Anti-depressants cause users to be apathetic about politics. In addition to getting revenue from selling anti-depressants to people who don't need them, big pharma also benefits from the apathy their drugs create.

andersdl - you do not list your credentials as an expert in chemistry and the effects of medications on one's political involvement. I take a handful of antidepressants each day. They keep me alive. My political voice and passion and activity are just as hyped as they were 40 years ago.

I can't stand people who generalize or make unfounded and ignorant statements such as yours.

Direct-to-consumer ads for prescription drugs is one of the worst policies we ever let occur in our country. And, yes, Bill Clinton stupidly let it start, along with his then Republican Congress.

This is another one of those things, like single-payer health care that must be fixed by citizen demand. Since no Republicans cooperate with citizen demands except on abortion, gays or guns, you will first need a single party government (Democratic), THEN a primal scream from the rooftops. NO MORE ADS. NO MORE
PHARMA/MED/INSURANCE running our country.

Vote first. Scream second and do not shirk on either.

andersondl - contrary to popular myth, antidepressants are NOT tranquilizers. You should check your facts before making such ill-informed statements.

Voting democrat--AGAIN-- is NOT the answer!

Feeling depressed?

SMOKE MARIJUANA!

The doctor's choice!

Julian,
You can't stand people who make sweeping generalities? So do I. I hate all those people who hate all those people.

Some people need anti-depressants. I think the point here is that they are being overly prescribed, and to that end many people that really don't need them might become apathetic towards life's daily tribulations. I'm not a doctor either, but I don't think that disqualifies me from having opinions about what I see.

How about this: I think even aspirin, tylenol and ibuprofin are way over used. Personally, if I have a minor pain that one of these drugs helps with I think it is minor-enough to just put up with and get through. If I have major enough pain I would rather take morphine than one of the new NSAIDs like Vioxx. OK, addiction is a problem, but let me have the responsibility of dealing with that myself and give me the choice. The option is the revolving door of the new pharmaceuticals that will, once a replacement is found (which won't be on the generic list) will make the drug it's replacing illegal; much the way aspirin did with morphine.

I have to say, the more natural the better.

Which brings me to ezeflyer. That explains a lot.

Oh, I'm all for legalization, actually of all drugs. The conservatives preach the "personal responsibility" thing, well, except for when it comes to drugs and abortion, which they want to mandate. Really their personal responsibility thing only applies to encounters with corporations, which then becomes more of caveat emptor.

Harry out

Juliane
Don't take it so personal…some people do need Particular meds to keep sane…but
I think that Andersdl has made an interesting point.
We would be fools to not acknowledge the over prescribing of various mood meds.

Do we really think that we can live enveloped in a violence adoring, money worshipping culture of false images and Orwellian logic, and remain unaffected free and innocent? We internalize the madness and it is destroying us…making us unhappy to the point of being debilitated and sick, and suicidal.

Is the world this F'ed up or am I just depressed.

the Docters choise .... yeah... docter dre
but you right EZflyer wright me a prescription.

PIMP ILLEGAL DRUGS and GO TO JAIL
PIMP LEGAL DRUGS and GET RICH

Big Pharma has become an enormous nest of incestuous professional con artists who feed on each other's credentials to pump up excess profit and pump out many useless, overpriced drugs.

Meanwhile, the insanity of screaming teams of SWAT teams busting into hospices and similar situations with weapons pointed at paraplegics remains as part of the war on illegal drugs.

But if a terminal patient has high income and good insurance, he or she can gain access to Big Pharma drugs and die in dignity without fear of arrest.

Stated differently, if all those parasites detailed above by Rosenberg who participate in the Big Pharma Pimp Program conducted similar activities in other contexts, such as selling useless, duplicative or faulty products on eBay, they'd get busted in short order.

As Dean Baker has suggested, give the drug patents to the National Health Institute, let it research and develop the drugs and then license the patents to ANYONE for effective competition of production and distribution.

Cost and price of drugs would fall dramatically as diversity and quality would increase - despite the anti-competitive propaganda put out by Big Pharma.

(WARNING: satire alert)

andersdl - you do not list your credentials as an expert in chemistry and the effects of medications on one's political involvement. I take a handful of STREET DRUGS (paid for by welfare and selling my body) each day. I snort mountains of cocaine and methamphetamine, shoot up gallons of nutritious opiates, and drink rivers of pure ethanol to wash it all through. Whenever I can somehow remember, I take psychedelics too. They keep me alive. My political voice and passion and activity are just as hyped as they were 40 years ago. Yesterday I was but a poor chemically numbed bozo, hardly noticed by the media. Now I am officially a TERRORIST and HYPE about me is everywhere. If I were to today, say, reveal that due to someone putting something strange in all of my crutches, I mean drugs, I might be planning to kidnap the pre-pubescent children of rich upstanding white Christians and drive them to suicide by showing them Photoshopped images of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter doing very naughty things, then HYPE would flow like bongwater at a Grateful Dead show.

I can't stand people who generalize or make unfounded and ignorant statements such as yours. Why is there a tiny, multicolored herd of goats on my chest waving "Free the Cheese" signs? God how happy I am!!! I just love endless war and cheap chemicals.

These really ought to be taken off TV. Do I have trouble focusing? Absolutely. Perhaps I have adult ADHD? Not likely, perhaps I need to slow down. Trouble sleeping? Take this drug, which leads to impotence, now take cialis, then take the cardio drugs, now take something for that constipation, now for the anxious feeling...You'd think we americans were the sickest nation in the world with how many drug ads fill our TV screens.

OK, I'm not an MD, a shrink, a biochemist or plain chemist. What I do know is that the economics (where I actually have done a bit of formal study) of pharmacology means it is more profitable to treat a chronic disease for years than it is to actually cure it.

It also means there is an incentive to get people to take things they may not really need. When your doctor says, you don't need Bullshityxdil (not to my knowledge a real drug), s/he is inviting a lawsuit. So, the 'script gets written to shut the complaining patient up.

This seems to me to be particularly true of the treatment of mental problems because we know so much less about the brain relative to the more mechanical parts of the body.

The solution is to take the profit motive out of medicine -- more than an afternoon's work to be sure.

Generally I find that people who speak as if they are experts on the topic of depression have no personal experience with it - based on either having had it or living with someone who has.

I'm with Juliann on this one. I won't tell you what to smoke it you don't tell me which drug to take. Kay?

None of this should be in the private sector. Pharmaceutical companies should be in the business of production and distribution, nothing else. They should not be allowed to advertise. Research, development and clinical trials should be done in publicly-funded institutions.

In many other countries you have to go to the counter and ask for things like aspirin and ibuprofen. You can't just pick them off the shelves like you can in the U.S.

The profit motive should be taken out of health care. I would much prefer to go to a physician who practices medicine as a calling rather than to make money.

I do have a degree in Chemistry and I am very wary about taking any meds, either OTC or prescription. I research any med I might consider taking before I do. There are way too many dead bodies out there from meds.

I have severe osteoarthritis of the knees. When people ask me what I take for the pain, I say, "A seat."

And like anything you buy these day, can you trust whats even in these things. Whose to say they'er even 100% of what they should be? With the scrimping of every cent for profits, I doubt it.

Well? Is the Left gonna shut the FUCK up and SHUT THE FUCKING "DRUG WAR" down and fight to legalize Cannabis or is the Left going to be another lookalike clone of the "Right" ?!?!?

I don't know why they are looking for new diseases. As a two year veteran of the medicare system I can report from experience that we are not capable of treating the diseases we're already got.

The term "side effects" is manipulative language. There are no side effects of chemicals. If a chemical does harm to organs and tissue, that's not a "side effect." That's what the chemical does.

The problem with Medicare is its under-funding. How can the greedy conservatives discredit something that works well? They starve it and blame it for its problems, much like they starve workers and blame them. They say "People love to be sick and poor, it's all their fault." We can't afford the best medicine for our citizens after blowing our porkwad on so-called defense (and expensive propping up of other fascist regimes). If everyone had Medicare, it would work as well as the Fire Department. We wouldn't have it any other way.

About twenty years ago, I was having trouble with my stomach. A barium x-ray proved inconclusive, so the doctor decided it was my nerves and prescribed me some Ellavil. I decided I didn't like the idea of taking something he'd given me after talking to me for ten minutes, so I took a beginning karate course instead. That was very stress-relieving (particularly the part where I chased a high school track star around the gym while we were sparring), and the stomach problems went away.

My doctor used to think I suffered from depression, but I found I can't work on antidepressants, because they DO cause me to become apathetic, which interferes with the creative process. Turns out I was just bummed out about things that were going on in my life, and I was prescribed drugs I didn't need... drugs that had a negative effect on my life. I may not be a doctor, and I understand that some people do need antidepressants, but I'm speaking from experience here, these drugs do posses the potential to pacify the masses.

I've had hypochondriacal tendencies since childhood, and when the gov't started allowing prescription drugs to be plugged on television, I've been sticking with PBS and C-Span to avoid these ads. They freak me out! (Not to mention how lon-n-n-g they go on babbling about conditions you never knew existed, like "restless leg syndrome".) In the ad for Plavix there are two lines designed to strike terror in the heart of any hypochondriac: "You're no match for a dangerous clot!" and something like, "Just because you're feeling better doesn't mean you're safe."

Geez, there's enough to be depressed about in this world without being constantly reminded of all kinds of dreadful diseases! If a Democrat wins the presidency in '08, I'm going to start a letter-writing campaign to get those damned ads off the air.

I've had enough doctors try to push prescription drugs on me and my family when we didn't need them, to know they must be getting something in return for that.

The drug co's have senior citizens on so many drugs its ridiculous, to the point where many are taking drugs to counteract the side effects of other drugs. I have elderly relatives who are healthy but their doctors push unneeded prescriptions on them, then they have to pay for that on their fixed incomes. What a racket!

Nearly every drug advertised on TV seems to be recalled a couple of years later for having done more harm than good. Obviously something in this system is rotten.

It is a sick society all right, and a very sick world. The evidence abounds. All should ask what is the cause?

I'm not sure why the government would be interested in keeping people on anti-depressants because it leads to an apathetic public. If that were the case, then why are they so intent on demonizing Marijuana, which I can personally testify, has the potential to make you very apathetic.

Isn't it a hoot: The "cure" for restless leg syndrom has the unfortunate side effects of causing compulsive gambling and promiscuity, I'd stay with the restless leg if I were you.

While there really are some good meds out there, there is also alot of crap. I'd say, if it only covers up symptoms, it isn't going to do you much good. Save your money.

drs in usa are big joke, nothing but drug dealers, they do not want folks well, then they make no money

wake up stupid USA 'sheeples'
Cuba, best doctors in the world

I have a very active imagination, and so I always hear the side effects mentioned in the drug ads on TV. I've never understood how anyone hearing them would even consider taking any of them. I'll never forget the one a few years ago for a drug for obesity, I believe it was. In the long list of possible side effects was one about sudden violent and uncontrollable diarrhea. I imagined someone taking the drug sitting in a fancy restaurant with friends, when suddenly that cool side effect kicked in. I knew I'd have to weight far too much to get off my bed before I'd even consider taking the drug.

After reading what Adele says about how the symptoms of the ailments described in those commercials affect her, I got my answer.

I have osteoperosis, Sjogren's Syndrome, Dystonia, life-long chronic bronchitis and rhinitis, life-long bouts of pretty severe depression, and a nervous stomach, along with a long list of other ailments the doctor just shakes his head over. I refuse to take any prescriptions, and as of the end of this month will be cancelling the prescription drug plan that as a senior I was forced into. I take vitamins, one daily 81mg aspirin, and acetaminaphen maybe twice a month - just to be halfway pain free for a short time. Otherwise, I keep active working in my garden, reading, writing, and keeping up with current events on CD.

I know I'm lucky to be able to live without drugs, and I don't belittle anyone for taking them, although I too have friends who get far too many drugs they really don't need.

Coffee is the American drug of choice.

Followed by sleep.

Has anyone noticed the side effects of these drugs that are advertised on TV? The side effects can permanently damage your health or even kill you. Looks like Americans are enriching big Pharma and are being used as guinea pigs at the same time.

But seriously, what 40 minutes, sitting alone in a quiet room, meditating, after some stress relieving Yoga, can do for you, no drug in the world can touch.

Pain and disease are God's way of telling us we are out of balance, ignoring the universal laws of moderation, and unable to find forgiveness in our hearts.

Yoga does wonders for the mind and body. I try to do 30 minutes of it twice a week. Depression seems to run in my family. Every woman in our family has PPD after babies. However, we are a fortunate bunch. My mom talks of her grandmother insisting on a brisk walk, every day, for the first few months after a baby was born to help with the new mother's "constitution". Now we all understand the science behind that old timey advice. So my mom (as her sisters did), only b/c her mom said to, always went on very brisk walks with us when we were babies and I did the same with mine. It probably helped us not need the meds.

I have a bad case of 'sometimes I am not smiling syndrome'. There is no need for me to suffer in silence with a fake smile. RY POFF drug company has a new drug that will cure me if I just take a small pill everyday.

{Now look at this hot couple in love while we speed read the warning.}

Rare but possible side effects include fire hazard due to self igniting flatulence and genital damage due to explosive ejaculation. (Call your doctor immediately if you swallow excessive amounts of your own saliva.)

I must be very out of touch, medically. Last year I took a bad spill on our tile floor, and went to a walk-in clinic to have my arm checked out. The nurse who saw me first asked me what prescription drugs I was currently taking, and I told her "None."
Her response: "Are you sure?"

I'm in my 50's and try to stay out of doctors' offices if at all possible. I remember my Irish grandmother telling me, "If you're not sick when you go to the doctor, you will be when you leave."

PATIENT HISTORY: Patient reports being depressed from Neocon destruction of America and of the Bill of Rights, complains of excess stomach acid and headaches every time Bush is on T.V.

SYMPTOMS: Patient is having a recurring dream where A big black man is sitting across from him telling him that he lives in the "CAPITALIST DRUG MATRIX" And nothing that the government has been telling him is true. He keeps saying: "You take the blue pill and you wake up in Wal Mart, and believe... what ever it is you want to believe. You take the red pill and you stay in wonderland, and I show you just how far the rabbit hole goes....."

DIAGNOSIS: Americana Quackery Overdose

PROGNOSIS: If you're gullible enough to plop down in front of the boob tube all the time, you deserve being targeted by the drug-pusher big pharma companies. You will soon be like my 70-year-old father taking 100 pills a day to counter his 300 lbs girth from eating processed snacks all day while watching Fox News convinced that terrorists are hatching plots and conspiracies to get him.
Luckily, the disease is treatable.

TREATMENT: Set CD as your homepage and pull the cable out of the plasma screen. Buy an Apple 30 inch monitor screen instead (no viruses) and grow your brain. Grow a victory garden and eat five servings of fruits and vegetables a day from small farmers. Park the gas guzzlers and buy books with that money. Walk for 30 minutes every night. Tell big pharma to stick all that chemical crap up their azz.

FOLLOW UP: Sadly, my father can scarcely read. He's from North Carolina and although he has a college degree, apparently in the South that doesn't mean anything. This is the typical Neocon voter. Can't understand anything beyond a simple vocabulary. Responds to flashy graphics and snappy sound bites that convince him of perpetual war against the faceless enemy. FOX NEWS ALERT: They're coming to get us! They've been spotted riding Bio-Warfare camels with radioactive backpacks (supplied by Blackwater of course.)

The Commander in Chimp will respond in 20 minutes at the white house if he can pronounce his own name today......

DAMMIT TO HELLL!

I KNEW I SHOULD HAVE TAKEN THE RED PILL!

You've heard of the drugs to cure restless leg syndrome? Now they have a drug for restless posting syndrome.

Feeling depressed, anxious, have fibromaylgia, chronic fatigue, sleep problems, arthritis and more? Google up Fluoride poisoning. Yep its in your toothpaste, your water, foods, and many popular medicines. Its effects are cumulative and it is hard to avoid, but it can be done! Research this for yourself, and start drinking real spring water. ALSO PROTEST forced fluoridation and tell your dentist he/she is wrong about this.

You are right about this (fluoridization), of course. We have been "medicated" without our consent - and the "medication" has and is being administered by non health proffesionals in non pharmaceutical (eg unapproved) quantities to non patients for the benefit of?????????

Hint: It isn't us.

Notice how they run the gross constipation ( sorry " irregularity" ) ads just at donner time?

The only "side-effect" from big PHARMA's profits is

O U R __ M E A N I N G L E S S

____ D _ E _ A _ T _ H _ S ____

Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »

Let's get a sense of proportion here. I,(and countless others) are alive and kicking today because we have insulin. Antibiotics save lives. Depression, anxiety and bipolar disorder can cause terrible suffering that cannot necessarily be alleviated by psychotherapy alone. Thank God we have pain medicine for patients with terminal cancer and intractable pain. My kids will never have to confront smallpox, measles or polio. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater!

DIABETESLIFE -- Yes OK, there is a good side to medicine (but not profiteering within it).

Let me soften that and revise my statement above, to be "inordinate" profits, there must be balance and restraint in this as well.

I was also referring to:

HOBBS at 3:14 pm above, where he stated :"The term "side effects" is manipulative language. There are no side effects of chemicals. If a chemical does harm to organs and tissue, that's not a "side effect." That's what the chemical does."

Namaste … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … … Mahatma Gandhi … … … … … … … … … …
« We must be the change we wish to see in the world »
« There is a sufficiency in the world for man's need but not for man's greed »

50% of doctors graduate in the lower half of their class.

Posters who think it would be a great idea to legalize "recreational" narcotics had better think again. Who do you think will be manufacturing and selling them in quantity? Big Pharma would be happy to accommodate and profit from everyone's chemical pleasure needs. Perhaps you'd like some bread and circuses as well, to help keep you anesthetized and apathetic?

By the way, "restless leg syndrome" is real. Someone close to me can't sleep without medication to suppress it.

FREE DUMB FIGHTER: I like your post, and to it I might say, "Am I having hot flashes, or is it just evidence of global warming?"

WILMOOR: As per side effects... when I am at someone's house and the TV is on, and one of those drug commercials comes on with the side effects, I take my cue from a funny play I saw in Key West, "Woman on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, or Inquiring Minds Want to Know," and ARGUE back at the TV! "Don't take the fucking drugs!"

VOXCLAMANTIS: Dr. Andrew Weil who wrote, "Spontaneous Healing" made it clear there are a few things modern medicine (as practiced in the West) is good at, and quite a lot it can't begin to heal. The problem is this distinction is not shared (down to its specifics) with the public.

DOLL: I'm with you! In 2000 I lectured for "Whole Life Expo" where I met the author, Sherill Sellman who was lecturing in support of her book, "Hormone Heresy." She astutely described the ways and means big pharma went to to render every NATURAL phase of a woman's life as a condition to be treated! Pills for menstrual cramps in teens, the pill and/or infertility drugs in the young adult years, followed by fertility drugs to turn back on the organs turned off so as to allow for conception, and then the sometimes fatal menopausal drugs. In America about half the women over 50 are prescribed hysterectomies... the whole system is about creating conditions to manage and NOT about healing.

Then there is the matter of all those psychology students who graduate and are solicited into these companies. Picture them sitting around tables with their high paid salaries coming up with the NAMES of the newest drugs... these simulate Greek states of satori, bliss, paradise, etc. Allegra, Elantra, Viagra, Lunestra... as this astrologer well knows, the end of the Age of Pisces, is all about drugging 'em when you can't otherwise use lies, obfuscation, targeted enemies, or other false means to obstruct all things of meaning and/or lasting value. Pisces, sign of illusion, fish opposing fish, demonstrates all the ways mortals prove so adept at shooting themselves in the collective foot.

JJPETER: I agree with your assessment, except that some health conditions ARE karmic and not easily turned around. I believe these induce empathy in persons who might otherwise have resisted it. Also, in today's society, with 40,000 auto fatalities, the detritus of so much chemical usage, war, domestic abuse... a lot of people are HURTING.

ANGUS: I like what you said about depression. I had this idea for a comic where a guy has lost a huge amount of money and is seeing his shrink. The shrink knows he's an apt candidate for an anti-depressant drug, but instead tells him to get regular exercise to exorcise his blues, AND to get a better financial advisor/accountant! We need to treat the cause, not mask symptoms associated with resulting conditions. This prescription of course works for a great many things that extend beyond the purview of a singular human body!

PACPLYER: Award winning satire, from your CD friend & fan, Ms. Rose, writer at large!

I partly agree with andersdl. I had a two-year period of time on antidepressants in which I WAS content and apathetic. I wrote no letters to elected officials, did nothing creative; every circumstance that came along was one I could "handle." When I went off them, I went through a difficult but very necesary time. Those who are saying here that many need them would have included me, what with the sleeplesness, weight loss, inability to cope with normal daily events. My gut instincts told me to continue exploring the emotional pain that was called "depression" but wasn't depression at all, and feeling my way through it healed it. What I was feeling was a normal human reaction to trauma. Calling it a biochemical imbalance was not only wrong, but was dehumanizing. I am glad I did not return to the soul-pacifying drug I took.

I have a friend who went on a similar drug at the same time. She is so relentless cheery that nothing bothers her, and she allowing some very dangerous behavior in her kids.

Oddly, just yesterday another friend told me about a friendship destroyed when the friend went on antidepressants. Again, the person's behavior drastically changed. Normal limits no longer apply, not when she's always content.

Interestingly, the first friend I mentioned had a son who did have huge, biochemical-appearing problems with depression. He was constangly being hospitalized and switched from one drug combination to another. He finally said, "Enough!" He changed his diet, began working out, changed some situations in his life, and has been drug-free for about 4 years now. He's a perfect example of someone who was told they'd never be off this type of drug.

It used to be a positive thing to call oneself "drugfree." Now doctors will often regard you as belligerent and resistive.

And the fact that women are prescribed antidepressants far more often than men is something that should be acknowledged.