Writing for the B.B.C., Dr. Joanna Moncrieff explained that anti-depressants do not cure depression or make people happy. They merely numb people into drug-induced emotional comas, until the emotions are repressed to the point of forcefully reappearing: often explosively. She noted that the chemical imbalance hypothesis has never been proven, and moreover; it's wrong.
"Psychoactive drugs make people feel different; they put people into an altered mental and physical state. They affect everyone, regardless of whether they have a mental disorder or not... If we gave people a clearer picture, drug treatment might not always be so appealing. If you told people that we have no idea what is going on in their brain, but that they could take a drug that would make them feel different and might help to suppress their thoughts and feelings, then many people might choose to avoid taking drugs if they could."
-- Dr. Joanna Moncrieff
Antidepressant Drug Effects and Depression Severity was a 30-year research study utilizing the results of 6 clinical studies. It was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (J.A.M.A.) in 2009, revealing that S.S.R.I. (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor) anti-depressants, in the overwhelming majority of cases, are no more effective than placebos. Their admission is ironic, because the same medical establishment routinely ridicules alternative methods as not having been proven effective in official studies.
The general public believes that pharmaceuticals are judged on a risk versus benefit basis. The pharmaceutical marketers and their regulatory partners in government have sworn that this is really the case for the drug approval process. So when the risks of suicidal ideation and psychosis are introduced by pharmaceuticals, then it seems unthinkable to the uninitiated that these same medications would not at least provide a benefit above that of a placebo. Anti-depressant medications for the depressed are like medicating diabetics with sugar pills, for the aftermath is blamed on the original organic condition. As a consequence, depressions tend to get worse with long-term medication, business gets more profitable, and survivors are unable to prove a connection.
S.S.R.I. pharmaceuticals have been the most commonly used drugs in the United States for decades, yet there is still little evidence demonstrating their efficacy. There is, however, overwhelming evidence of their horrific side effects, including suicidal ideation, anxiety, and homicidal impulses. Anti-depressant drugs cause suicidal tendencies, in addition to a litany of physical effects. This entire class of drugs is required to come with a special Black Box notice about the high risk of suicide when taking them. The fact that anti-depressant using patients are killing themselves in significantly higher numbers than unmedicated patients clarifies the effectiveness of these drugs.
The F.D.A.'s Black Box Warning
Antidepressants increase the risk of suicidal thinking and behavior (suicidality) in children and adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders. Anyone considering the use of [Drug Name] or any other antidepressant in a child or adolescent must balance this risk with the clinical need. Patients who are started on therapy should be observed closely for clinical worsening, suicidality, or unusual changes in behavior. Families and caregivers should be advised of the need for close observation and communication with the prescriber. [Drug Name] is not approved for use in pediatric patients except for patients with [Any approved pediatric claims here]. (See Warnings and Precautions: Pediatric Use)
Pooled analyses of short-term (4 to 16 weeks) placebo-controlled trials of nine antidepressant drugs (SSRIs and others) in children and adolescents with MDD, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), or other psychiatric disorders (a total of 24 trials involving over 4400 patients) have revealed a greater risk of adverse events representing suicidal thinking or behavior (suicidality) during the first few months of treatment in those receiving antidepressants. The average risk of such events on drug was 4%, twice the placebo risk of 2%. No suicides occurred in these trials.
These drugs also cause severe addictions, which the pharmaceutical industry flippantly calls "discontinuation syndrome" to carefully avoid using the words addiction and withdrawal. These word games are both for marketing and legal liability reasons. By labeling the anti-depressant addictions as a disease possessed by the victims, it is another way for the chemical industry to pass the blame onto its victims, in much the same vein as 'bad' genes are now being blamed for the results of pharmaceutical toxicity and artificial foods. These mitigation strategies are beloved by lawyers worldwide. Discontinuation syndrome is their code phrase used throughout medical literature, which is used to hide the fact that these drugs cause terrible withdrawal symptoms. The withdrawal symptoms are frequently worse than those from illegal narcotics. It is important to note that all addictive illegal drugs were originally created by the pharmaceutical industry and sold as safe medications. Take for instance that Bayer's wonder drug for treating drug addictions in yesteryear was Heroin (diacetylmorphine). Heroin is still reverently remembered as the pharmaceutical industry's best seller of all time.
S.S.R.I. drugs have only been shown to be partially effective in those with major depressive disorders. Those who go to a psychiatrist seeking a happy pill due to an episode of mild to moderate depression will not get any appreciable relief. Such patients represent the overwhelming majority of cases for which these drugs are prescribed. For major depressions, psychiatrists mix and match dangerous cocktails of psychogenic drugs like a game of Russian roulette, even though the drugs are not supposed to be mixed. No testing is ever done on drugs combined with other drugs. In fact, such tests are automatically disqualified as invalid by the industry and regulators.
A patient, or anyone else for that matter, becomes a dangerous person whenever the emotions behind his conscience are chemically neutralized for the sake of suppressing inconvenient emotions. Altering people's mental state to eliminate emotions produces drug-induced sociopaths. Our conscience is, after all, an emotional reaction. The ability to empathize with the suffering of others requires emotions. Mercy itself requires them.
Sources
Antidepressant Drug Effects and Depression Severity, Journal of the American Medical Association
The Myth of the Chemical Cure by Dr. Joanna Moncrieff, BBC News
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