Depression: Antidepressants can kill you or your loved ones

// added August 13, 2008 // 10 comments //
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JackHerer

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http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august122008/doc_depression_8-12-0...

(MOLALLA, Ore.) - As a Medical Marijuana Physician I have interviewed over four thousand patients in Oregon. Depression is not one of the medical conditions for which a patient can get a permit to use it but depression is common with chronic pain which is acceptable.

I punched up Marijuana Replacements on my computer and soon the index to SSRI stories jumped out at me! It included Antidepressant Violence, Suicide and Bizarre Behavior.

The Oregon Medical Board has condemned the use of opiate pain killers for chronic pain for about forty years with the screwy philosophy that depression causes chronic pain which is backwards.

Pain Causes Depression

Doctors, including me, were punished for prescribing pain killers for chronic pain. I must say that there never was a physician with training in Pharmacology on the Board and few of them ever cared for chronic pain patients.

With all of this in my mind, I was intrigued but not surprised to see the Antidepressant bombshell on my computer. My patients had told me this. I started going down the list of bad, bad reports. There are now 2,515 on file.

The list included the following highly advertised Antidepressant, obviously very dangerous drugs: Prozac, Zoloff, Paxil, Effexor, Celexa, Wellbutrin (Zyban), Cymbalta, Chantex, Lexapro, Luvox, Remerom, Ritalin, Psychotropics, ADHD meds, SSRI’s, Seroquel, Strattera, Resperdal, Accutane, Steroids, Desipramine, Zoloft plus Ambien and Valium, Lexapro with Zoloft and Methadone. I only looked at the first five of the thirty-five pages. I’m almost afraid to look further.

The bizarre behavior included school shootings, murder and murder attempts, suicides, mania and psychosis, bank robbery, many deaths, self mutilation, violent behavior, anxiety, panic attacks. I could go on but I hope the reader gets the idea.

Contrasting with all of the above including the highly touted medicines and the causation of horrendous adverse effects, my medical marijuana patients told me that marijuana, which is a mild euphoriant or antidepressant, works better than any of the above drugs without the above mentioned adverse effects.

The Pharmaceutical Companies Attorneys and Pharmacologists (?) will say these are rare events. Yes sure, 1750 events with many thousand dead and seriously wounded are rare but there sure are a lot of them.

Marijuana is a safer drug. The U.S. Government publishes that 50 million Americans use marijuana. I’ve never heard or read about these kinds of adverse effects and I’ve even watched the movie Reefer Madness about eight times.

It is time some people somewhere got their acts together and made marijuana legal and available.
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10 comments // Depression: Antidepressants can kill you or your loved ones

  • federicoharo
    • 0
      federicoharo  

    • 80% of all Psycostimulants in the world are consumed by Americans. There are 10 MILLION American children on pills for ADD-ADHD, Depression (Mind-altering Drugs). This documentary covers a hidden issue in America that is creating life- long Drug Addicts. Including a new therapy that has the highest results in treating these debilitating conditions without the use of drugs. Nero and Bio-Feedback.

    • 1 year ago
  • comebackkiddxxx
    • 0
      comebackkiddxxx  

    • It's kind of funny how most people who smoke weed say they are responsible..how can you be responsible with it if it's freaking ILLEGAL?!

      i'm a 17 year old with bipolar disorder type I and ADHD, medicated for both with Adderall XR and Lamictal...I can say that the person who said exercise and yoga is better
      than psychiatric medication is an idiot.
      first off..there's a HUGE difference between a normal
      depressive phase in a persons life and a person with a chemical imbalance from the day they were born OR induced by drugs.
      if you have a normal depressive phase just because hey, you're human, you're not perfect, then yeah of course..running could help. BUT if it's actually a chemical imbalance, then no sir you are totally wrong
      if you're doing that without the proper medication.

      chemical imbalances are partially fixed by psychiatric medications just like chemotherapy destroy the left over cancer cells. i've learned a lot about psychology, medications and disorders...and being
      one with disorders, having a mother with depression and anxiety, father with ADHD..friends with depression and anxiety..etc... i know what works for most people. yeah, yoga can definitely help along with medication just like therapy can. BUT, exercise alone does not help.

      AND. for the whole "antidepressants cause bizarre behavior and suicide...." stuff, there's a simple explanation. half of people with bipolar disorder are misdiagnosed and put on antidepressants which can cause them to go into psychosis basically because antidepressants are UPPERS. people with BP need MOOD STABILIZERS because since they're uppers, you will only become more manic! then for accutane?
      another simple fact, since it can actually act as an antidepressant...if you do not have depression or anxiety, it can make you depressed because somehow it'll mess with your chemical balance.

      millions of lives are saved from psychiatric medication,
      please do not say they are bad. i've been on medication for my BP for 19 months now and i wouldn't stop taking my mood stabilizer just because some psychiatrists get the persons diagnosis wrong...
      it's not like you can look into their mind and be like "up! they have borderline personality disorder rather than bipolar disorder!" or "nope, they have clinical depression rather than cyclothymia!"

      also, to clarify another FACT to you stoners....
      WEED CAUSES DISORDERS SUCH AS DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, BIPOLAR DISORDER(your risk goes up 200%) AND SCHIZOPHRENIA.

      the people who abuse psychiatric drugs are stupid..because haha they aren't very addicting to begin with!

      but damn, you all need to get off your asses and stop
      complaining that is should be legalized because you all do not know how lucky you are. you cause your chemical balance to be corrupt which can result in developing a disorder. why would you ever want to have one purposely?
      i'm not saying my life sucks because even though it's taken me a long time... i know i'm a lot luckier than most people with bipolar disorder because i'm pretty stable..but seriously. it's not a fun ride when you're manic or depressed.

      live life straight minded and thank fucking god
      you are healthy and don't need to take medication
      to fix your anxiety or depression or bipolar disorder..or anything else. because if you don't stop,
      sooner or later you'll exhibit signs.

    • 1 year ago
  • joshua2310
    • 0
      joshua2310  

    • antidepressants are a fucking joke! doctors will dole these out by the millions, why not try exercise or yoga. works every time.

    • 1 year ago
  • delas78
    • 0
      delas78  

    • I have a prescription to an anti-depressant, and I'm also a responible adult cannabis user.

      I've tried getting off the legal pills they gave me, and I CAN'T. I'm hooked. The withdrawal is like roid-rage. I scare myself.

      As someone who has used both for years, I can say without a doubt, cannabis is waaaay safer. And has NO withdrawal symptoms.

      Let me say that again... cannabis is way safer than prescription anitdepressants!

    • 1 year ago
  • regularrf
    • 0
      regularrf  

    • Smoke a blunt or a life long addiction,
      lets do what the government says!!!!!
      become addicts so they can treat us in rehab.
      Not me send me to jail for weed.
      It makes no sense.

    • 1 year ago
  • eisnein
    • 0
      eisnein  
    • regularrf:

      all for the de-criminalization of marijuana. beyond ridiculous that convicted rapists can spend less time in prison than people caught with marijuana and pharmaceuticals DO get overprescribed but-

      "I punched up Marijuana Replacements on my computer and soon the index to SSRI stories jumped out at me! It included Antidepressant Violence, Suicide and Bizarre Behavior. " is not a good argument.

      I can put "singer" in a search engine and I get Ashlee Simpson…smell my drift?

    • 1 year ago
  • Tgarius
    • 0
      Tgarius  

    • Interesting story, I remember years ago reading a book called "Listening to Prozac" and was amazed at just what this stuff did to people and how many people at that time were being prescribed Prozac, it is a huge problem in the US right up their with Obesity. I'm not sure what that says about a lot of Americans but I'm thinking it's not good. The whole concept of needing mind altering chemicals to live your life is very sad to me. I really don't care what it is, Alcohol, Pot whatever it's just a sad commentary that we need laws to keep people from these self destructive behaviors. In the spirit of a democracy I suppose they can do anything they want to themselves the problem is that the rest of society has to take care of them and their fallout when everything falls apart, not to mention the children that are effected but I guess they are collateral damage.

    • 1 year ago
  • arcticspirit
    • 0
      arcticspirit  

    • Oh I wanted to add something. I have the worst immune system of anyone I know. Every doctor's visit ends in illness, even when I constantly use stuff to clean my hands.

      It says that this reduces your immune system even more (some other drugs do too).

      Would this apply to ingested weed as well as smoked? I will never smoke anything due to my health conditions.

    • 1 year ago
  • arcticspirit
    • 0
      arcticspirit  
    • Image...

    • I am disabled with a "snowball" of neuromuscular pain conditions that are too many to list. I am totally disabled, and it sucks.

      I read this and wonder if it would better my quality of life? However, I am fiercely allergic to the smoke from weed. It can make me stop breathing. I have had the same side effect with certain antidepressants as well.

      Also, how do you prescribe a specific dose of THC? Does that not vary from plant to plant or different variations of weed?

      I found this:
      Marijuana 101: The plant and its components

      Marijuana refers to the dried flowers, leaves, stems and seeds of the Cannabis sativa plant. These parts contain the compounds that produce the mind-altering effect that recreational users seek when smoking or ingesting the plant — but they also provide components with potential medical benefits.

      Marijuana contains at least 60 chemicals called cannabinoids. Researchers are evaluating how effective some of these cannabinoids might be in controlling symptoms of certain medical conditions. For example:

      * THC. An abbreviation for delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol, THC is the main component responsible for marijuana's mind-altering effect. It also may help treat signs and symptoms such as nausea and vomiting that are associated with a number of medical conditions.
      * Cannabinol and cannabidiol. These compounds have some of the properties of THC, but cause less psychoactive effects — the high.
      * Dronabinol (Marinol). Dronabinol (dro-NAB-in-ol) is a man-made version of THC available by prescription. It's used to prevent nausea and vomiting after cancer chemotherapy when other medicines for these side effects don't work, and to increase appetite in people with AIDS.

      How it works

      CB1 is one such receptor. CB1 receptors are found mainly in your brain, especially in areas that control body movement, memory and vomiting. This helps explain why marijuana use affects balance and coordination and impairs short-term memory and learning, and why it can be useful in treating nausea, pain and loss of appetite.

      The other type of receptor, CB2, is found in small numbers elsewhere in your body, mainly in tissue of the immune system, such as your spleen and lymph nodes. The function of these receptors is not well understood. They may serve as brakes on immune system function, which may help explain why marijuana suppresses your immune system.

      After you smoke marijuana, its ingredients reach their peak levels in your body within minutes, and effects can last up to an hour and a half. When eaten — the plant is sometimes mixed with food — the ingredients can take several hours to reach their peak levels in your body, and their effects may last for hours.

      Though some doctors and patients suggest marijuana has a legitimate use, the United States government disagrees. Federal law recognizes marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which classifies it as one of "the most dangerous drugs that have no recognized medical use." If law-enforcement officers find you with the drug in your possession, the penalty can range from a small fine to a prison sentence.

      Along with the legal implications, smoking marijuana poses several health risks, including:

      * Impairment of thinking, problem-solving skills and memory
      * Reduced balance and coordination
      * Increased risk of heart attack
      * Heightened risk of chronic cough and respiratory infections
      * Potential for hallucinations and withdrawal symptoms

      Also, marijuana smoke contains 50 percent to 70 percent more carcinogenic hydrocarbons than does tobacco smoke and has the potential to cause cancer of the lungs and respiratory tract. Marijuana smoke is commonly inhaled deeper and held longer than is tobacco smoke, increasing the lungs' exposure to carcinogens.

    • 1 year ago
  • natedawson
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