from Clinical Psychiatry News

I noticed a report in Clinical Psychiatry News, that a company (Adheris Inc, a provider of patient adherence intervention programs) did a poster presentation on a study they did with 211,565 people who filled a prescription using antidepressants (Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Effexor, Celexa or Lexapro).

They found that is was more likely that 'rookies' (people who had not used an anti-depressant in the previous 6 months) would discontinue their antidepressant medication at the time of their first refill (40%) rather than 'veterans' (has used antidepressant sometime in the previous 180 days) at 20%.

They also noted that females accounted for 74% of the 211,565 and the average age was 51. 37% were rookies.

Eileen

This post has been edited by firelizardee: Nov 23 2005, 12:47 PM

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I think this is definitely true. I stopped taking mine about 6 months after I started. I then started them again, and stopped, and now I've been on them for about 2 months. I will be telling the doctor that they aren't working as well as I hoped, and that I have been feeling worse these last two weeks.

2 months sometimes isn't long enough for the antidepressants to work. Especially if you aren't at the correct doseage.

It can be a gradual change.

Maybe this has something to do with a common sensitivity to side-effects? A month or 2 ago my brother decided to try anti-depressants after many years of refusing them. He wound up on lithium, wellbutrin and something else I can't remember right now, but had rather horrible side-effects. First he was simply shaky, then dizzy, then sleepless for at least 4 days with hallucinations, at some point got strep throat and we don't have a clue what symptoms came from what.

Needless to say, he quit taking the medication and got antibiotics for his throat and is sleeping well now. Perhaps some people have more side-effects to anti-depressants in general than others?

This post has been edited by chaku: Jan 3 2006, 03:14 AM

its also better to take one med at a time and see how you get on with that. I think that with some people meds do give some serious side effects but the kind of effects that you brother had are not common. I hope he wasn't given all 3 meds to start at the same time.

Eileen

I am pretty sure the pychiatrist put him on the one medication I can't remember first, and then added lithium and wellbutrin at the same time a month later. I agree that it would probably be a better approach to start small, hopefully one medication at a time, but it seems most pychiatrists don't agree with me.

My mother has been on from 8 to 12 medications at a time before, and had some truly horrible side-effects as well. She suffered significant weight gain, hallucinations, loss of control of her bowels, a car crash, inability to sleep, inability to stay awake, and became (and unfortunately still is) much less coherent and talkative. They even tried shock therapy on her, which was a terrible thing. She lost much more memory than their what they were claiming, and there is no way for us to know just how much was lost.

I am happy to say that she is making progress in talking, she calls me every day, even though she doesn't have much to talk about. It just makes me very angry that she not only has to deal with the pain of depression, but has to recover from what all of these medications have done to her. Hopefully others who are going the medication route won't have things turn out this way.

It sounds like you mum has had a really difficult time. I'm sorry she has had to go through all that as well as suffering from depression.


The thing is to check and recheck the meds you are on with your dr and/or pharmacist. there are on-line med checkers as well.

I have heard from one other person (years ago) whose wife was on 14 meds and I did some checking and there was interaction between the meds.

Here in the UK we get most of our meds from a single GP and/or pdoc (my pdoc keeps my GP informed of the meds I'm on), but I have read that in the USA you may have different docs for different conditions, so do keep them aware of the meds you are taking. Check with the pharmacist when you are fillilng out your prescriptions.

Eileen

This post has been edited by firelizardee: Jan 4 2006, 02:22 PM

I think another reason why "rookies" are more likely to quit, is the idea that "I don't want to take pills to be okay", "I don't want to get addicted" and "What are these pills doing to me in the long run?"

It's also very hard to accept that you have an illness that may require chronic life-long treatment. You have to adjust your whole built-up sense of who and what you are, and that's hard. It's not nice to realise you are sick in a longterm way. When I was diagnosed hypothyroid, I went off my Eltroxin (Synthroid) three times, because I could not accept that I'd always have to take them. To my great detriment I got depressed every time, until I learnt. When I started out on anti-depressants in my early 20s I also just quit a few times. You get two weeks of horrible side-effects and then some, before you even begin to feel better! And even then, they didn't work that well.

I also think rookies might be a bit scared off, by us veteran meds-takers, who have accepted, that this is what we need to make it through life! I'm sure they think, "I don't want to get like that, and use pills as "crutches" all my life." It is as if it says that you're somehow weak for needing them, and it dents your pride.

It takes some learning and adjusting, to accept that you are still you, your body just needs help to function, and the pills are not crutches. Some don't need them all their lives, but some of us do. I've really stopped worrying about what their long-term effects might be, because they allow me to be myself, and function NOW and that is SOOOO worth it.

See, all this is where I'm at. So I've been in therapy off and on all my adult life, so I used to self-medicate with alcohol and drugs and got myself into all kinds of trouble, so now I'm self medicating by poaching my wife's Klonopin and Ambien just so I can sleep.

But in my 20's a therapist talked me into AntiD's. Wellbutrin did nothing (after about 2 weeks, yeah, ok) and Zoloft was like a permanent acid trip, and my boss noticed, and no it wasn't a great job where employees are valued and empowered. So I dropped those like a hot potato.

Now, I'm dealing with all my past trauma and abuse, and stuff is bubbling to the surface, and I'm involved in all kinds of secondary trauma and compassion fatigue because of my current volunteer work, and I'm triggering all over the place and the debate is on as to whether I had a flashback Sunday night.

But I'm in grad school, trying to work, rescuing dogs, in therapy, on and on, and I already can't regulate my moods or organize my thoughts. The last thing I need is the med roller coaster while they try to figure out what ****** pill I need to be able to function.

So I'm rebuilding my whole self-image as a rape survivor, an abuse survivor, a suicide survivor, and at-risk suicide whatever, and a diagnosed depressed person rather than just a general screwup, an identity that just won't go away no matter how many "___ survivor" labels I put after my name and, oh yeah, I need these little head pills to keep me from going off the deep end. Want to get to know me better? Yeah right.