JUST SAY NO TO ANTIDEPRESSANTS!
The use of psychiatric medications in the UK has soared since their introduction last century. In 2023 in England alone, there was a record 8.7 million individuals on antidepressants. This equates to around 15% of the population. In the same time period, nearly 450,000 antidepressant prescriptions were issued to individuals under 18 in the UK. This is a bad state of affairs for the health of individuals and that of the the nation. To find out why psychiatric drugs come with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s severest Black Box warning for drug side effects, please read on …
The definition of a psychiatric drug is any drug that is intended to affect brain chemistry. This includes the following types of drugs: antidepressants, antipsychotics, hypnotics/anxiolytics, central nervous system stimulants/ADHD drugs and dementia drugs.
Medicating Life
Many people’s mental health took a nosedive as a result of the various Government-led measures during the Covid era. However, what we are witnessing today is the medicalisation of emotions that might be an entirely appropriate response to life events like grief, anger, disappointment and depression. Once an antidepressant has been prescribed to help someone to get over the loss of a loved one, that person may be left on a highly addictive drug for months or years without any follow up or lab tests to check for toxic reactions to the liver or kidneys. And, as mentioned above, these drugs come with the severest Black Box warnings.
Off-Label Prescribing
Additionally, psychiatric medications, once confined to the mentally disturbed in institutions, are now widely prescribed ‘off label’ (for a use not officially approved by the relevant regulatory agency) for a host of conditions like OCD, PTSD, fibromyalgia, back pain, migraine, long Covid, post herpetic neuralgia (lingering effects of shingles), sleep disorders, bed wetting, anxiety, worry about exams, premenstrual disorders, eating disorders, menopause (please see my blog on the medicating of menopause), chronic fatigue, ADHD, IBS, geriatric problems and just about any other condition you can think of. Antidepressants are among the most widely prescribed drugs on earth, with fifty-four million worldwide currently on them.
Does this scenario sound familiar?
Patient: “I’m still feeling ill and too tired to work.”
Doctor: “Well, all your blood results are reassuringly normal so there can’t be anything physically wrong with you.”
Patient: (with some anxiety) “But I feel tired all the time and my muscles are constantly aching. I know something’s wrong.”
Doctor: (soothingly) I’ll write you a prescription for Amitriptyline.
Patient: (alarmed) I don’t want to take an antidepressant! I’m not depressed!
Doctor: (reassuringly) I’m prescribing it for chronic fatigue.
Patient: (firmly) But I want to get to the bottom of why I feel so tired.
Doctor: (irritatingly) I’ve done all the lab tests and they’re all normal. I’ve offered you antidepressants and you don’t want them! I don’t know what you do want!
Patient: (determinedly) I want to investigate the root causes of why I am sick.
Doctor: (dismissingly) There’s nothing more I can do for you. Next please …
If you are prescribed an antidepressant drug ‘off label’ for something like IBS, you need to realise that all the cells in your body will feel the effects of that drug, not just your digestive system. You may develop new symptoms you didn’t have before. This is known as iatrogenic (doctor created) illness. What are the common side effects of antidepressants?
Side Effects of Antidepressants
Your body is a bag of chemicals obtained from the food you eat, the air you breathe and the water you drink. Inside it, millions of chemical reactions are constantly occurring. Putting a foreign chemical like an antidepressant into your body disrupts the body’s normal biochemistry. It has been described as throwing a grenade into a finely tuned machine. Such drugs alter the normal chemical reactions of the body by speeding things up, slowing things down, stopping them or overriding them. Sometimes this disruption creates a temporary ‘high’ or abnormal sense of alertness. This does not last and addiction can result.
At best, they can temporarily mask problems like putting a piece of sticky plaster over the warning light in a car. They do not however, address the root causes of a condition or heal anything. Over time, they can wear out your body and create a host of other body problems you didn’t have before. People find that they may need higher and higher doses of the same drug. Staying on the same dose for some time may tip the body into withdrawal. Some of the symptoms of this can make patients feel awful.
Just some of the effects of antidepressants include:
Insomnia
Nausea
Weakness
Headache
Loss of appetite
Drowsiness
Shakiness (tremors)
Decreased sex drive
Slow/rapid heartbeat
Abnormal heart rhythms
Dizziness
Fatigue
Neck/jaw pain
Flu-like symptoms
All over body pain
Emotional blunting
Numbness
Weight gain
Hot flashes
Anxiety
Nervousness
Confusion
Constipation
Pins and needles in head/extremities
Vision changes
Akathisia (uncontrollable limb and body movements)
Suicidal thoughts/ suicide
One of the worst side effects of antidepressants, or indeed any psychotropic drug, is emotional blunting or the dumbing down of one’s emotions. Some people may want to numb themselves from grief or other negative emotions but psychiatric medications numb the ability to feel all emotions, including pleasure and love, the very things that make life worth living. This is an aspect of these drugs that I call “Rape of the Soul.” It can destroy families and relationships.
How many GPs communicate these potential side effects/risks to their patients when prescribing? Virtually none in my experience. If patients knew the above risks, it that something they would sign up to?
Common Nutrients Depleted by Antidepressants
Antidepressants produce their side effects via the nutrients they deplete. Ironically, some of these side effects are the very reasons people are prescribed them them in the first place. Common nutrients depleted by antidepressants include:
B Vitamins (B12 and folate are especially critical for mood and cognition)
Co Q 10 (depletion leads to fatigue, muscle pain and cognitive dullness)
Magnesium - low magnesium can worsen anxiety, sleep disturbance and muscle tension.
Sodium - low sodium can produce brain fog, fatigue, headaches, confusion, especially in older adults.
Zinc - is essential for neuroplasticity (brain’s ability to form new connections between brain cells in response to learning, experience and injury), immune function and GABA/serotonin balance.
Vitamin D - deficiency may impair mood.
Melatonin - can worsen sleep quality even if mood improves. A chronic poor sleep pattern is associated with increased infection, inflammation, dementia and cancer.
Taking antidepressants can come at a severe cost. The booklet Antidepressants, the facts about the effects published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, the watchdog on mental health, describes the case of eleven-year-old Candace who lived life. She was on the swimming team, loved football, basketball and trampoline. What made her nervous, though, were exams, and for this she was prescribed an antidepressant. On January 10th, 2004, Candace hanged herself in her bedroom at the age of 12.
Children are not the only ones who experience suicidal thoughts (one of the listed side effects) when on antidepressants. A 2005 Norwegian study found that patients of all ages taking a type of antidepressant medication known as an SSRI were seven times more likely to commit suicide than those taking sugar pills. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that antidepressants are no more effective than a sugar pill and do not reduce depression. Irving Kirsch, Professor Emeritus at the University of Plymouth, published a book in 2009 entitled The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth. In this book Professor Kirsch suggests that the benefits of antidepressants are little more than the placebo effect.
For decades, psychiatric drugs were prescribed on the premise that they were resolving a so-called chemical imbalance in the brain. This was an impressive marketing strategy, generating billions in revenue based on an idea that something therapeutic was happening. However, in July 2022, researchers from University College London dispelled the idea of a chemical imbalance. The landmark study published in 2022 established that the low serotonin theory of depression has no scientific basis. “The serotonin theory of depression has been one of the most influential and extensively researched biological theories of the origins of depression, the researchers reported. “Our study shows that this view is not supported by scientific evidence. It also calls into question the basis for the use of antidepressants.” taking antidepressants long-term exposes users to emotional blunting, stroke, heart disease, sexual dysfunction and even violence. When quitting, withdrawal symptoms can be severe and long-lasting. Based on these findings, it is time that healthcare providers stopped promoting the misinformation of a chemical imbalance causing depression. It is also high time to stop prescribing these high risk drugs off label. The World psychiatric Association and the US National Institute of Mental health even admit that psychiatrists do not know the causes or cures for any mental disorder or what their “treatments” (usually drugs) do to the patient.
Unlike medical drugs, which may commonly prevent a disease or improve health, psychiatric drugs are only designed to suppress symptoms that return once the drug wears off. Meanwhile, the real underlying physical illnesses that may be causing the symptoms go unrecognised and untreated.
Solutions to Depression
What should be done to address the symptoms of depression? The first step is to do a differential diagnosis - a thorough medical history and physical examination, including blood tests to look for underlying physical causes of psychiatric-type symptoms. Dr Mary Ann Block, author of Just because You Are depressed Doesn’t Mean you Have Depression, states, “If a doctor does not have the time or does not know how to rule out various conditions, the patient should be referred to someone who can do these things. Above all, the temptation to rely on a single psychiatric diagnosis must be rejected.” It can be disastrous not to perform a differential diagnosis on someone who is experiencing mental symptoms. These are the following real physical conditions that can and have been routinely missed in such patients:
*Bacterial infections like Lyme and co-infections.
*Chronic viral infections, including Long Covid.
*Autoimmune brain conditions.
*Thyroid imbalance.
*Adrenal dysfunction.
*Kryptopyrrole disorder (produces serious deficiencies)
*Chronic severe dental infection.
*Food allergy/gut infections/imbalances.
*Hormonal imbalance.
*Sleep disorders/sleep apnoea.
*Anaemia.
*Drug toxicity/adverse reactions (iatrogenic)
*Nutrient deficiencies/toxicities
*Poor diet.
If your doctor wishes to prescribe you a psychiatric drug like an antidepressant, ask him to go over the risk/benefit ratio of the drug. This is informed consent and is what should happen. Ask for a thorough physical examination and lab tests to determine the underlying causes of your symptoms. There are safer and more effective ways to address genuine emotional distress. Just say “No” to antidepressants.
If you are currently taking psychiatric drugs, never suddenly stop taking them or try to taper them down without proper medical help. This is very dangerous as the withdrawal effects can be very severe. Instead, talk to your prescribing GP and ask for a safe taper down. This should be very gradual and can be spread out over a few months rather than weeks. I also recommend a good nutrition and lifestyle programme is in place before any safe supervised taper down and that the underlying causes of the symptoms being treated have been found and are being addressed. The book by Patrick Holford How To Quit Without Feeling S**T may be helpful in giving advice about nutritional support. But I repeat, anyone wishing to discontinue or change the dose of an antidepressant or other behavioural drug is cautioned to do so only under the supervision of a doctor because of potentially dangerous withdrawal symptoms.
If you feel affected by any of the above issues and would like help, please get in touch with the Good Health Clinic on goodhealthclinic@outlook.com to request a free 30 minute Enquiry Call or book an appointment. Please note that an Enquiry call is not a consultation but an exploratory call to see if this is a clinical approach you wish to pursue.
An Important Postscript!
A lot of patients who see me have had bad experiences with the NHS. But to give credit where credit is due, my husband had a life-changing and life-saving experience with St Mark’s, the National Bowel Hospital in London.
Our daughter Caroline is running with her partner Joe in the Rame Head half marathon on 14th June to raise money for the St Mark’s Foundation. Please read her and my husband’s story. Please donate to support this effort if you can. The link for the story of my husband and to donate is below.
Thank you.
To your very good health,
Suzanne Jeffery (Nutritional Medicine Consultant)
M.A.(Oxon), BSc.(NMed), PGCE, GNC, BSEM, MNNA, CNHC
The Good Health Clinic at The Business Centre, 2, Cattedown Road, Plymouth PL4 0EG
Tel no: 07836 552936/ Answer phone: 01752 774755
Disclaimer:
All advice given out by Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic is for general guidance and informational purposes only. All advice relating to other health professionals’ advice is for general guidance and information purposes only. Readers are encouraged to confirm the information provided with other sources. Patients and consumers should review the information carefully with their professional health care provider. The information is not intended to replace medical advice offered by other practitioners and physicians. Suzanne Jeffery and the Good Health Clinic will not be liable for any direct, indirect, consequential, special, exemplary or other damages arising therefrom.