We need to talk about problems in medicine.
The Canadian product monographs for SSRIs (e.g. Paxil) warn about suicide risk. Survey data on SSRIs shows that patient satisfaction for them are near the bottom:
People don’t seem to be recovering on them. The data strongly suggests that SSRIs cause more harm than good.
Unfortunately, most doctors don’t know this because this is one of the major blind spots of the medical system. Pharma profits have had a huge influence on a pill pushing culture because the pharma companies spend billions of dollars on influencing scientific journals, regulators, and medical thought leaders. The medical field is not very good at recognizing its mistakes because a lot of the mistakes were made in bad faith (e.g. due to pharma marketing dollars) and because a lot of people are complicit in making those mistakes.
DO NOT suddenly stop SSRIs
The product labels warn against this. More info here: https://withdrawal.theinnercompass.org/
Ignorance among pharmacists
The Ontario Science Table recommends sudden discontinuation of SSRIs before taking Paxlovid. DO NOT DO THIS. This goes against the Canadian and American labels, which warn against sudden discontinuation.
Canada is ahead of the US on labelling
Unlike Canada, the FDA labels only warn about suicide risk in young adults and children. Canada warns about suicide risk in all ages.
Canadian product monograph for Paxil:
Rigorous clinical monitoring for suicidal ideation or other indicators of potential for suicidal behaviour is advised in patients of all ages.
Antidepressants increased the risk compared to placebo of suicidal thinking and
8 behavior (suicidality) in children, adolescents, and young adults in short-term studies of 9 major depressive disorder (MDD) and other psychiatric disorders.
And for reference, here’s how Canada treated SSRIs (Canadian 2004 Press release warning about SSRIs):
These new warnings indicate that patients of all ages taking these drugs may experience behavioural and/or emotional changes that may put them at increased risk of self-harm or harm to others.
More survey data
PSSD, school shootings, the father who killed his son
PSSD = post SSRI sexual dysfunction
Surveys from PSSD support groups report that it is a multi-symptom syndrome like Long COVID and post vax; however, it affects mainly males rather than females. I don’t have good data on the rates of PSSD in ME/CFS and post vax and long COVID patients, though I know a few ME/CFS patients who have it.
I don’t know if SSRI use/discontinuation leads to school shootings, but there have been a number of court cases over that. See Peter Breggin - Wikipedia
There are support groups for people who have a really hard time getting off time. A few people try very hard to get off them and decide to stay on them because it’s too hard to go off them completely. See https://withdrawal.theinnercompass.org/ and https://www.survivingantidepressants.org/
On September 16, 2011, in Winnipeg, Canada, a provincial judge cited Breggin’s testimony in concluding that Prozac caused a sixteen-year-old boy to knife a friend to death, noting that, “Dr. Breggin’s explanation of the effect Prozac was having on C.J.P.'s behavior both before that day and in committing an impulsive, inexplicable violent act that day corresponds with the evidence.”[35] About the boy, Judge Robert Heinrichs determined, “His basic normalcy now further confirms he no longer poses a risk of violence to anyone and that his mental deterioration and resulting violence would not have taken place without exposure to Prozac.”[36]
David Carmichael strangled his son to death after taking Paxil.
The system is broken
It’s not just SSRIs. Exercise is another intervention that most medical ‘professionals’ get wrong. Survey data shows that it is the worst-rated treatment with very low patient satisfaction. Yet so many misguided people think that it helps- which is clearly the opposite of what is happening.
The right thing to do is to warn people about how dangerous this system is. When dealing with chronic illness patients, you are relying on self-reporting for their invisible problems. And if you can’t get that right… then what the fuck are you really doing?
If you want some insight as to why doctors do this, see my video on misdiagnoses and what doctors are thinking when they do it.