7 ms·

More than 1/3 of American adults take prescription drugs linked to depression

97 points by yulaow 8y ago

twirlip 8y ago
And that doesn't include self-medication with alcohol or marijuana and so forth.
- imglorp 8y ago
  I think nicotine use and mental health have a strong correlation also.
- mkirklions 8y ago
  Admittedly I 'self-medicate' with marijuana. It has completely transformed me. I used to play video games and basically do nothing, but with marijuana I'm insanely productive. I'm talking do the 9-5 on coffee only, then go home and worth 4-6 more hours on programming projects. I have a fanbase for my website, I have transformed my programming abilities, and I've grown a non-profit. I'm not sure I can work this many hours daily completely sober. My bigger concern is how many years I can work like this. This is year 3.
  - hermannj314 8y ago
    Would you be willing to elaborate on the dosing schedule you follow?
    - mkirklions 8y ago
      Sure, Survive/caffeine through the 9-5. Nap for 20 minutes(biphasic sleep), I can send you a link for details. Me and the wife have been doing this for years. Then I have a paxx which holds ~1/8 of g. I'll take that 2-3 puffs. That is usually very light but changes things for 90 minutes. Then I'll use the paxx to completion. Similar time line. Then I'll light the toasted paxx extra. Thats at least 4 hours of focus. I often still need music to get started, but I can totally crush hours of work with the extra energy.
  - throw_this_one 8y ago
    In that regard, I could see it work. How much do you do? If you set aside time to do something, start getting in the flow, and then take a hit... it sort of starts a "new day" mentally because everything is a little more interesting. Then you can pop out a few hours. But with too much I get braindead and just want to listen to music and muse.
  - fhood 8y ago
    Dammit, yet another weirdo ruining marijuana's carefully cultivated slacker image. ;) I have a friend who reacts to marijuana similarly to what you describe and it still boggles my mind that two people can take the same drug and react in nearly opposite ways.
    - rc_hadoken 8y ago
      Anecdote: My mom has never done any drugs etc but first time she caught me smoking she said: "some people do drugs, drugs do most people". I'll never forget and it's true in my experience.
      - jasonmp85 8y ago
        Inanity masquerading as profundity.
  - insickness 8y ago
    Do you use indica or sativa? How do the psychoactive affects not interfere with your productivity? Any memory problems?
    - bdamm 8y ago
      Ultimately this is what ended the scheme for me. People started to tell me they'd had the same conversation with me multiple times in a day. That was a full 6 or 7 years before I finally realized I had to stop. On the plus side I started writing things down a lot more, but that only scales so far. It's a dark period of my life I view as an unfortunate mistake that I wish I'd gotten help with earlier. On the other hand, I did write some remarkable code during that time, code that has lived on and been put into production systems and been relatively bug free and profitable. My method was to get everything I needed ready; source sync'd, computer running, editor open, then and only then dose. Removing all distractions at the start was key. I could not, however, imagine actually learning how to code, under those conditions.
  - stinos 8y ago
    My bigger concern is how many years I can work like this. This is year 3. Really depends on the person. What I noticed halfway year 2 or so already is that the productivity gain was like 50% or lsess of what it was in the beginning (I did use already before that, but was studying then - sidenote: a small dose worked extremely well to completely kill any pre-exam stress I always had and my grades were better than ever). Worse, the creativity which was basically what I did it all for went down even more. Only way to get that back was not use for a week or so. Quit after year 5 but by that time other substances had come into play as well and things weren't too good anymore. I don't think I could still work those insane hours sober every single day, but I also wouldn't want it: there is so much more to life than just work/party.
  - dokem 8y ago
    I've come to really enjoy pot since graduating college. For the first two years out of school I began smoking daily - largely for self medicating purposes. I eventually had to take a break because I found my relationship with the substance unhealthy and basically became a lazy pot head with my head in the clouds even when not high. I do want to re-introduce pot into my life because I do really enjoy the mental state and it helps me get excited about learning physics and math after work which is something I try to push my self to do. I think, ultimately, my issue is moderation. If a smoke a little in the evening before diving into a subject there isn't really anything stopping me from just getting blazed and watching youtube videos - which would be fine if it didn't completely dull my mental edge the following day. I look forward to retirement where I can just go full pot head.
  - zolthrowaway 8y ago
    That's awesome. I personally used to be a daily smoker (like start the day with a bowl, end the day with a dab type smoker). It definitely was insanely beneficial for me at first. After about 5 years, it lost its magical effects for me because my tolerance was too high. I took an extended tolerance break and when I came back, something still wasn't quite right and I've been sober ever since. My productivity has increased and I'm feeling a lot better. I hope cannabis continues to work well for you. For me personally, I hit this wall at around 5 years of daily smoking. I can't imagine how my life being on it's current trajectory without it though. It really was a big boon to my creativity, productivity, and life. For those who have never tried or have only used prohibition era cannabis, sativas and indicas have significantly different effects. With the ability to choose your strains, you really can craft your experience. Cannabis can be a very powerful tool. Also, please, don't take this as an endorsement to go out and try it. That's a very personal decision in my opinion like whether to consume alcohol or not.
megaman22 8y ago
Slightly confusing title, but this is about drugs for other conditions that can include causing depression as a side-effect. Not the percentage that are taking anti-depressants. A little bit of a vicious circle... 1.) You have symptoms of conditions that are exacerbated by depression. 2.) Buy drugs to treat those symptoms 3.) Drugs exacerbate depression 4.) Get anti-depressants to combat depression 4.) Anti-depressants have deleterious side-effects in other areas 5.) Goto 1
- pitaj 8y ago
  There are also a lot of cases where things like mineral deficiencies cause depression symptoms, and then SSRI antidepressants make them much worse.
alirobe 8y ago
Clickbait headline. Not article refers drugs which may have some correlative relationship with depression (e.g. side effects may include), not drugs associated with treatment of depression.
- pwinnski 8y ago
  I also mis-read the headline, but that doesn't make the headline incorrect.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
  - alirobe 8y ago
    Not incorrect, just clickbait.
    - sctb 8y ago
      I'm not so convinced; “linked to” is absolutely bog-standard for correlation. The interesting thing is how much more we're primed to read it the other way even with relatively unambiguous language.
SurrealSoul 8y ago
This is a curious issue, clearly this is a problem. Having 1/3 of your population depressed is IMO near a crises. However, how would a government or a body of people act to fix this? Aiding people with tax breaks may not even be touching the issue due to the nature of depression. What can a governing people do to make it's people not miserable except for handing out happy pills?
- pwinnski 8y ago
  Reading the article reveals that you have fundamentally misunderstood the issue here. The first paragraph of the article states: > More than a third of American adults are taking prescription drugs, including hormones for contraception, blood pressure medications and medicines for heartburn, that carry a potential risk of depression, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Not on "happy pills," but on medicines that may lead to depression as a side effect.
mkirklions 8y ago
They didnt include caffeine? I've read that caffeine is one of the best drugs for reducing depression. Note: I have a love/hate relationship with caffeine.
- Retric 8y ago
  This is just "prescription drugs" which excludes caffeine.
StevePerkins 8y ago
The headline is a bit confusing. At first glance it might seem to say that 1/3 of Americans take anti-depressants. What it's actually trying to say is that 1/3 of Americans take prescription drugs that have depression as a possible side effect. Even that seems bizarre to me. What is the percentage of Americans who take prescription drugs... period? I'm a middle-aged man, and (knock on wood!) still haven't come down with any chronic conditions requiring medication. So I would probably assume that no more than 1/3 of Americans take ongoing prescription drugs at all. Which means I'd have to presume that pretty much all drugs have depression as a possible side effect.
- SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
  As I understand it while doing the initial research any time someone says they experienced something on a medication it has to be listed as a side-effect, which is why you end up with "Side Effects may include: naseau, diziness, heartburn, stubbed toes, and spontaneous pregnancy" Given any sort of decent sample size, someone is going to be experiencing depression while under pretty much any medication.
  - cabaalis 8y ago
    If that's the case, I wish the information would include percentage of cases. 90% side effect of severe depression and 2% side effect of dry mouth is a very different medication than 90% dry mouth and 2% severe depression.
    - jessriedel 8y ago
      Unfortunately, the typical patient doesn't interpret probabilities very well. Still, lists of side effects often use language like "very rarely".
      - nonbel 8y ago
        First, frequency != probability. What negative outcome is expected by sharing the actual values though?
vpribish 8y ago
fix the goddamn headline
sandworm101 8y ago
>> "The study analyzed a detailed survey of thousands of American adults taken every two years between 2005 and 2014, in which people opened their medicine cabinets and showed researchers all the prescription drugs they had taken in the last month." So the methodology and therefore tittle is a little misleading. This is about people who have been prescribed something and have taken it in the last month. Those taking prescription drugs without a prescription probably don't admit this in surveys. All the off-prescription opioid addicts are not represented. The title should be that 1/3 of Americans have been prescribed drugs. I'd rather see data from pharmaceutical manufacturers. I'd be interested in how many tons of depression-linked medication is being consumed, from which we can estimate the total number of 'prescriptions' that are active. That would cover the off-prescription consumption too.
htor 8y ago
how about: people are already depressed and having sketchy, addictive drugs pushed on them by a large profit-driven medical industry will not fix the real issue?
- perl4ever 8y ago
  The headline doesn't seem to be about antidepressants.
horsecaptin 8y ago
Do 1/3rd of Americans need to take prescription drugs on a regular basis? If that's the case then alarm bells should be going off even if they're not depression related.

97 points by yulaow 8y ago

twirlip 8y ago

And that doesn't include self-medication with alcohol or marijuana and so forth.

imglorp 8y ago
I think nicotine use and mental health have a strong correlation also.
mkirklions 8y ago
Admittedly I 'self-medicate' with marijuana. It has completely transformed me. I used to play video games and basically do nothing, but with marijuana I'm insanely productive. I'm talking do the 9-5 on coffee only, then go home and worth 4-6 more hours on programming projects. I have a fanbase for my website, I have transformed my programming abilities, and I've grown a non-profit. I'm not sure I can work this many hours daily completely sober. My bigger concern is how many years I can work like this. This is year 3.
- hermannj314 8y ago
  Would you be willing to elaborate on the dosing schedule you follow?
  - mkirklions 8y ago
    Sure, Survive/caffeine through the 9-5. Nap for 20 minutes(biphasic sleep), I can send you a link for details. Me and the wife have been doing this for years. Then I have a paxx which holds ~1/8 of g. I'll take that 2-3 puffs. That is usually very light but changes things for 90 minutes. Then I'll use the paxx to completion. Similar time line. Then I'll light the toasted paxx extra. Thats at least 4 hours of focus. I often still need music to get started, but I can totally crush hours of work with the extra energy.
- throw_this_one 8y ago
  In that regard, I could see it work. How much do you do? If you set aside time to do something, start getting in the flow, and then take a hit... it sort of starts a "new day" mentally because everything is a little more interesting. Then you can pop out a few hours. But with too much I get braindead and just want to listen to music and muse.
- fhood 8y ago
  Dammit, yet another weirdo ruining marijuana's carefully cultivated slacker image. ;) I have a friend who reacts to marijuana similarly to what you describe and it still boggles my mind that two people can take the same drug and react in nearly opposite ways.
  - rc_hadoken 8y ago
    Anecdote: My mom has never done any drugs etc but first time she caught me smoking she said: "some people do drugs, drugs do most people". I'll never forget and it's true in my experience.
    - jasonmp85 8y ago
      Inanity masquerading as profundity.
- insickness 8y ago
  Do you use indica or sativa? How do the psychoactive affects not interfere with your productivity? Any memory problems?
  - bdamm 8y ago
    Ultimately this is what ended the scheme for me. People started to tell me they'd had the same conversation with me multiple times in a day. That was a full 6 or 7 years before I finally realized I had to stop. On the plus side I started writing things down a lot more, but that only scales so far. It's a dark period of my life I view as an unfortunate mistake that I wish I'd gotten help with earlier. On the other hand, I did write some remarkable code during that time, code that has lived on and been put into production systems and been relatively bug free and profitable. My method was to get everything I needed ready; source sync'd, computer running, editor open, then and only then dose. Removing all distractions at the start was key. I could not, however, imagine actually learning how to code, under those conditions.
- stinos 8y ago
  My bigger concern is how many years I can work like this. This is year 3. Really depends on the person. What I noticed halfway year 2 or so already is that the productivity gain was like 50% or lsess of what it was in the beginning (I did use already before that, but was studying then - sidenote: a small dose worked extremely well to completely kill any pre-exam stress I always had and my grades were better than ever). Worse, the creativity which was basically what I did it all for went down even more. Only way to get that back was not use for a week or so. Quit after year 5 but by that time other substances had come into play as well and things weren't too good anymore. I don't think I could still work those insane hours sober every single day, but I also wouldn't want it: there is so much more to life than just work/party.
- dokem 8y ago
  I've come to really enjoy pot since graduating college. For the first two years out of school I began smoking daily - largely for self medicating purposes. I eventually had to take a break because I found my relationship with the substance unhealthy and basically became a lazy pot head with my head in the clouds even when not high. I do want to re-introduce pot into my life because I do really enjoy the mental state and it helps me get excited about learning physics and math after work which is something I try to push my self to do. I think, ultimately, my issue is moderation. If a smoke a little in the evening before diving into a subject there isn't really anything stopping me from just getting blazed and watching youtube videos - which would be fine if it didn't completely dull my mental edge the following day. I look forward to retirement where I can just go full pot head.
- zolthrowaway 8y ago
  That's awesome. I personally used to be a daily smoker (like start the day with a bowl, end the day with a dab type smoker). It definitely was insanely beneficial for me at first. After about 5 years, it lost its magical effects for me because my tolerance was too high. I took an extended tolerance break and when I came back, something still wasn't quite right and I've been sober ever since. My productivity has increased and I'm feeling a lot better. I hope cannabis continues to work well for you. For me personally, I hit this wall at around 5 years of daily smoking. I can't imagine how my life being on it's current trajectory without it though. It really was a big boon to my creativity, productivity, and life. For those who have never tried or have only used prohibition era cannabis, sativas and indicas have significantly different effects. With the ability to choose your strains, you really can craft your experience. Cannabis can be a very powerful tool. Also, please, don't take this as an endorsement to go out and try it. That's a very personal decision in my opinion like whether to consume alcohol or not.

megaman22 8y ago

Slightly confusing title, but this is about drugs for other conditions that can include causing depression as a side-effect. Not the percentage that are taking anti-depressants. A little bit of a vicious circle... 1.) You have symptoms of conditions that are exacerbated by depression. 2.) Buy drugs to treat those symptoms 3.) Drugs exacerbate depression 4.) Get anti-depressants to combat depression 4.) Anti-depressants have deleterious side-effects in other areas 5.) Goto 1

pitaj 8y ago
There are also a lot of cases where things like mineral deficiencies cause depression symptoms, and then SSRI antidepressants make them much worse.

alirobe 8y ago

Clickbait headline. Not article refers drugs which may have some correlative relationship with depression (e.g. side effects may include), not drugs associated with treatment of depression.

pwinnski 8y ago
I also mis-read the headline, but that doesn't make the headline incorrect.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- alirobe 8y ago
  Not incorrect, just clickbait.
  - sctb 8y ago
    I'm not so convinced; “linked to” is absolutely bog-standard for correlation. The interesting thing is how much more we're primed to read it the other way even with relatively unambiguous language.

SurrealSoul 8y ago

This is a curious issue, clearly this is a problem. Having 1/3 of your population depressed is IMO near a crises. However, how would a government or a body of people act to fix this? Aiding people with tax breaks may not even be touching the issue due to the nature of depression. What can a governing people do to make it's people not miserable except for handing out happy pills?

pwinnski 8y ago
Reading the article reveals that you have fundamentally misunderstood the issue here. The first paragraph of the article states: > More than a third of American adults are taking prescription drugs, including hormones for contraception, blood pressure medications and medicines for heartburn, that carry a potential risk of depression, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Not on "happy pills," but on medicines that may lead to depression as a side effect.

mkirklions 8y ago

They didnt include caffeine? I've read that caffeine is one of the best drugs for reducing depression. Note: I have a love/hate relationship with caffeine.

Retric 8y ago
This is just "prescription drugs" which excludes caffeine.

StevePerkins 8y ago

The headline is a bit confusing. At first glance it might seem to say that 1/3 of Americans take anti-depressants. What it's actually trying to say is that 1/3 of Americans take prescription drugs that have depression as a possible side effect. Even that seems bizarre to me. What is the percentage of Americans who take prescription drugs... period? I'm a middle-aged man, and (knock on wood!) still haven't come down with any chronic conditions requiring medication. So I would probably assume that no more than 1/3 of Americans take ongoing prescription drugs at all. Which means I'd have to presume that pretty much all drugs have depression as a possible side effect.

SketchySeaBeast 8y ago
As I understand it while doing the initial research any time someone says they experienced something on a medication it has to be listed as a side-effect, which is why you end up with "Side Effects may include: naseau, diziness, heartburn, stubbed toes, and spontaneous pregnancy" Given any sort of decent sample size, someone is going to be experiencing depression while under pretty much any medication.
- cabaalis 8y ago
  If that's the case, I wish the information would include percentage of cases. 90% side effect of severe depression and 2% side effect of dry mouth is a very different medication than 90% dry mouth and 2% severe depression.
  - jessriedel 8y ago
    Unfortunately, the typical patient doesn't interpret probabilities very well. Still, lists of side effects often use language like "very rarely".
    - nonbel 8y ago
      First, frequency != probability. What negative outcome is expected by sharing the actual values though?

vpribish 8y ago

fix the goddamn headline

sandworm101 8y ago

>> "The study analyzed a detailed survey of thousands of American adults taken every two years between 2005 and 2014, in which people opened their medicine cabinets and showed researchers all the prescription drugs they had taken in the last month." So the methodology and therefore tittle is a little misleading. This is about people who have been prescribed something and have taken it in the last month. Those taking prescription drugs without a prescription probably don't admit this in surveys. All the off-prescription opioid addicts are not represented. The title should be that 1/3 of Americans have been prescribed drugs. I'd rather see data from pharmaceutical manufacturers. I'd be interested in how many tons of depression-linked medication is being consumed, from which we can estimate the total number of 'prescriptions' that are active. That would cover the off-prescription consumption too.

htor 8y ago

how about: people are already depressed and having sketchy, addictive drugs pushed on them by a large profit-driven medical industry will not fix the real issue?

perl4ever 8y ago
The headline doesn't seem to be about antidepressants.

horsecaptin 8y ago

Do 1/3rd of Americans need to take prescription drugs on a regular basis? If that's the case then alarm bells should be going off even if they're not depression related.