New studies are showing that phyciatric drugs are harmful to you brain. How do you get help then?

Question

there showing that they may not be effective, cause dependence, a not work the way we once thought. how can someone get help for a problem.

Answer 1

Taking medication is a personal choice.  We have to consider the benefits and risks.

What new studies?  Could you please do us a courtesy and point us to valid sources?  Thank you.

Answer 2

My aunt thought drugs from doctors were the answer . She is still dead. Died in her forties

Answer 3

All medications have downsides, but if you need them for a serious mental health concern I would give medications serious consideration. Many people require medications to function day to day. I have seen depression so bad that people have been in bed for months, eating rarely, not bathing etc. Some are suicidal, some use street drugs which are far more harmful, and many turn to alcohol which causes additional problems. There are other therapies depending on the problem, but those therapies have downsides or limitations as well. Talk with you mental health provider about alternatives and your concerns about medication and ask for help researching those options.

Answer 4

The only information I have seen on such drugs being harmful are antidepressants that are fairly ubiquitous today. As an example, Prozac has been deemed by some as the cause of a person's suicide. NEWS FLASH: The person taking Prozac was already clinically depressed, a diagnosis for which suicidal ideations are a SYMPTOM. I'm not sure if it's fair to blame the drug for a person doing something the mental illness often causes. These instances, in my opinion, are anecdotal as the figures I've seen are not statistically significant when you take symptoms of the illness into consideration. I have not seen any indication otherwise that these drugs cause damage or other harm to the brain.

As far as how to get treatment that you can trust, the best you can do is to consult a physician and do your homework.  Seek a second opinion if you must.

Good luck!

Answer 5

It depends upon what psychiatric disorder/s you are treating. There are side effects with every single medication known to man. That is a fact. You must therefore weigh the positive effects vs. the negative.

Many different medications may cause the memory to slow. Some significantly impact the memory, others just a bit. Medicines may impact your s*x life- usually negatively. Such as inability for erection, no lubrication, early ejaculation. On the other hand, psychiatric disorders often impact your sexual and emotional well-being. Kinda damned if you do and damned if you don't, in that respect. Newer anti-depressants may cause a person to become incredibly angry, without much self-control. There are also possible side effects of : dry mouth, loss of appetite, sleepiness, and bad dreams.

If a patient is to have trouble with any of their symptoms experienced, it is always recommended that you contact your pharmacist and/or doctor immediately. Some effects are more severe as others, such as the mood regulation difficulty, but it is rather uncommon- otherwise the FDA never would have approved the medicines (or kept them on the market). Then, the doctor switches you onto another medicine and makes sure that it works better for you.

In my experience, my best advice is to trust who you're working with. If you make some kind of connection with the psychiatrist (and feel that he/she really understands what you're going through), trust him/her to make the decisions. You are working together to get the condition/s under control, so that you can be as happy & healthy as you can be. Both of you work towards that goal together.

Learning all about the medicines that are in your area can also be very helpful. You can keep your eye out for effects that may come, and let the psychiatrist (or doctor) know if you are experiencing X effects. The sooner negative effects are caught, the better for you.

Answer 6

I don't know where you found these "new studies", but I've never seen them, and I study this stuff.

I'll tell you something though, and that's that psychiatric medications have saved my life; probably my son's too. I say this because there were numerous times in my life that a murder (him)/suicide (me) would had been very likely to happen because of my severe mental illness (Bipolar I).

Hypomania, full-blown mania, mixed states, and profound depression are tremendously dangerous places for a patient to be in. mentally. The risk of suicide increases exponentially during all those states, not only depression

My point? I'd rather be stupid than dead..

Answer 7

Well, in my opinion, who cares if they're addictive as long as they work. And in my case, it sure beat the alternative...possibly blowing my brains out...

Answer 8

Got no idea what studies you're talking about. Because we've got plenty that say they're efficacious, dependency is about as big a deal as a stubbed toe when you're dealing with these kinds of issues, and not work the way we once thought? Really? Do we have a bare minimal understanding of how the brain works? Hm. Then everything in there might not work the way we thought.

They do work, some work better than others, and we don't care about dependence. Dependence isn't the same as addiction, and a lot of people don't understand the difference between them.

Answer 9

I also strongly feel that psychiatric problems should not be treated with drugs in the beginning itself. All drugs have some side effects. So we should try to find out the reason and background for mental setback. In the initial stages itself, if the mentally upset people, either on their own or with the help of close relatives try to examine the cause, we can find some solution. Normally some minor worries and unpleasantness when it is not cope-able by the individual, they start brooding over it. They go on building negative ideas. If such things are allowed to continue, the individual starts fearing. If proper guidance and parental love is available, it will give motivation or encouragement. All such mental cases can be easily solved if we search for a solution in the beginning itself.

Answer 10

I am bipolar.  I am on medications.  Like the other person said it beats the alternative of suicide.  I lost my father to suicide.  He was bipolar and did not take medications.  He shot himself.

I have actually hear that drugs can be neuroprotective for people with MI.  I also have heard that the reasons placebo seems effective in some studies is that the person receives attention from the treatment team in the order of 3 hours a week and that is not no treatment.

Therapy has been shown to be effective.  Cognitive Behavioral therapy.

There is a book called Feeling Good by David Burns that is a good book for help.

http://www.amazon.com/Feeling-Good-Thera...

Medications really do help many people and they are not addictive they just have to be tapered because there is a discontinuation syndrome if not.  Some medications like valium, ativan and xanax are addictive.