4 ms·

> 2 weeks of lexapro was a night and day difference. My girlfriend thought that lexapro had helped her years before she met me... She escaped from the psychia

> 2 weeks of lexapro was a night and day difference. My girlfriend thought that lexapro had helped her years before she met me... She escaped from the psychiatrists who only cared about making her feel worse with their "anti-psychotics", and got her new medical providers to prescribe lexapro instead. After a week she realized that her new rapid heartbeat was certainly caused by the lexapro. She took her last benzo (class of "anxiety" drug that makes anxiety worse over time), and it was all downhill from there... SSRIs were approved on the basis of fraudulent science. The legal profession was recently able to secure a $3 million verdict against Glaxo Smith Klein - a rather successful lawyer jumped in front of a train after a few days on Paxil. Here's a writeup: https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/05/change-in-chicago-the-dolin-verdict/ https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/05/change-in-chicago-the-d...

zwwwdr 9y ago
So Glaxo Smith Klein misrepresented adverse effects of paroxetine. This doesnt mean at all that the science behind SSRIs is "fraudulent". SSRIs are among the best researched psychopharmaceuticals. And it is true that benzos make anxiety worse, long term, but that doesnt mean that they arent a valuable medication to treat anxiety.
- tcj_phx 9y ago
  Prozac was always defective too. The German FDA refused to approve it, way back when. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14281643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14281643 The drug industry has a habit of coming out with a new "class" of drugs as soon as the patents for their old drugs expire. Or they patent a new combination for old over-the-counter chemicals. My father recently got prescribed something with a retail price of >$1000. He said he could buy the two OTC pills for about $15... this was something for his stomach + an nsaid, iirc.
  - tptacek 9y ago
    The "German FDA" has certainly approved of fluoxetine (Prozac), which is simply sold under a different name there.
    - tcj_phx 9y ago
      maybe they eventually approved it, but they passed on it in 1984: – Three years before Prozac received approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in late 1987, the German BGA, that country’s FDA equivalent, had such serious reservations about Prozac’s safety that it refused to approve the antidepressant based on Lilly’s studies showing that previously nonsuicidal patients who took the drug had a fivefold higher rate of suicides and suicide attempts than those on older antidepressants, and a threefold higher rate than those taking placebos. [1] [1] http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/boston_globe_prozac_revisted.htm http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/boston_globe_prozac_revi... Two more links from this site ("note-to-self"): https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/prozac-time-line/ https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/prozac-time-line/ https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/our-successes/advocacy-campaigns/ssri-documents/ https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/our-successes/advocacy-campai...
      - tptacek 9y ago
        There's no "maybe" about it - Prozac is available in Germany, just under a different name.
Arizhel 9y ago
>She took her last benzo (class of "anxiety" drug that makes anxiety worse over time) Can you elaborate here please?
- tptacek 9y ago
  There are questions about long-term benzodiazepine use, and among the more reliable studied results is that their efficacy can decrease over time. Benzos are useful for acute care but depending on circumstances might not be a sound long-term treatment.
- tcj_phx 9y ago
  basically what tptacek said... Benzos' are sometimes useful for acute anxiety, but this is not how they're commonly used. Benzos: A Dance With the Devil - https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/benzos-a-dance-with-the-devil/ https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/benzos-a-dance-with-the... Benzodiazepine category - https://www.madinamerica.com/category/psychiatric-drugs/benzodiazepines/ https://www.madinamerica.com/category/psychiatric-drugs/benz...
  - Arizhel 9y ago
    Wow, that's scary, the one about a grand mal seizure with Xanax in particular. I used to take that, but only for occasional acute anxiety, never on a regular basis. It seemed to help a lot, and unlike the SSRIs I've used, it didn't have any obvious side-effects at all. I never took it long enough to get any build-up though, just occasionally if I was having a really bad episode.

zwwwdr 9y ago

So Glaxo Smith Klein misrepresented adverse effects of paroxetine. This doesnt mean at all that the science behind SSRIs is "fraudulent". SSRIs are among the best researched psychopharmaceuticals. And it is true that benzos make anxiety worse, long term, but that doesnt mean that they arent a valuable medication to treat anxiety.

tcj_phx 9y ago
Prozac was always defective too. The German FDA refused to approve it, way back when. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14281643 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14281643 The drug industry has a habit of coming out with a new "class" of drugs as soon as the patents for their old drugs expire. Or they patent a new combination for old over-the-counter chemicals. My father recently got prescribed something with a retail price of >$1000. He said he could buy the two OTC pills for about $15... this was something for his stomach + an nsaid, iirc.
- tptacek 9y ago
  The "German FDA" has certainly approved of fluoxetine (Prozac), which is simply sold under a different name there.
  - tcj_phx 9y ago
    maybe they eventually approved it, but they passed on it in 1984: – Three years before Prozac received approval by the US Food and Drug Administration in late 1987, the German BGA, that country’s FDA equivalent, had such serious reservations about Prozac’s safety that it refused to approve the antidepressant based on Lilly’s studies showing that previously nonsuicidal patients who took the drug had a fivefold higher rate of suicides and suicide attempts than those on older antidepressants, and a threefold higher rate than those taking placebos. [1] [1] http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/boston_globe_prozac_revisted.htm http://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/media/boston_globe_prozac_revi... Two more links from this site ("note-to-self"): https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/prozac-time-line/ https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/prozac-time-line/ https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/our-successes/advocacy-campaigns/ssri-documents/ https://www.baumhedlundlaw.com/our-successes/advocacy-campai...
    - tptacek 9y ago
      There's no "maybe" about it - Prozac is available in Germany, just under a different name.

Arizhel 9y ago

>She took her last benzo (class of "anxiety" drug that makes anxiety worse over time) Can you elaborate here please?

tptacek 9y ago
There are questions about long-term benzodiazepine use, and among the more reliable studied results is that their efficacy can decrease over time. Benzos are useful for acute care but depending on circumstances might not be a sound long-term treatment.
tcj_phx 9y ago
basically what tptacek said... Benzos' are sometimes useful for acute anxiety, but this is not how they're commonly used. Benzos: A Dance With the Devil - https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/benzos-a-dance-with-the-devil/ https://www.madinamerica.com/2016/07/benzos-a-dance-with-the... Benzodiazepine category - https://www.madinamerica.com/category/psychiatric-drugs/benzodiazepines/ https://www.madinamerica.com/category/psychiatric-drugs/benz...
- Arizhel 9y ago
  Wow, that's scary, the one about a grand mal seizure with Xanax in particular. I used to take that, but only for occasional acute anxiety, never on a regular basis. It seemed to help a lot, and unlike the SSRIs I've used, it didn't have any obvious side-effects at all. I never took it long enough to get any build-up though, just occasionally if I was having a really bad episode.