"Little evidence that chemical imbalance causes depression"

"A recent study calling into question the long-held theory that depression results from a chemical imbalance in the brain is gaining traction on the far right, with some using it to argue that pharmaceutical companies are plying millions of people with useless antidepressants."

That's the opening paragraph from HuffPo's piece on the study. Political seething aside, it reads like a pharma shill mad that their income is about to be cut. As for the study itself the lead author had this to say

“Thousands of people suffer from side-effects of antidepressants, including the severe withdrawal effects that can occur when people try to stop them, yet prescription rates continue to rise. We believe this situation has been driven partly by the false belief that depression is due to a chemical imbalance. It is high time to inform the public that this belief is not grounded in science.”

 "Prescription rates continue to rise". That is the primary issue. With antidepressants Pharma sees dollar signs, human cost be damned. The HuffPo article evens mentions the "frightening side effects for teens, including increased suicidal ideation and violence". But Pharma doesn't care. It just sees another opportunity to make more money. More drugs to treat the side effects of antidepressants. More drugs to treat the side effects of those drugs and so on.

The HuffPo article quotes Mehmet Oz in 2012 as saying "that antidepressants are used like painkillers when they shouldn’t be" and they treat this statement like some grave sin. From the Guardian:

“We do not understand what antidepressants are doing to the brain exactly, and giving people this sort of misinformation prevents them from making an informed decision about whether to take antidepressants or not.”

Questioning whether even short term prescription drug use, especially when you admit you have no idea how that drug supposedly works, could have unforeseen long term or permanent consequences should not be controversial. The Guardian article hits on another point:

"Other studies looked at the effects of stressful life events and found that the more stressful life events a person had experienced, the more likely they were to be depressed, showing the importance of external events."

From my own personal experience the stress of college drove me to the point of suicidal ideation. Graduating and being removed from that situation went a long way in solving my issues. The modern lifestyle is a crime against nature. So many people only consume water in the form of soda and energy drinks. The only vegetables they eat are in the form of tomato sauce on a pizza or seasoning on fried chicken. They no longer get fresh air and sunshine. I've mentioned before how my former dermatologist tried for years to get me hooked on Accutane, never once telling to lose weight, change my diet, or anything else that didn't involve a prescription, just switching between antibiotics and topical creams. It's no surprise that people this far removed from their natural environment should be depressed. The cure can't be purchased. It must be learned and it must come from within.

An alternative to drug prohibition

It's no secret that drug prohibition isn't exactly popular. Recently, though, an alternative has popped up. I came across a news article about a referendum in Switzerland. The referendum took place on February 13th and 57 percent of voters chose to place a near-total ban on tobacco advertising within Switzerland. Predictably the tobacco companies were not happy. But I think this is a fair compromise with the civil libertarians.

As an American I think it would behoove the Prohibition Party to include a similar proposal to their 2024 platform, only expand it to all drugs: tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and prescription drugs. Currently only the United States and New Zealand allow marketing and advertising of pharmaceutical products directly to patients rather than health professionals. It's a process called direct-to-consumer advertising and it would not surprise me if it was at least partly responsible for the opioid crisis.

Alcohol advertising is rampant and lawless. This is a fake commercial from the animated TV show South Park but it is not much different from real world alcohol ads. Several countries such as Norway, Russia, Ukraine, Kenya, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka have varying bans on alcohol advertising in media and I feel that the U.S. should join them.

FDA adds strict safety warnings on arthritis drugs from Pfizer, AbbVie and Lilly (9 years after approval)

FDA adds strict safety warnings on arthritis drugs from Pfizer, AbbVie and Lilly

"The U.S. health regulator has added its strictest warning to the labels of drugs from Pfizer, Eli Lilly, and AbbVie belonging to a class of anti-inflammatory treatments called JAK inhibitors, citing risk of serious health issues and death in patients 50 and over, the drugmakers said on Friday.

The addition of the warning on the labels follows the agency's review of Pfizer's Xeljanz after initial results from a February trial showed an increased risk of serious heart-related problems and cancer in some patients being treated with the drug.

Xeljanz, which brought in worldwide sales of $2.44 billion for Pfizer in 2020, is approved in the United States for the treatment of conditions including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ulcerative colitis - an inflammatory bowel disease.

AbbVie's rheumatoid arthritis drug Rinvoq and Pfizer's Xeljanz are now recommended for use only in patients, who have had inadequate response or intolerance to one or more TNF blockers, which are another class of drugs used against inflammatory conditions.

The Food and Drug Administration's boxed warnings on the labels of Rinvoq , Xeljanz and Lilly's Olumiant flags the risk of cardiovascular death and stroke in high-risk patients who are aged 50 and above, and are current or past smokers.

Additional information about the risk of some types of cancer and death was also added to their labels.

The marketing applications for Rinvoq's expanded use in atopic dermatitis, psoriatic arthritis, ankylosing spondylitis and ulcerative colitis remain under review by the FDA, AbbVie said."

Xeljanz received FDA approval in November 2012.

Photo of the week: The Failing of Society

    Stepping away from the Romanovs for this week to get back at what this blog was originally about: prohibition of drug use. While on my usual late night perusing of the internet I came across the following photo from Facebook:

    To me this photo and caption represent the failings of society. The very idea that a smorgasbord of drugs is the normal state of being is repugnant to me and the reason is twofold. One, every drug has side effects that are then 'treated' with other drugs causing more side effects with the overarching side effect being a windfall profit for pharma companies. Two, it's the lazy way out. Many conditions are treatable without pharma use. The two happiest days of my life are when my dad went cold turkey with alcohol and when my (former) dermatologist finally agreed to end my acne meds.

    As I passed the age of 25 and approached 30 I grew tired of fighting regular outbreaks of acne so I changed my diet, cut off processed foods, and lost weight. And my acne began to clear. So much that, after years of relentless shilling for Accutane, my dermatologist let my prescriptions lapse. (Not to mention the reduced grocery and medical bills.)

    And I've never been happier and never felt more free. I think it would do the world a great amount of justice to rein in the drug dealers known as pharma companies.