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[noos]

Primum Non Nocere: An Evolutionary Analysis of Whether Antidepressants Do More Harm than Good
Paul W. Andrews,^1,2* J. Anderson Thomson, Jr.,^3,4 Ananda Amstadter,² and Michael C. Neale²

Antidepressant medications are the first-line treatment for people meeting current diagnostic criteria for major depressive disorder.

Most antidepressants are designed to perturb the mechanisms that regulate the neurotransmitter serotonin – an evolutionarily ancient biochemical found in plants, animals, and fungi. Many adaptive processes evolved to be regulated by serotonin, including emotion, development, neuronal growth and death, platelet activation and the clotting process, attention, electrolyte balance, and reproduction

It is a principle of evolutionary medicine that the disruption of evolved adaptations will degrade biological functioning.

Because serotonin regulates many adaptive processes, antidepressants could have many adverse health effects. For instance, while antidepressants are modestly effective in reducing depressive symptoms, they increase the brain’s susceptibility to future episodes after they have been discontinued.

Contrary to a widely held belief in psychiatry, studies that purport to show that antidepressants promote neurogenesis are flawed because they all use a method that cannot, by itself, distinguish between neurogenesis and neuronal death. In fact, antidepressants cause neuronal damage and mature neurons to revert to an immature state, both of which may explain why antidepressants also cause neurons to undergo apoptosis (programmed death).

Antidepressants can also cause developmental problems, they have adverse effects on sexual and romantic life, and they increase the risk of hyponatremia (low sodium in the blood plasma), bleeding, stroke, and death in the elderly.

Our review supports the conclusion that antidepressants generally do more harm than good by disrupting a number of adaptive processes regulated by serotonin.

However, there may be specific conditions for which their use is warranted (e.g., cancer, recovery from stroke). We conclude that altered informed consent practices and greater caution in the prescription of antidepressants are warranted.


http://www.ncbi.nlm....30/?tool=pubmed

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Edited by noos, 10 May 2012 - 04:41 AM.

[Sartac]

Very interesting, good looking out!

[Heraclitean]

I'm not surprised. Unfortunately I was raised in a neurotic upper-middle class environment in South America, where all the worst manias from the US (but unfortunately not the habits which ACTUALLY helped make that country great) such as the over reliance on psychiatrists and their "trigger happy" ways with medication, were imported and celebrated as signs of being "advanced" and "progressive". This afforded me the upsetting spectacle of seeing many individuals, some quite young, being dosed with SSRI's [almost always out of laziness, lack of concern and lack of perspective], and to be honest I was never impressed with their "evolution". They always seemed bizarre and out of touch when on those chemicals, like they were not 100% there. I am sure that can't be good for you, as much as being put under the influence of a powerful narcotic for weeks on end could ever possibly be good for anybody except the most severely physically infirm individuals (e.g. advanced Cancer and AIDS patients).

I am glad that there seems to be growing suspicion and caution directed towards these compounds, supported by science as much as by common sense.

Edited by Heraclitean, 05 June 2012 - 12:56 AM.