated depression and dealing with the potential that she had acquired one or more STIs, the treatment for which would be incompatible with her underlying medical conditions. We have a few more months before we are outside the seroconversion period for HIV.

She had an idiot for a psychiatrist, who abandoned her while she was on Celexa (he literally stopped returning her phone calls and refused to set up an appointment to replace the one he didn't bother to show up for). So she was not being actively cared for when the hypersexuality developed, and it took a few months (and a serious wake-up call) before I could convince her it might be connected to celexa.

She needs medical assistance for her depression (which was triggered by diagnosis at age 19 with a condition that at the time of diagnosis had a prognosis of 10 years to death or transplant). Although we have finally found a replacement psychiatrist who is competent, she is scared to death to try another because of the disastrous consequences of this one. And, on top of depression and a life threatening underlying physical condition, she still, for a few more months, has to deal with the potential of HIV, and with the emotional consequences of engaging in sexual activity she would not have chosen to engage in but for the influence of Celexa (all of her sexual experiences, ever, were under the influence of Celexa).

These drugs are necessary for some people - perhaps even many people. My daughter is one of them. But they are not something which should be undertaken lightly or without close monitoring by someone who is well versed in all of the known side effects and who is committed to assisting in finding the right match for the person who needs them. Far too many doctors give them out like candy - and far too many are prescribed by GPs rather than psychiatrists with specialized training. Just as I would not want my GP performing surgery of any significance on me, I also don't want him in charge of initiating and stabilizing pharmaceutical management of depression, anxiety, or bipolar disorders (just to name a few which are treated by SSRIs).