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Not sure if this supports the article or is just a warning, but going off of anti-depressants can be fatal. If depression relapses anti-depressants that once wo
by aaron-lebo 10y ago
Not sure if this supports the article or is just a warning, but going off of anti-depressants can be fatal. If depression relapses anti-depressants that once worked can prove ineffective. (edit: wrongly said SSRIs and not anti-depressants)
David Foster Wallace:
Wallace died by suicide on September 12, 2008, at age 46. Wallace's father reported in an interview that his son had suffered from depression for more than 20 years and that antidepressant medication had allowed him to be productive.[42] When Wallace experienced severe side effects from the medication, he attempted to wean himself from his primary antidepressant, phenelzine.[43] On his doctor's advice, Wallace stopped taking the medication in June 2007,[42] then the depression returned. Wallace received other treatments, including electroconvulsive therapy. When he returned to phenelzine, he found that it had lost its effectiveness.[43] His wife kept a watchful eye on him in the following days, but on September 12, Wallace went into the garage, wrote a two-page note, and arranged part of the manuscript for The Pale King before hanging himself from a patio rafter.[49]
It's something to be very careful about...
- robertcorey 10y agophenelzine is an MAOI
- drzaiusapelord 10y agoPhenelzine is actually a MAOI, which is a different class of drug. My understanding is that Wallace had hard to treat depression and was on this more dangerous class of drug as SSRI's didn't work well on him. He also died with Clonazepam and Temazepam in his system. Wallace also received electric shock therapy, which suggests his depression was much more serious than most cases. I think his case is very much an edge case here. He had very serious problems with a hard to treat depression and was on a MAO inhibitor, which is seen as the last resort for pharmacological treatments of depression because its so unstable, short-lived, and has nasty side effects and is difficult to ween off. SSRI's are much more safe.
- nylonstrung 10y agoHe actually wrote about his experiences with MAOIs in an early short story in a college journal. This was in the early 80s, well before Prozac and SSRIs made it to market. https://quomodocumque.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/wallace-amherst_review-the_planet.pdf https://quomodocumque.files.wordpress.com/2008/09/wallace-am...
- outworlder 10y agoI just read it and I'm at a loss for words. All I can say is that it's a incredibly sad tale.
- mrob 10y agoWhat do you mean by "short lived"? Phenelzine is an irreversible MAOI, which means its effects persist even after it's cleared from the body. The only way to regain normal MAO function is to wait for the disabled enzymes to be replaced, which takes weeks.