5 ms·

From their language, the seem surprisingly uneducated about drugs in general. Also, I think the efficacy of SSRIs is still quite questionable. I'd love for so

by maqr 16y ago

From their language, the seem surprisingly uneducated about drugs in general. Also, I think the efficacy of SSRIs is still quite questionable. I'd love for someone who really understands the statistics and medical scales to do the comparison and tell us their opinion about Lexapro vs Placebo for depression or anxiety disorders. Note that Lexapro is the drug they're advocating, which is an SSRI, but there are plenty of other anxiety drugs (like any benzo) which are clearly effective.

pw0ncakes 16y ago
This may not be what you're looking for, but I can vouch for Lexapro on personal experience. I had a bout of crippling panic attacks in the spring of 2008. I lost my job because of this (I was a trader at a hedge fund). I had about 30 attacks in the first 3 months. It was obvious from the 3rd or 4th day on Lexapro that the drug was doing something: I had some mildly annoying but harmless side effects in the first week or two-- sweating, "the yawns", tiredness, and weird visuals when going to sleep. After about a week on the SSRI, I began to have a panic attack while in the park and something weird happened-- the attack just ended after 5 seconds, and I felt no worse than if I'd been startled by a loud sound. The attacks became milder and more manageable. Now I have about one per month-- unpleasant, but not something that'd make me unemployable-- but none at any level of severity approaching what I had before I started taking the drug. Some of this improvement is due to lifestyle changes and increasing skill at handling the problem, but a large fraction of the improvement is directly attributable to Lexapro.
- drinian 16y ago
  Zoloft stopped panic attacks for me after a similar series of absolutely crippling panic attacks. It's about as close to normalcy as you can get on a psychiatric drug -- also an SSRI like Lexapro, Prozac, etc. Reaction to each SSRI varies by person and depending on genetic factors, oddly enough.
- Tichy 16y ago
  Wasn't having panic attacks a normal and healthy reaction for traders in 2008? Just saying...
spamizbad 16y ago
FWIW, I have a friend whose life improved on Lexapro. It did not impact him creatively nor did it make him less funny (which is important, he's comedy writer). I'm not inclined to believe it was the placebo effect as he was very skeptical of being medicated.

by maqr 16y ago

pw0ncakes 16y ago

This may not be what you're looking for, but I can vouch for Lexapro on personal experience. I had a bout of crippling panic attacks in the spring of 2008. I lost my job because of this (I was a trader at a hedge fund). I had about 30 attacks in the first 3 months. It was obvious from the 3rd or 4th day on Lexapro that the drug was doing something: I had some mildly annoying but harmless side effects in the first week or two-- sweating, "the yawns", tiredness, and weird visuals when going to sleep. After about a week on the SSRI, I began to have a panic attack while in the park and something weird happened-- the attack just ended after 5 seconds, and I felt no worse than if I'd been startled by a loud sound. The attacks became milder and more manageable. Now I have about one per month-- unpleasant, but not something that'd make me unemployable-- but none at any level of severity approaching what I had before I started taking the drug. Some of this improvement is due to lifestyle changes and increasing skill at handling the problem, but a large fraction of the improvement is directly attributable to Lexapro.

drinian 16y ago
Zoloft stopped panic attacks for me after a similar series of absolutely crippling panic attacks. It's about as close to normalcy as you can get on a psychiatric drug -- also an SSRI like Lexapro, Prozac, etc. Reaction to each SSRI varies by person and depending on genetic factors, oddly enough.
Tichy 16y ago
Wasn't having panic attacks a normal and healthy reaction for traders in 2008? Just saying...

spamizbad 16y ago

FWIW, I have a friend whose life improved on Lexapro. It did not impact him creatively nor did it make him less funny (which is important, he's comedy writer). I'm not inclined to believe it was the placebo effect as he was very skeptical of being medicated.