Anti-depressants may help protect brain, Washington University researchers

[Ediacara]

Anti-depressants may help protect brain, Washington University researchers find
By TINA HESMAN Post-Dispatch
updated: 08/01/2003 12:07 AM


New research by neuroscientists at Washington University suggests that anti-depressant drugs may have additional benefits beyond helping patients feel better now.

In a study published today in the American Journal of Psychiatry, Dr. Yvette I. Sheline and her colleagues found that women who had taken drugs to fight depression had less shrinkage in a region of the brain known as the hippocampus than women whose depression was left untreated. The hippocampus is a part of the brain involved in learning and memory.

People with smaller hippocampus volumes tend to perform poorly on verbal memory tests, Sheline said. And depression has been linked to an increased risk of Alzheimer's disease. Anti-depressant drugs may help stave off those complications by keeping the hippocampus pumped up.

More at the Saint Louis Post-Dispatch

[Wonder]

1. Hahahahahahahahah!

I am going to keep my opinion on this to myself...

but what a good belly laugh.

[leesa]

2. Huh, well then we all need to purchase antidepressants from the

Pharmaceutical companies. Ka-ching!

[Wonder]

4. wait I can not help myself

anti-depressants MAY help protect the brain from what?

coming to terms with the root cause of ones depression?

accepting reality?

diarrhea and liver damage?

sexual impotence or overactive libido? (one or the other studies remain inconclusive in this area)

expressing compassion for others?

[JackSwift]

27. Generic prozac

is about 25 cents a pill from Costco

[radwriter0555]

3. LOL they musta found that THINKING causes DEPRESSION, eh

???

Therefore, anti-depressants cause one to NOT think, thereby protecting the brain from over-use.

No wonder no one shows up to vote.

[Wonder]

5. oh I have to add that to my list that is a good one...

anti-depressants MAY protect the brain from that ravages caused b y excessive thinking!

:thumbsup:

Good One!

[Desertrose]

6. yeah but does it protect from the effects of *??

I mean...really...he's the biggest cause of depression....


:evilgrin:

Peace
DR

[Wonder]

8. not much to protect America from *

'specially if people are zonked on the incorrect dose of anti-depressants and not really thinking.

Do you remember in Times or Newsweek after 9/11 the front back feature on the rise of anxiety in America. There was a significant rise of anxiety, depression and incidence of delayed post trauma

All three makes one condusive to thought manipulation.

I know a number of people admit to increased depression since the invasion of Iraq.

disturbing stuff...sense of powerlessness for those not in denial...

anyway that's another two cents.

[NashVegas]

50. "Sandra's Having Her Brain Out"

Sandra's having her brain out
Sandra's having her brain out
Sandra's having her brain out, now
And she feels alright
Like a slot machine
Like a pimple too

You don't really need a brain, ducky
If you're a girl
It's like tonsils
They're more trouble than they're worth

Sandra's having her brain out
Sandra's having her brain out out out out
Out out
Sandra's been to nightmare school
Sandra done a collage of nightmares
Slept with a virus and slept with a mule
Now, she works in a shop in a crimpolene hairnet
And she works in a shop in the south
Now she waddles around in a crimpolene hairnet
Tickets grow out of her mouth
...

Sandra's having her brain out
Brenda's having her heart washed
Norman's having his soul dry-cleaned
Sandra's having her brain out
Brenda's having her heart washed
Barry's having his mind replaced

And they feel alright!
Like a naked bulb
Like a living bulb

My favorite Robyn Hitchcock tune :)

[cprise]

7. Let's dial something upbeat on the mood machine

(PK Dick reference)

[Gingersnap]

9. I don't know about the validity of this study

but I do know that for some people depression is truly a disease and anti-depressants are life-savers. When taken by people with clinical depression, ADPs do not eliminate one's ability to think, or to feel emotions or make one a mindless brainwashed drone. I'm offended people still have these misconceptions. For those with clinical depression--which is a serious disease-- ADPs merely allow one to FUNCTION without feeling suicidal or neurotic. And therapy has been found to be more effective for the terminally depressed if they are on medication.

Can we please try to be a little more sensitive? :smile:

[Wonder]

11. Gingersnap

I understand for some they are lifesavers that was why I hesitated to make my jokes. I for some reason as depressed as post 9/11 can get me, noone seems to be able to convince me to request anti-depress or anxiety meds.

perhaps it is stubborness or ignorance, I am not sure. I have seen them work wonders with people that only seem to utilize them for a short time.

My desire to joke got the best of me.

[Gingersnap]

13. thanks Wonder

for the display of sensitivity. I dont want to "mommy" this thread, but I think the way we as a nation felt after 911 is not equivalent to clinical depression. People shouldn't take antidepressants for that (except maybe those who lost family members, etc) or to cope with Bush. Clinical depression is like that feeling of post 9/11 hopeslessness only without any reason and it doesn't go away. People with clinical depression can be depressed for 3 year periods, in which nothing has appeal to them--they lose all interest in sex, exercise, family, hobbies, etc.. This is the sort of depression that I think ADPs are intended for (although I agree some drug companies have been sleazy and trying to market ADPs for people who feel nervous at parties). Unfortunately, many people who take ADPs for clinical depression may have to take them indefinitely. It's a bad disease.

[Wonder]

20. Thanks for the clarification

my episodes were diagnosed as delayed post trauma triggered by 9/11. There are manipulation and control and violence elements and acuting lying within this admin that will trigger my mood swings, because it is DPT based on an original trauma I never dealt with. I am emphatic about not taking medication. I strongly feel it is imperative I deal with issues when they are triggered...

Thanks for that clarification. I feel more resolute about my decision to pass on getting the anti-depress and or anxiety meds perscribed, against much insistance from family members who refuse to understand or deal with what my post trauma is about.

No problem regarding the empathy/sympathy, I am an empath, with some exception.

[MrMonk]

12. The other posters here don't give a fuck.

They'd rather just sneer about something they don't understand.

[smallprint]

14. i have taken quite a few antidepressants over the years

and although i think they can be helpful, there is an ENORMOUS amount of bad news surrounding them that is kept carefully hidden by these monstrous pharmaceutical companies-- i'm talking about people having sudden huge personality changes, comitting homicide, crashing vehicles, breaking up their marriages, and of course suicide -- many of these drugs are simply not tested well before they are rushed off to market, and we are the "beta testers" who find out what the real side effects are

it's best to keep a balanced mind on these things, imo

link: http://www.antidepressantsfacts.com/

[Gingersnap]

18. thanks for the link,

I'll check it out and share it.

[LEFTofLEFT]

32. LOOK AT THIS LINK

http://www.remedyshare.com/ceu/ceu


It is a lot of information presented as CEU course. BEST overview of depression treatment I have seen.

[RobinA]

53. Ain't It the Truth n/t

*

[alfredo]

39. A career ending injury sent me into depression

I was given Zoloft to smooth out the rough edges. At first I did feel flat, but that didn't last, now I feel...... whatever. It did help. He kept me on it while I fought the Post Office over disability. As soon as the battle was won, he started weaning me off of it.

anti Depressants are essential for vets suffering PTSD, but yes, therapy is better than some chemical treatment. Let's face it, you are just treating the symptom.

I am from an Alzheimer's family, and anything that will help keep my sister and I from becoming victims is welcomed.

[short bus president]

54. the jokes

do not center on depression as illness, only on "depression spectrum disorders" as cash cow.

I can't access the August issue of AJP online, but it'd be interesting to know whether this was Federally-funded or industry-sponsored research. My money's on industry sponsored. Meaning it's positively worthless to everyone but big pharma.

[imhotep]

10. haha

[enough]

15. Contrary to the prevailing prejudice on this thread,

My experience of taking an anti-depressant (for about 3 years, ending one year ago) was that it finally ALLOWED me to think and feel fully for the first time in several years.

Life became vivid again, things seemed to matter again, I felt connected to others again, and I regained the energy to work passionately on the things I care about.

For me it was a re-learning experience. I re-learned how to be my real self. I very GRADUALLY stopped taking it after I felt that I was ready. I am thankful that I had this help.

The stereotype that antidepressents make you dull and unfeeling is false, at least in my experience.

[LEFTofLEFT]

19. There are alternatives

It has been shown that anti-depressants often inhibit the natural processes that are necessary to balanced functioning. Take a look at the remarkable results achieved through a proper nutritional program.

[geomon]

23. Can you share some links to these studies??

please..because I ain't never heard of this.

:)

[LEFTofLEFT]

29. Private message me if you are really interested

I will give you much info

[lkinsale]

24. After you've tried everything, including nutrition and behavioral therapy

And you still want to drive your car into a tree...SSRI anti-depressants can save your life.

A real clinical depression IS a disturbance of "balanced functioning." The SSRI's can help restore it. If you have experienced serious depression, if you have been down on your knees and weeping as if someone had died, if you have not cared whether you ever wake up again, if you cannot think of anything but your pain, no matter what you eat or how you try to "think positive"--believe me, "proper nutrition" is not going to achieve any result remarkable enough to help you.

The prejudice against using effective drugs in a serious and life threatening disease can be fatal. Good nutrition is fine, exercise is great, behavioral therapy can be excellent, but for someone whose neurological function has spiraled into true suicidal depression, medication is nothing to be ashamed of or afraid of.

You won't lose yourself. You will find yourself again. Again, if you've ever experience real depression, you will understand what I mean. If you don't understand what I mean, then consider yourself fortunate.

[LEFTofLEFT]

30. I agree with everything that you say -

Depression is dangerous and SSRI's can help.

The causes of the imbalances that lead to depression are understood rather well. The body has the ability to produce the same effect of anti-depressants. For most cases the best method of treatment would be to help the body create the effect that the drugs produce. Anti-depressant drugs can destroy the body own systems leading to a lifelong dependence on the drugs.

Severe cases of depression can't wait for the slow but better methods offered by getting the right things into your body. A good program would limit the use of drugs and work on reparing the body's own systems.

[NickB79]

49. For those who's depression is genetic

What you said is bull. My family on my father's side has a history of depression. My grandfather was given electroshock therapy in the 50's to help him overcome his depression. My father tortured our family by refusing to seek medical help for his depression to the point where my mother was forced to divorce him. I myself became extremely depressed and suicidal as I entered college life. Some people are BORN with the inability to produce the correct amounts of neurotransitters, or are born with them but lacking sufficient receptors for them. SSRI's are some of the only things that can help. My life was definitely saved by them as well, as I was highly suicidal by the time my friends (bless all of them) convinced me to seek help.

[LEFTofLEFT]

31. Look at this link

lots of info in the form of a CEU course - can't get a better overview

Check the sourses given at the end.

http://www.remedyshare.com/ceu/ceu

[study_war_no_more]

51. Understood

*

[Saintgermane]

38. sure....

and of course, the same can be said for treatment of diabetes, bacterial and viral nfections, cancer, liver and kidney disorders....it's all diet and exercise, right?

The castigation of mental disease in this country has got to stop. The brain is just an organ, like any other - the heart, the kidneys, the skin, the pancreas, the liver.

When people suffer from diseases associated with other disorders, and receive appropriate pharmaceuticals, no stigma is attached.

But let a person suffer from a disorder of the most important organ in the body, and it instantly becomes that person's fault.

What a crock.

Y'know, chemotherapy in the tratment of cancer inhibits natural processes necessary for balanced functioning. Perhaps we should just encourage cancer patients to adopt a proper nutritional program instead?

[LEFTofLEFT]

46. Try this link

http://www.remedyshare.com/ceu/ceu


As for the cancer question - I have seen something so remakabe that If i had not experienced it myself i would not believe it.

Go to

http://www.remedyshare.com

On the left look for the link to tumor treatment.

Or go strait to the photo evidence

http://www.remedyshare.com/c_herb_personal.htm

Or to the man who makes the treatment

cant find the linknow

I have seen this treatment remove skin tumors - it is so fucking incredible

You can rub this cream on your skin in a normal place and nothing happens.

If you put it on a wart, mole, or tumor and the disturbed tissue is surrounded and comes out as a plug.

Fucking incredible to watch this happen.

After seeing this "miracle" I change my views on alternative treatments.

The fact that this treatment is not used by "real" doctors let me know that something was wrong with the system.

[FightinNewDem]

40. Thank you!

Thank you for having the courage and candor to introduce some sense into this thread.

It's easy for people to make glib statements when they haven't faced down the Black Dog themselves. As someone who has been down this path, I understand entirely what you are saying.

I hope things are better for you now.

[Emillereid]

16. Don't believe this industry generated crap for a minute...

your brain is not deficient in prozac. If you want to do something good for your brain make sure you eat lots of the long chain fatty acids DHA and EPA (fish oil is a good source) to permit you intelligent body to make good quality brain cells and good quality signalling structures. Then you won't have to artificially induce serotonin to linger in the synapses between the cells. Remember too that SSRIs not only affect brain cells -- you have serotonin receptors all over your body, particularly in your gut. Dump the prozac and eat fish.

[Gingersnap]

17. thanks but...

I think that maybe that helps for some but clinical depression really requires going beyond taking fish oil and drinking St John's Wort tea. I'm not a shill for the drug companies and I do think they are promoting an abuse of ADPs but I also think that for some people nothing else helps. It demeans these people to suggest that they are just brainwashed by the drug industry.

[Emillereid]

33. I'm not suggesting for one minute that people taking antidepressants

are brain washed, nor do I want people who take them to feel guilty or weak for using them. I have studied this stuff extensively and have experienced severe depression personally -- and antidepressants do not address the cause of the depression -- they help with some symptoms, but often create many more (one of the worst is a severe dampening of sexual interest). A brain healthy diet as well as exercise goes a long way to addressing depression -- but they are not fast fixes. Some people may need to use antidepressants for a while before the nutrient approach kicks in and takes over. In my own case and my daughter's it took a couple of months to fully feel the results of our nutrient course. Andrew Stoll has conducted some pivotal research in this area. I wrote a paper about this stuff a few years ago -- if anyone would like a copy -- let me know.

Another causative, usually undiagnosed, factor in depression is silent food sensitivities -- one of the most frequent is to the glutens and gliadens in grain products.

Although people seem to have great faith that antidepressants work (and that may be a potent factor in their working at all), double blind studies have not always or overwhelmingly shown them to be much more effective that placebos. And for my money they are handed out far too frequently, without proper diagnoses and without proper follow-up. Two good books on this are: Prozac Backlash (Glenmullen) and Talking back to Prozac.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

35. Sorry but been there done that...

I DID the omegas, I DID the vitamins, I DID the bioneurofeedback, the yoga, the meditation, the therapy, I DID the whole shebang of what was out there in the non-prescription med world available to me but it just didn't work.

I am a woman whose brain was shown by mapping to be wired for depression. I have had depressive episodes my entire life. And now that I am in hormonal upheavel I was hit with a type of depression I had never experienced and which scared the shit out of me.

This depression was dangerous to my life.

For far too long I tried the other options until I was at the end of my rope. I finally reached out for the prescription options. And thank heavens I did.

I am thankful they were there for me at a time I desperately needed them.

[shrike]

43. I take an anti-depressant

Have suffered from depression, ranging from mild to full-blown, for most of my life. Now that I have my meds I know what it is like to live a normal life. A major depression is a horrifying experience. I wish it on nobody.

That said, I am disturbed by the blithe way antidepressants have been treated by the media and prescribed by some doctors. They are not "happy" pills. (I still get depressed occasionally, but it goes away like it's supposed to) They are psychotropic drugs and are nothing to f*ck with. I have been told some doctors prescribe them to patients who want to lose weight -- HUH?

[laylah]

21. Wonderful news!

Now all I have to worry about is the rest of me falling apart :silly:

[phrenzy]

22. Sickening

This is one area that my fellow Dems and Pukes both equally succeed in disgusting me.

Their trivialization and lack of even a basic grasp of what constitutes 'clinical depression'

You people are idiots and should shut the hell up - You are making fools out of yourselves - Basically it's like telling a paralyzed person to 'just walk' without any medical help.

ADs have saved my life - and no amount of paranoid conspiracy crap you spew will change that. I have made more progress in therapy as a result of the help from the meds. (i.e. I couldn't GET to therapy in the first place without their help)

When you suffer from REAL chronic depression you simply CAN NOT move - you can't get out of bed - You CAN'T eat right - you CAN'T just think your way out of it. This kind of depression comes on for NO REASON and stays with you - even if your life situation is great you STILL feel like you want to die - and you don't enjoy ANYTHING.

I guess people that have never had to live with that feeling feel better about themselves when ridiculing those who have the courage to get help.

[geomon]

25. Great post!!

Well said and painfully truthful.

[lkinsale]

26. Thank you

They don't get it, because they've never experienced it.

Well said. Thank you.

[laylah]

57. I speak from personal experience

and I CHOOSE to deal with MY clinical depression with drugs AND humor AND therapy. If that offends you, my apologies but I will deal with MY "disability" in a way that works for ME, as you and all others are free to deal with YOURS as YOU see fit, thank you very much.

jenn

[NicoleM]

28. When I was 17. . .

When I was seventeen, my sister died, my other sister almost starved herself to death, my father and I had a fight so big we haven't spoken in 10 years, and school sucked so bad that I decided I wasn't going back for my senior year (I had enough credits to graduate already). I went through a serious, major depression.

When you have a major depression in childhood or adolescence, it can affect the chemical balance in your brain FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE.

I take anti-depressants not because I'm depressed, but because without them I'm so dizzy I can't function normally. There is something missing in my brain that the drugs supply. I don't walk around in a fog all day; on the contrary, I am able to think much more clearly and generally function better.

My family has a very long history of debilitating anxiety and depression. I thank God I'm so lucky to live in a time and place where I am able to obtain medicine that allows me to live a normal life.

[revcarol]

34. I agree that there is a place for anti-depression drugs...

(been there, done that, it runs in the family, wonderful that they are there, whole family has been severely depressed at one time or another), but this seems me me to be drawing a bunch of unwarranted conclusions.
On the basis of ONE study, people are supposed to take these drugs to PREVENT Alzheimers and the common cold..<this is sarcasm, don't get your bowels in an uproar>And with Alzheimers, there's the chicken-egg controversy. Many Alzheimers patients BECOME depressed as they feel their faculties draining away...and depression makes Alzheimer's SEEM worse because depression inhibits even the thinking that the patient would have been able to do, if not depressed.

MANY MORE SCIENTIFIC STUDIES NEEDED.
And see if this one can be replicated.

Still thinking about women taking hormones to PREVENT osteoporosis, when hormones made the situation worse.

[Doctor Panacea]

36. Antidepressants work

As someone who PRESCRIBES antidepressants, I can tell you that they definitely work, and not just for depression, but for anxiety and posttraumatic stress disorder.

I could not care less about the drug companies and their profits. But when a terrified patient tells you something like "I am afraid to touch my body for fear of finding a cancer," and you put that patient on an antidepressant, and the patient then comes back and is happy and is no longer terrified, you become a believer in these drugs.

And when a woman has lost her grandchildren in an accident and is so depressed that she can hardly talk, and is seething with anger, and you put her on an antidepressant and she comes back and is able to cope and talk rationally, you become a believer in these medicines.

As for whether these drugs protect the hippocampus, who knows?

[joshcryer]

37. Depression can (and does) lead to less brain exercise.

For the simple fact that you fucking sleep all day, barely eat, and basically do nothing productive with yourself. I know.

So I don't think that this study is unwarranted or some sort of conspiracy. More obviously needs to be done before we can get a better view of course, but I'm willing to wager it's correct.

[LEFTofLEFT]

41. LOOK AT THIS SITE - Great info on alternative treatments

http://www.remedyshare.com/ceu/ceu

[joshcryer]

42. I went there...

...wasn't really impressed.

[LEFTofLEFT]

44. put down the joint and try thinking

Either you failed to see the context or you are just too fucking brilliant for the rest of the world.

What is is like up there?

[joshcryer]

47. I see no reason why a joint could ruin ones thinking ablities.

I mean, we have studies pretty much proving that marijuana is a safer drug than cigarettes (if used properly) or alcohol...

I think that chemical imbalances are more difficult to cure via some magical diet than that site implies. The reason, mainly, I wasn't impressed, is that they end their rhetoric with this “the pharmaceutical industry has a lot to gain, and so there's a conspiracy to fill you with unneeded drugs.” I'm not saying that this isn't the case, and I do think that in many cases anti-depressants are prescribed when they're not really necessary; I'm just saying that I'm not impressed because this is all they have.

But yeah, I probably am too fucking brillaint for the world...

[Wonder]

45. Wow. this thread is fantastic you know why?

it made almost a complete transformation and is highly informative too.

[FDRLincoln]

48. prozac saved my life

I can say quite honestly that prozac saved my life.

I was in a more-or-less constant haze of depression from about the age of 3 to 21. Somehow I became a functioning adult, but I was constantly riddled with anxiety and crippling self-doubt, with occasional "black" periods where I could barely function. I was like this through childhood and it got much worse after puberty.

I was raised in a very loving family and was not abused, so that wasn't the root of it.

At 21, after years of useless therapy, diet, exercise, etc., I tried prozac. In two weeks it was like a viel was lifted. I was now able to experience life NORMALLY....with normal ups and downs, normal happy and sad. That was 15 years ago. I have tried going off the medicine occasionally, but each time I do so the old darkness returns within three weeks. My doctor says my brain is simply wired for depression...before prozac I would have been unlikely to have been able to live a normal life.

Personally, I do think these medicines are overprescribed. But SOME people need them, just like some people have a cholesterol of 400 no matter how much they exercise or eat the right foods.

[study_war_no_more]

52. try willpower next time you have diarriah

Trying to outhink clinical depression is the same thing.

[RobinA]

55. Good One!!!

I come from a family of the depressed and the anxious. Many of these people have lived and died miserable...and we also live forever, so you can imagine the mental state of people who have been depressed all their lives when they reach 90. I thank god I live in a time when I can be better. I was depressed and anxious my entire life from childhood. I could function, but I wasn't really going beyond that. I finally lost it for real in my 30's, thankfully AFTER Prozac was invented. After several years on Prozac I am living the life I should have lived in my mid-20's. I'm twenty years behind, but I'm actually enjoying catching up, something I never would have done drug free.

If Prozac shortens my life it'll be a shame, but I'll die a lot happier than if the evil pharmaceutical company had never invented it.

[shanti]

56. they sure do....

:smoke: