I heard that doctors have now said that only prosac is to be given to teenageers. I personally think that giving anti-depressants to teen agers is a very stupid idea. Most teenages are depressed for one reason or another.
But handing out pills at that kind of age will only make it worse. Surely helping them to work through there problems whould be more intelegent.
It would certanly be better then creating a load of pill dependant adults.

Sometime's its necessary to take medication for things such as depression.
Some people depend on them to live a normal life.

Yes, some people (like me) depend on such things to live a healthy life. However, as someone who's been around psychology and psychiatry for most of his life (an is currently pursuing it in higher education) and the child of the president of the local chapter of the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, I've known many cases where medicines were inappropriatly handed out. A lot of these medications are handed out by physicians and not psychiatrists or psychiatric nurse practitioners. Many of these physicians are looking for a quick-fix. There are cases of situational depression where the meds are needed for a short time to keep the person going, but that isn't always the case. I too feel that antidepressants are handed out a bit too much. My noob is right (I'm so proud ). These parents should bring there kids to counciling and not assume that medication is the answer. I personally have always been weary of antidepressants and do feel that it can lead to dependence.

i remember last year, i went to see my doctor about my eczema. after talking for a while over possible triggers, she asked me if i was stressed, and i said yes as i had my mock gcse exams that month. after asking me if i wanted counselling, to which i replied no (as i stubbornly refuse to pay for help i can get from friends and loved ones better knowing me), she decided to offer me anti-depressants.
i don't know about in america, or anywhere else, but in the uk i know it affects future things. for instance, medical records show it, you have to specify if asked on medical or application forms (i think) and people will obviously know. for me, i'd rather try other things that don't require prescription drugs first, like exercise, rest, having fun. failing that, maybe homeopathic recipes combined with all the above. but i'm reluctant to ever take them around exams, and i wouldn't suggest to anyone that mentioned feeling depressed and needing a solution to ask their doctor for anti-depressants. sometimes i believe it makes them worse to know it's so bad they're taking pills for it...in some people, that might make them feel worse.

I am a capitalist so the following opinion might surprise a few people:

I think the drug companies that market these antidepressants are horrid. They advertise on TV and tell people they can cure "shyness" "anxiety" "depression" completely. People see these ads and look into getting the medicine. Getting these medicines is as easy as telling a doctor you are depressed.

These drug companies are making oodles of cash by giving drugs to a huge number of people who do not need them. In many cases, these drugs have bad side effects.

Problems can not be solved with a pill. Meanwhile the anti-depressant companies are raking in the cash of the gullible masses.

Depression is a very complicated disease, and it has many factors that play a role in shaping it: social, psychological, physiological, genetic... For some people, it is a simply a biological disorder, in which the biochemistry of the brain is off. For myself, being depressed makes it very difficult to function properly; I can't focus, I become apathetic, and my schoolwork suffers. For me, then, antidepressants (and therapy, yes), help to lead a normal life. I know that exercise, a balanced diet, stress relief, and many other factors are extremely important in dealing with depression, but for some people, it is impossible to get these things without the antidepressants -- if you have no motivation, it's very difficult to get to the gym or lead any sort of normal social life. Also, as a health practictioner, why do people always assume that homeopathy ets. is a "healthier" choice than conventional medicine?? First off, we have very little empirical evidence in the area, we don't know the drug contraindications (thus making it very dangerous in soem cases to take these drugs -- you could have a bad biochemical interaction and end up dead), there is always the possibility of allergic reactions, they're not controlled substances by the FDA or Health Canada or whatever organization and thus we really don't know what's *in* them. I'm not bashing alternative medicine as totally useless -- I do believe that we should continue to investigate such therapies as possible useful new techniques in treating diseases -- but we have *so* little evidence in this area -- much more research is needed. Pharmacologists have spent decades studying SSRIs (serotonin specific reuptake inhibitors) and we know that it *really* helps in dealing with problems in the synaptic clefts with early reuptake of serotonin. Perhaps a herb or other alternative therapy would do the same, but that doesn't make it a "non-drug." If it is functioning to help you, and it's not just a result of the placebo effect (ie. you feel better because you think it's helping you -- which is an extremely powerful force, believe me -- your mind has an extremely powerful effect on your body and health), then it's acting as a drug, plain and simple. Natural does not equal healthy. Poison ivy is natural, but I wouldn't suggest eating it.

Also, some teenagers are depressed for reasons beyond the hormonal imbalance of which we all know so well... its really not fair to deny they treatment because "they'll get over it..." or "it's only because they're teenagers." I would much rather give someone antidepressants to help them deal with life then have them do something stupid, like hurt themselves or others. And for many people "talking about their problems" simply doesn't work... therapy does not always work in treating depression, and for many people simply isn't a viable option for treatment of their depression.

Depression is a biochemical disorder of the brain, fundamentally. If you can treat it with psychotherapy and cognitive behaviour therapy, then go you. If you need antidepressants, then use the drugs to help you function in life normally.

Yeah, anti-depressants can be a complex issue. I mean, doctor's can be irresponsible at times. So can parents and the teens. I mean, about what they choose and for what reasons. But I'm definitely alright with them. I was on some for a while, but stopped, because they're just not for me. Not right now anyway. Definitely, overcoming problems or at least dealing with them has to come from within the person, not from chemicals. However they can help I think, in psychological ways as well as direct physical ways. There are so many different kinds to choose from these days. And our culture really relies heavily on medication and drugs. It's....probably not good.

ugh, SO many of my friends are on that. and they DEFINITELLY don't seem like the people that need it. then again, that might be because of the prozac, but somehow i think that, at least in the case of most of my friends, there were plenty of other options....

Why only Prozac? Most teenagers I know that are on medication are on Zoloft or Xanax.

And, as a depressive teenager, the medication is not making me dependent. It is simply correcting a chemical imbalance so that I can live to see each day without hurting myself.

If I ever had to go on happy pills, I'd sell them and make a profit. Yup.

I've spoken with a psychologist just recently, and she was spewing at how the current fashion was to medicate children at the slightest. Look at that one, people .... this is saying that in medecine, as in every profession, there are 'fashions' that are followed because they are 'what's done' and not (necessarily) because they are what is best. That's not what we'd like it to be.

There are other far sicker parameters that affect how treatments are chosen and prescribed. A full waiting room can affect how a patient is treated, because all the staff are running around like headless chickens fighting what probably looks like a hopeless battle ... The worst I've heard so far, is the small matter of a state (as in country) that paid its doctors by establishing a 'price' for each different operating procedure. So a hernia operation would fetch the doctor say 500 bucks (or whatever) whereas a ... i dunno ... tonsilitis may be priced at 150. The upshot was that if one treatment for a desease got the doctor 1000$, but a different, newer, and better treatment for the same disease only got him 500, he'd tend to prescribe the one that cost more, leaving the whole population with treatments that were 30 years out of date, just cos they payed more. That is one fecked fact.

So yeah, medical professionals are pretty much as human as everybody else, and therefore prone to being complete toss-pots 15% (rough estimate. on thursdays this figure could reach 40%) of the time. The same is true of every institution we like to consider safe, or 'above suspicion'. Cops, education, public admistration, justice ... you name it, at least 15% are complete and total wankers.

Drugs are supposed to act in the same way as a plaster-cast works for a broken leg. It doesn't fix anything. It just holds it in the right place long enough for the wound to fix itself, or be fixed via other means. Nothing wrong with prescribed antidepressants. We just have to play spot-the-arse-hat when we're dealing with doctors, and make sure we dont become a fashion victim. Likewise for every profession on this planet. Just one more reason why money is a bad thing.

I was on anti-depressants for a long time, and I honestly don't know what would have happened to me if I hadn't been... but sometimes I think there's a good chance that I would have been fine without them. Overall they caused a lot of problems for me, and I don't know how much their intended effect compensated for that. It was hell trying to stop taking them after so long, too.

I think that in a lot of cases doctors are treating what is essentially situational depression as if it were chemical, and drugging kids just because it's the easy thing to do. In those cases it really hurts a lot more than it helps. Like I said before, anti-depressants caused a lot of problems for me and I really did need them, unlike a lot of teenagers who are prescribed them anyway. My situation is different than a lot of people's, obviously, and I had to go through a lot of therapy and other things before they gave me any medication at all. From what I've heard, this isn't what happens in most other countries.

I guess the trouble is that it's not easy trying to tell one kind of depression from another. If someone is just unhappy with their life (and I'm not saying this isn't serious, because in many cases is it) anti-depressants aren't going to help them anyway. I wish I had some kind of solution for this...

I agree with most of what you say, Pab. There *are* crooked physicians out there. However, in Canada thankfully we have some semblance of a decent health-care system, which tends to cut down on the ethical issues *somewhat*. Although it is a severly underfunded system, but that's another issue...

I disagree in part with the "drugs not fixing anything.* I have schizophrenic acquantainces, and it really is a necessary means for helping their mental problems. Also, for some people, we simply can't determine what triggers the depression, and so is mainly a physiological imbalance. Or idiopathic (we haven't got the slightest clue what's causing it... a physician's favourite phrase). In those cases, medicines are the only thing that we have for helping these people. And also, often a person simply needs drugs to get through a difficult time, and 6 months after the symptoms are 100% gone, they can go off the medication and never have a recurrance. So in those cases, it really is a solution to the problem.

uhm...ok...i am a depressed teen. i will admit it after a long time of denial, but it is a psychological problem with things from my past and health issues in the family that could finally result in death...found out i could have it...woo and yay. anyways, enough about that don't want you feeling sorry for me or anything, my mom thought i better not go on Zoloft or anything because my mom, dad, and brother are all on Zoloft and they think that introducing me to this everburning love for anti-depressents for simply a disfunctional family is not what she wants for me. plus, they probably wouldn't work anyways.

wow a lot of you guys feel the same way i do about the drugs. I think that overall they are bad, although i will admit there are probably a small number of people who could benefit from taking them.

I heard an analogy one time about anti-depressants: it is like turning off the power to a whole house in order to turn off one lightbulb.

It bothers me that some people tend to think you are insensitive for thinking that the antidepressant drugs are the least bit bad.

Ahh!! Its good to see that I can make intelegent people sit up and take notice as well as the strange creatures that inhabit my school. I'm with most of these comments and agree that chemical depression is indeed worthy of pills - some of my family are/have used them - situational depression however is another matter. As for selling them - I can never find a decent price and E-ay wont let me trade any more...

BY situational depression, I mean severe depresssion that happens for a short time. Case in point: A woman has her dad die, her husband leaves her for his secretary and her youngest kid get sick. Times like these may call for antidepressants on a temporary basis to help the woman get through the time, but when the situation's over, the woman should be taken off of the meds. That's the way it sould work, but that's not always the case.

Righteous, please don't answer this if you don't feel comfy doing so, but what drugs where you prescibed for you bi-polar-ness?
I think it was you who mentioned bi-polarity anyway. I could be mistaken.

I think it's a bad idea that they hand out prozak to teenagers like its nothing. If I could get a hold of some personally, I'd probably be popping a hand full every minute of the day. Life can be a b*tch and extremely hard to take, but taking the pills is just going to make it worse in the long run...

Unless your taking the pills for another reason - which I don't condone

First: more anti-depressants does not = more happiness. (In response to your popping of pills comment... not that this is what you meant, I know, but the general concept is there in society at large). The level of effectiveness can only be determined by you and your doctor in the context of how you respond to the medicine. Some people don't respond at all. others respond to very low doses.

Secondly: I'm not sure how taking anti-depressants can make your life worse in the long run. Yes, life can be a b*tch, but just because you believe that, or because you're having a bad day or string of days, doesn't make you clinically depressed. There are symptoms into which you have to fall to be considered as having major depression.

Thirdly: I have *no* idea why anyone would want to take anti-depressants recreationally. They don't give you a "kick" or a "high," they work on your synaptic clefts in a long-term sense, and they've got really crappy side-effects: diarrhea, erectile dysfunction, sexual dysfunction... you *really* don't want to be taking these unless they are genuinely working for you to help you with your disease.

...yes they do...

Valium.................................



I have friends who used to be very big druggies. We're talking quadruple- or even quintuple-threat nights. Valium is apparently becoming one of the more popularly taken antidepressants (for recreational purposes). They get drunk and take a few valium and Don't.........care.........about............anything.........

a friend of mine burnt down a church and stole a penny collection jar from it while on valium and alcohol because he didn't have a care in the world and had no idea what he was doing was wrong.

the bf, back when he used to be one of those druggies, was on valium and alcohol (and a couple of other things...I think pot and shrooms)...he was at a Happy Chef at 6:30 am with three other friends. He propositioned a married woman in front of her husband, french-kissed her husband in public, and loudly announced to the whole restaurant his intentions of doing an eat-and-run. This is what valium and alcohol does to you......not cool.

Valium isn't prescribed very much these days actually because of its addictive properties. Most anti depressants Prozac, Zoloft, Xanax, like Tigersong said, simply help fill in the chemical gaps of your brain, if that make any sense. I've was prescribed generic Prozac at the beginning of November and the doctor specifically told me that I probably wouldn't feel any change for awhile because it takes a long time to build up in the body. For the first couple weeks all I got was side effects.

I really don't know why anyone could or would take anti-depressants for recreational use, unless they took Valium or some other kind of tranquillizer, which I don't think are classed as anti-depressants and aren't for long time use.

I do agree that some doctors have been overmedicating kids. Scarily enough some teachers have been talking to parents and recommending that their children go on Ritalin. Teachers do not have the training to determine whether a child has ADD or ADHD or any other physical or mental ailment. Sometimes they're just annoyed with a bored or active child, and want to make them calm down. Unfortunately some parents take the teachers seriously and will go to their family doctor and quite easily get a prescription for Ritalin, because as Pab noted, the fashion these days in the medical profession is to over medicate, especially children.

I was ten years old when I was given my first antidepressant. TEN. And as I worsened instead of bettered over the years, the dose was increased. And increased. And it did me worse - I could tell. While it had helped me get over the loss of my mother, it seemed to be working against me. I personally believe it was. The past three years have had me being depressed all the way to being suicidal - which I never was until I had taken antidepressants. I'm not sure if the antidepressants did it, I can't blame them. As I got older, the medicine just keeps increasing. I am now taking a slightly reduced Zoloft prescription - but they have me on another drug, Effexor. At this moment in time, I was on as much medicine as I ever had been. Last night, I had suicidal thoughts. I was sitting paralyzed in my bed, knowing I shouldn't be thinking these things. I remembered the five pills I'd taken, and wondered what to do. After all, I tried to go off of my pills once, and that had me off even worse. I see now that I have very quick withdrawal problems. After two days without the medicine I was screaming and crying for hours on end. After two years of taking the medication, I began to self-injure, and it has taken me almost a year to get over that problem, but I'm still depressed.

Case in point? Well, really, I had to rant and tell something to people who may understand me other than my father or psychiatrist, always intent on upping the dose. I know some people need antidepressants, but everyone needs to be more responsible taking them. The British have recently banned most antidepressants for children - in surveys shown they could help, or hurt. They help most people, but I don't know about me. Everyone needs to be more careful prescribing them and taking them - it would be very hard, but it's what needs to be done. Whether or not it was the medication that did this to me I do not know, but it has happened to other people this way. You cannot simply toss antidepressants at a person and fool around with the dosage and expect it to work. The entire psychological community needs to study this more.

[/end long-winded, stupidly personal rant.]

Getting through depression that is'nt bi polar/manic makes somone understand their onw minds better and creates a more mentally stable adult. It's usually the teenagers who were forcibly happy all the time that end up becoming serious deprressive in their later years.

my psychology tutor has also had a fair few rants about the fashions of doctoring.

the problem with anti-depressants, she says, is that rather than solving the problem, they create chamicals to hide it.

not haveing experience, i wouldnt know, just passing on wisdom.

Well, I know if I skip one pill, I fall apart in less than 12 hours. Medication shouldn't be the only step in the solution, but it can certainly help!