Reply #20: Nope, they made me much worse unfortunately

[Susang]

It seems I have atypical depression. SSRIs didn't do any good for me and they gave me neurological symptoms that wreaked havoc on my life. I was not surprised when the FDA demanded the warning labels on SSRIs be expanded to include suicide, suicidal thoughts and self destructive behavior.

Of course many of those side effects weren't listed in the literature, I had to do a little research and find the information myself. Turns out there's a whole lot of SSRI side effects and interactions, particularly neurological, that are not reported in the initial tests that have cropped up in their day to day usage.

I'm not against the use of SSRIs, but I do think that the vast amount of prescriptions being written for them may come back to haunt us later, as we really don't yet know the physical effects of using these drugs long term.

It bothers me to know that we (as in doctors, scientists, etc) don't even quite know or understand why the drugs even work on depression. All we have are hotly contested theories, and quite a lot of them. I'm reading a fascinating book on the topic right now coincidentally, called The Noonday Demon:An Atlas of Depression by Andrew Soloman. Written by a depressive about depression, it's brilliant. I highly recommend it.