Wednesday 9 December 2009

Antidepressants may change your personality




paxil aka paroxetine aka aropax aka seroxat

Tweeted by CognitiveTherap

Same story in the LA Times; in the Guardian.

No one talks about the way that depression changes your personality. No one asks how relevant personality tests are, nor what they measure, nor how seriously we should take them. This is a one off study of just 240 people which has not, as far as I can tell, been repeated. No one seems to measure personality before as well as after the onset of depression and treatment with drugs. This story should not be in the news at all. Medical journalism is a crock of shit. The Guardian article is slightly better written, the LA Times article is reprehensible and irresponsible.

Did you know that the information on Anti-depressant medications all say something like: "the action of this drug is presumed to be due to its effect on the levels of serotonin." [my italics] Actually they don't know, they certainly don't know why the side-effects come on within 30 minutes, and the mood effects take 2-4 weeks. They just don't know.

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