Caution needs to be taken while using herbs, too. Why was this not addressed? Must be a "filler" article that does more harm than good just to fill space.

I looked it up. Some of the things that can interact with an anti depressant are St. John's Wort, and herb. Also dextromethorphan in cough meds, some anti migraine drugs and tryptophan. And I can't leave out ecstasy, cocaine & lithium.

Its probably best to call your pharmacist and talk to him/her about anything new you want to take and make sure it doesn't interact with your prescription medication. And I also think its always a good idea to get your scripts filled at the same pharmacy.

Agreed. This is a completely useless article. It provides just enough information to frighten but stops short to adequately inform. What EXACTLY are the medications that contraindicate one another???

I think it's too risky for the article to state the medications and other things that can contradict each other. There are so many different types of anti-depressants that it would be almost impossible to list the interactions. For example, the stuff I listed above are interactions that can occur when taking medicine that works with serotonin. PLUS, you have to also consider other meds like blood-thinners, heart meds etc.

The article is good in the sense that it brings awarness.

It is simple enough to READ THE PACKAGE INSERT to understand the potential side effects. There are also websites available to check drug interactions.

All pharmacies are supposed to review this information when someone picks up a prescription. The idea that the doctor knows best, especially when someone is seeing more than one doctor, is pure fantasy.

I'm glad you mentioned that doctors don't know best when it comes to prescriptions. My mother-in-law's doctors flat out tell her to talk to her pharmacist to discuss interactions with other medications including over the counter meds. She has three doctors and all three prescribe her medication. She has her primary, then her heart doctor and her lung doctor. So, it is important read up, and ask the pharmacist questions when taking medication.

Gramma,

I agree and if the print is too tiny to see (usually it is) have someone go over it with you. It is so important.

Agree too. What a waste of space for an article. Very little helpful information there.

AZ Hockeymom

I looked it up. Some of the things that can interact with an anti depressant are St. John's Wort, and herb. Also dextromethorphan in cough meds, some anti migraine drugs and tryptophan. And I can't leave out ecstasy, cocaine & lithium.

I think that too many of us forget that our feelings were given to us for a reason: They're our warning system. Far too many of us deaden our feelings with drugs. But many drugs can be dangerous. I read yesterday that 200,000 people in the US a year die as a direct result of a prescription medication. Our kidneys and livers just weren't made to process all those foreign substances.

Its probably best to call your pharmacist and talk to him/her about anything new you want to take and make sure it doesn't interact with your prescription medication. And I also think its always a good idea to get your scripts filled at the same pharmacy.

I agree. A good pharmacist is invaluable. But we can also do a lot of research ourselves. Recently, being retired with quite a bit of time on my hands, I decided to research all the drugs I had been prescribed. Some of the results surprised me, so, with my doctor's whole-hearted support, I started eliminating or cutting down on some of them one by one. The end result was that I now take less than half the medications I was taking before, and feel significantly better.

One of the biggest problems is that Doctors are commissioned salesmen! That has worked out so well in the mortgage and stock market hasn't it?

All Agins... what a great post. My mom went through very much the same thing but we all figured that it was because she couldn't get a decent night's sleep.

On a few times she takes a half amount more zolpidem than prescribed so she could sleep longer. Without... for her... it was simply a fast getting to sleep device with wakeup a couple hours later. She used to joke it was like getting hit with a Mickey Finn (and us "youngns" who have to ask... knock-out drops lol).

"...sleep it is a gentle thing beloved from pole to pole..." If folks are taking meds for sleep, make sure the doc knows side effects and interactions with OTC items so many of us use in self-diagnosis... like allergy pills.

Wish the columnist here would address that. Nothing gets my mom (age 80) more annoyed than the shrug of the shoulders response and the comment that... "Oh well, that is usually the case with the elderly."

(She's in denial about her age anyway and frankly, in looks, she could get away with 50s, maybe 60s... really... her natural auburn hair has some gray but it still looks like highlights!)

So glad for you and your husband, All Agins... go for the gold!

This article goes hand in hand with another stat.

A senior on SSRI or psychotropic medications is 30% more likely to die within 12 months of starting such a regimen.

@take2la

That's the first time I've heard that statistic. Do you think it is the result of the SSRI/psychotropic meds OR that they are prescribed too late?

My experience leads me to think that Sr's are at high risk for anxiety and depression. Both of my parents were "heart" patients, and my Dad had a valve replacement. We were warned about possible depression, and the Cardiologist continued to ask about it several years later. Dad did well. Mom didn't have heart surgery, the risk was too great, and was seriously depressed.

Seniors are at risk for vitamin and mineral deficiencies because the are less likely to cook and consume full meals consisting of fresh ingredients.

Restaurant dining, convenience foods and smaller portions rob the bod and brain of essential nutrients that have an impact on all, including mental, health.

Just like with kids, adding in essential fatty acids and a full spectrum vitamin and mineral supplement goes a long LONG wa to solving a lot of issues that medical practitioners throw drugs on.

take2la,

I'd never heard that before! My 89 year old mother died 4 months after being prescribed the ssri Zoloft. Her death was also within 1 1/2 years of my father dying--another stat. Of course, she was 89...

@United WE stand:

It's not the elderly who are healthy at risk for depression and anxiety, but heart patients at risk for depression and anxiety. It's not uncommon for a heart patient to experience depression as a comorbid factor of their illness. Healthy elders are not as likely to succumb to depression any more than other adults. They've figured out how to handle stress and problems that create depression better than the rest of us. Experience.

I'll track down the source and site it.

Later.

please do. very interesting and very important.

Women 50 to 79, on antidepressants are 45% more likely to have a stroke-32% higher risk of death

Nursing Home Pharmacy Provider Omnicare, Teva to pay $112 million for kickbacks

Systemic Elder Abuse Perpetuated By Prescribed Anti-Psychotics

Three quarters of nurses have seen people with dementia in general wards in hospital prescribed antipsychotic drugs that are known to double the risk of death and triple the risk of a stroke in these patients, research has shown.

Those are (mostly) enjoyable things to do, I agree, however think about someone who has difficulty walking without a walker or cane, can't see to drive, can barely see to their own needs.

I agree that less pills are better, and that medication is not always a good fix, especially without therapy, however I'm guessing that you've never experienced the demons of depression and have little tolerance for those that have.

you've never experienced the demons of depression and have little tolerance for those that have.

you nailed what ignorant comments reveal - thanks.

Real depression has nothing to do with "happy", but everything to do with the chemistry within a person's body and how that affects brain function. The Person is at the mercy of his/her body. It is not funny and has absolutely nothing to do with "happy talk". >

A good way to not need pills is to lose weight. I lost 40 pounds and no longer have to take diabetes medication. If I keep going (another 40) I could get off of my hypertension and cholesterol meds, too, according to my doc.

Being thinner is good for my mood, too. However, my depression is caused by a wonky brain chemistry that has nothing to do with the non-anti-depressant meds I take. It's like, if you have a broken leg it is really difficult to awlk. If your brain chemistry is out of whack it is impossible to NOT be depressed. Sorry, it is not a matter of "trying to be cheerful" or "eat this" or "do that" or, and maybe especially, "stop moaning about how depressed you are." It has evrything to do with getting your chemistry straight, and anti-depressants along with cognitive therapy is a proven way to do that.

That's the sad state of medicine now. Doctors are rushed and don't really take the time to listen to and evaluate their patients thoroughly. I'm sorry you got such bad care. At least you're smart enough to be a good self-advocate, but many older folks can't manage these problems for themselves.

You have to be an advocate for yourself, but as a doctor I can tell you that drug reps cant even leave pens in my office for marketing, much less take a physician on a trip to Hawaii. The idea that a drug rep today can sway physician prescribing on a broad scale is ludicrous. Sure, it sounds like your physician was uncaring and wrote for all brand name "designer" drugs. Find a new doctor. It may just be him, not necessarily the system.

Are you a wise guy?

No, your brain is made in hell. Making a statement like that without documentation is dangerous and irresponsible. Keep your wacko religoius advice to yourself.

Depression has nothing to do with "being happy".

Thank you, antiindividual. Why are people so resistant to the idea that depression is a MEDICAL condition, like a permenant case of the flu, except that it happens to effect how you see the world and feel emotionally

People who have not experienced it cannot fathom anhedonia which is the primary problem of depression, not the unhappiness that is consequent to it.

Anhedonia is the complete inability to experience pleasure and anyone living in this state will find nothing to be happy about. Nothing relives it other than chemicals or natural cycles and all the advice, well meaning or otherwise, about resuming or adding activities is for naught. Such activity can in fact be counterproductive. It further suppresses happiness to do things one formerly enjoyed when the new result is empty futility.

Re: the posts
they read like smartass 3 yr olds who slipped out of bed in the wee hrs of the morning and got on daddy's computer in the basement....if not, then they are written by teens at a sleepover. Whichever - they have no idea what they are commenting on. Not a clue.

albqman, anti-depressants do not work for everybody, just like most medication (including herbal remedies). But just because it didn't work for you because of negative side-effects does not mean that it is bad for everyone. Implying that it is is dangerous and irresponsible. Anti-depressants along with cognitive therapy saved my life.

For SOME people that is true. And it is only true of particular kinds of psychotherapies. Studies show that the most effective use of anti-depressants is in conjunction with certain "talk" therapies (e.g. cognitive). BUT some people are not helped by psychotherapy at all, while others get a huge benefit from anti-depressants without any psychotherapy at all.

To make a general catagorical statement that anti-depressents are unecssary is dangerous and irresponsible. Ask yourself, what stake do you have in denying the efficacy of anti-depressants. You might learn something about yourself that YOU will find helpful.

One thing that is mostly true is that a person has to want to help themselves, which sometimes requires "pulling oneself up by one's bootstraps." How to do that cannot be prescribed or necessarily be talked out in a tharapist's office. Being able to do it is sort of like the concept of "grace" in some religions.

Yes, well take it up with insurance companies who refuse to pay for psychotherapy and have pushed medications as a cheaper alternative. I'm a psychiatrist who used to do psychotherapy but now am constrained to push pills of doubtful efficacy. I still make an effort to listen but my role has been redefined to diagnosing and prescribing, not "treating" patients. There is a role for medications (but they are not really very effective except in cases of severe depression or in psychotic states) but the human relationship of one person helping and empathically connecting to another will never be replaced. Unfortunately, the people best suited by intellect and training to do that are no longer allowed to do so because of financial considerations.

dwemd, you are in a better position to know that than I am. I am fortunate in that my (US) insurance pays for psychotherapy as well as visits to the doctor's purely to have medication prescribed.

However, when I lived in Canada, the deal was you saw a psychiatrist for 10 minutes every 6 weeks to get your anti-depressant dosage adjusted.

Your statement that the most important thing is the human relationship and empathically connecting has been shown to be true by least one scientific study.

Let me get this straight. You are seriously telling people not to trust their doctors and not take their medications and just die? That is just crazy. Let's see, you could live for 25 years more by taking your blood pressure medicine but you choose not to? To each his own, I suppose.

Sorry, you have no idea what was going thru your loved one's mind before they started taking anitdepressants. Also, these drugs do have a risk of suicide early on in treatment, and require close supervision by a qualified doctor. And I wonder, with all the "support" your family seemed to give in terms of telling them to just buck up, stop taking the pills, and screw the doctor - it doesn't seem the best set of circumstances for this poor person struggling with depression. A little empathy here, huh???

Please don't post material that shows your ignorance of my profession. I am a doctor first, last and always. I perform physicals, evaluate lab results and have a good understanding of internal medicine. I certainly have a broader perspective on the human condition than many surgeons you will find. Please don't generalize what may have been your bad experience to an indictment of a whole profession that has a long and valuable tradition and is now, more than ever, rooted in mainstream medical practice.

Hey, JoAnn, you forgot to take your meds this morning. Althought the condition of running off at the mouth about stuff you know absolutely nothing about has no known cure, the symptoms can often be managed by medication. If you're not on them, you should be.

Famousperson, I'm totally enjoying your posts!!!!

Thank you for acknowledging that your doctors are caring and competent. I think the majority of us are and really have a sense of obligation to do the best we can for the people who entrust themselves to us. People are not perfect, in any walk of life, but I would like to think and do believe that most people care about the quality of the work they do...and that includes doctors.