Throughout the time I’ve spent here at the college; I’ve meet more and more people from different cultures who have mental illnesses, whether its big or small. They all have different ways of seeing it;
http://www.madinamerica.com/2012/09/things-your-doctor-should-tell-you-about-antidepressants/
Many cultures have viewed mental illnesses as a form of religious punishment or demonic possession, but with mental illnesses becoming a serious sickness that was made legitimate by many researchers and doctors in the past hundred years, aids of medications to treat those sickness has become more demanding. One of the most controversial medication is the Antidepressant Medication or Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors, these drugs work by blocking the reabsorption of the serotonin in the brain. Changing the balance of serotonin seems to help brain cells send and receive chemical messages, enhancing one’s mood. Prescribing antidepressants has become common practice, with 164 million prescriptions written for antidepressants in 2008. Sales of SSRI, specifically, increased by 32 percent from 2000 to 2004, to a combined total of $10.9 billion dollars in the US. Like other medications, SSRI have a lot of repercussions, although tolerable, some have reported suicidal thoughts while on medication. While SSRI medication do have successful outcome on treating patients with depression, its hard to tell if the side effect should drive the people away from taking the medicine.
Even though side effects of medications are not unheard of in the medical field, the aftermath of antidepressant medications isn’t something small that people can just ignore. In an In-Depth research done by the Mayo Clinic on “Depression and SSRI medications”. The clinic stated that SSRI medications like Paxil and Pexeva can sometimes deal great damage to developing children if the parent is pregnant or breast-feeding, and can even cause children to be born with disability. Antidepressants can also cause reactions when used with another medication at the same time
In some cases Antidepressant can also cause suicidal attempt or thoughts in patients with younger age. Every year, 30,000 people in the United States die by suicide, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. Among those who are diagnosed with major depressive disorder (MDD), seven out of 100 men and one out of 100 women will commit suicide. And for every suicide there is 11 suicide attempts to be considered (Drugwatch). Antidepressants had also been linked to akathisia; a condition where patients complaint about inner restlessness, the patient has to be in constant motion, they often are sleepless and can’t sit still. The condition can also be classified as a form of anxiety.
Even thought antidepressants are designed to help patients with psychological ailment, SSRIs can have the bad effect of physical dependence on the user after long term usage. When halting treatment suddenly or missing several days can cause withdrawal-like symptoms. Those symptoms can include nausea, dizziness, lethargy, and flu-like symptoms. With all the side effects and extra symptoms, the United State Food and Drug Administration has a long history of labeling these problems for the public, in 1990 the first case of FDA considering risk of antidepressants increasing suicidality in public hearing, 1996 FDA researcher writes to Pfizer, an american multinational pharmaceutical corporation. To note the increased frequency of report of suicidality in young patients from age 25 and down during Zoloft clinical trials. It took doctors and researcher nearly 10 years to figure out that antidepressant drugs do in fact cause more suicidal thoughts and attempts, soon after, the FDA demanded that all antidepressant drugs should be labeled with a “Black box warning” in which the drug can cause serious effects such fatal and life threatening or permanently disabling adverse reaction.
Things to think about
Does the positive effect of Antidepressants outweigh the negativity?
What other methods can be added on the treatment? (Ex: seeing a psychologist/etc)
How do different cultures view mental illness differently?
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