Prozac one of 30 antidepressants probed by UK watchdog over links to suicide

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/antidepressants-prozac-suicide-rates-side-effects-b2542357.html

by insomnimax_99

20 comments

  1. How much of this would be the anti depressants increasing suicide and how much is the lack of follow up on those prescribed to make sure they weren’t at risk of suicide through the original mental health issue?

  3. I was on them [fluoxetine] for a bit, about 10 years ago, and the leaflet that came in the box (that the Doc told me not to read) mentioned this.

  4. Increased risk of suicide for the first month or so is a really common symptom isn’t it? I thought that was well known

  5. This has been known ever since SSRIs came about. They cause emotional blunting, which, if one is already entertaining such thoughts, would make it easier to say ‘fuck it, i’m gonna do it’.

    Wish more people understood that depression and anxiety are not all due to chemical imbalances in the brain and anyone prescribed antidepressants needs to be offered cognitive behaviour therapy to help them address some of the underlying issues of these conditions and allow them to learn healthy hoping mechanisms.

  6. Was on antidepressants, now i have medical cannabis. Life is much better

  7. SSRI’s barely work and we don’t even know how they are supposed to work. Then they can cause mania in some people, causing hallucinations, etc.

    >the exact mechanism of PROZAC is unknown
    [Label for PROZAC (fluoxetine) (fda.gov)](https://www.accessdata.fda.gov/drugsatfda_docs/label/2017/018936s108lbl.pdf)

    >In short, there exists no rigorous corroboration of the serotonin theory, and a significant body of contradictory evidence

    >Simple biochemical theories that link low levels of serotonin with depressed mood are no longer tenable. …

    There are studies that suggest exercise, good diet and sleep are more effective.

    This makes sense exercise increases BDNF levels, brain volume, brain connectivity, mitochondrial health, vascular health, etc. all of which are linked to mental health, like depression.

    If might be that if you brain is biologically impaired due to lack of exercise no amount of therapy or drugs will help.

    >University of South Australia researchers are calling for exercise to be a mainstay approach for managing depression as a new study shows that physical activity is 1.5 times more effective than counselling or the leading medications. [https://www.unisa.edu.au/media-centre/Releases/2023/exercise-more-effective-than-medicines-to-manage-mental-health](https://www.unisa.edu.au/media-centre/Releases/2023/exercise-more-effective-than-medicines-to-manage-mental-health)

  8. All you have to do is change one word in this title and everyone would agree with the government. Swap out antidepressants for HRT. Another example of hypocrisy and I’m not stopping anytime soon. I’m gonna keep reminding everyone of their hypocrisy whether they like it or not.

  9. Im almost convinced that the problems that prozac have are due to the fact they are stronger SSRIs and GPs routinely prescribe them to anyone with a depressive issue. Even whether or not they’ve ever taken antidepressants before.

  11. Fear mongering clickbait that has been recycled for decades.

  12. I remember an old episode of Silent Witness where this was a plot point, one of the pathologists questions this link. And the other replies

    >Come on, you already know that antidepressants are only prescribed to people who are much more likely to commit suicide than the general population.

    Antidepressants are treating symptoms not causes. They can be a help in the short term, but they can’t be a long term solution for depression. 

  13. Sertraline has been life changing for me anxiety wise…. I guess they work for some people and not others

  14. Anecdotally I started on Prozac 2 months ago after about 2 months prior trying to overcome my depression and anxiety through therapy. The therapy definitely helped, but it was starting the Prozac that finally broke me out of my gloom. I’ve had hardly any panic attacks since and my depression is much better. Things that used to send me over the edge now just mildly annoy me more than anything. Definitely the best decision I have ever made, but I do dread having to come off it in future.

  15. I felt like I was high on mdma for about a month straight, then became completely emotionally numb, to an uncomfortable extent, then the only thing I would feel was suicidal impulses out of nowhere that basically went straight from a thought to actually grabbing objects etc to go through with it… Shit’s straight up dangerous if your depression isn’t actually serotonin related.

  16. Why are we medicating the impact of false learning about what we think we should be? I mean like, for real? We came from the mud, man, and were still there scrapping with each other over petty bullshit while the world dies. The world is literally dieing and we are no where near being able to leave it and survive

  17. I recall in the early 2000s that a prof in the Pharmacy department in Queen’s University Kingston (Canada) published a study demonstrating that prozac increased suicide liklihood.

    The finding was that depression is usually linked with lethargy, and so although many have suicidal ideation, they lack the will/energy to carry it out.

    Proactive was shown to remove the lethargy first. Hence more suicides.

    The prof published this paper and the pharm company that produced prozac threatened to withdraw funding of the department if he wasn’t fired.

    They’ve known about this for decades.

    Edit: struggling right now to find a reference for the above, but here is an article in the Guardian from 2000 about the same thing:

    https://www.theguardian.com/science/2000/may/22/drugs.uknews

    Sidenote: journalism in the guardian was so much better 20 years ago.

  18. I’ve tried a few different SSRIs and couldn’t really deal with the side effects. That combined with the fact that they take months to become effective made them a non-option for me.

    But during a particularly low period, when i was looking for something (anything) to help, I started taking St John’s Wort daily. Usually I’m pretty skeptical about “traditional medicine” but I can say that it made a noticeable difference in around a week.

    I used to regularly have days where I couldn’t perceive the detail in anything. Mentally the world would be a blur. But since I’ve been taking St John’s Wort, that issue has disappeared. I’ve still had bad days and weeks. But that super noticeable and debilitating symptom has gone almost completely.

    Also while we’re here. If you have a history of depression and get prescribed cortisol steroids for a separate medical issue, take care and make the doctors aware. The withdrawal made life unbearable to a very risky extent for weeks in my case

  19. I was on Setraline and it made me so much worse. Told the doctor and he just prescribed me a stronger dosage. No questions. I tried that and obviously I got worse. I just live with depression now and don’t use medication. I may have suicidal thoughts from time to time but I’m better than I was then.

  20. I’m on fluoxetine (prozac) it’s an absolute god send. It’s also used as an anti-depressant and for many other such illnesses. I would imagine that, no shit, people with depression kill themselves more.

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