NEW STUDY SHOWS THAT PRESCRIPTION MEDICATIONS ARE HUGE CONTRIBUTING FACTOR TO DEPRESSION EPIDEMIC
If you’ve been following my site for any length of time, you are aware of the phenomenon of INVISIBLE & ABANDONED STUDIES. This is where researchers, who are generally in one way or another working for BIG PHARMA, see that their study is not turning out the way they had hoped, so they end the study prematurely or complete it but don’t publish the results. Either way, the conclusions are buried and the public never learns the truth about the dangers of various drugs and procedures (HERE). That way the status quo can continue, with Americans consuming 75% of the world’s meds even though we are less than 5% of the world’s population (HERE). Nowhere can we see a clearer example of this than with antidepressants.
Start reading my numerous posts on DEPRESSION & AND THE DRUGS USED TO TREAT IT and you’ll eventually learn about the RIAT ACT (Reversing Invisible and Abandoned Trials). You’ll also see the recent examples showing that the scam continues unabated (HERE). We know that a whopping 11% of America’s over-12 population is currently on antidepressants, with few realizing (or being told) that Depression falls under the same category of chronic illness (“INFLAMMATORY“) as CARDIO-VASCULAR DISEASE, CANCER, ARTHRITIS, TYPE II DIABETES, and a myriad of others. What this means in English is that for the most part (of course there are always exceptions) these are diseases of lifestyle — diseases that on some level you have the power to turn around or better yet, prevent. A brand new study from the Journal of the American Medical Association shows just how true this is with a study titled Prevalence of Prescription Medications With Depression as a Potential Adverse Effect Among Adults in the United States.
Researchers from the Ivy League’s Columbia University in NY and the University of Illinois teamed up to look at over 26,000 randomly-chosen people taking medications other than anti-depressants. What did these all of these medications do to the incidence of Depression? Take a look at the study’s CHERRY-PICKED abstract.
“The overall estimated prevalence of use of medications with depression as an adverse effect was 37.2%. An estimated 9.5% reported use of 3 or more concurrent medications with a potential for depression as an adverse effect. In adjusted analyses, the number of medications used with depression as possible adverse effects was associated with increased prevalence of concurrent depression. The estimated prevalence of depression was 15% for those reporting use of 3 or more medications with depression as an adverse effect vs 4.7% for those not using such medications (difference, 10.7%).”
In other words, if you are taking just 3 medications (it’s dog common to see people on more), your chances of having Depression are 15%. If, however, you are taking no meds, the odds of being depressed are less than 5%. What does this mean? It means that almost 70% of the 11% of our nation that is taking drugs for their Depression is a direct result of their other meds. And although BIRTH CONTROL, PPI’S, and PAIN MEDS were mentioned specifically in many of the short ditties written about this study in medical dailies, undoubtedly, the number one offender would be antihypertensives (HIGH BLOOD PRESSURE MEDS). Here are a few fun facts about this commonly-prescribed class of drug in relationship to Depression.
- A year and a half ago, the popular NPR program People’s Pharmacy stated on their website (Is Your Blood Pressure Medicine Making You Sad and Depressed?)…. “The trouble is that in many clinical trials, antidepressants are only modestly better than placebo. It is still pretty much trial and error as to whether a medication will help a depressed patient or cause more harm than good. The clinical trials repeatedly demonstrate that the benefits of such drugs are not as great as most patients and prescribers imagine. A new study published in the journal Hypertension demonstrates that there is indeed a link between beta-blocker treatment and hospitalization for serious mood disorders (major depression and bipolar disorder). The investigators reviewed the records of 114,066 patients taking antihypertensive medication for at least 90 days. Those who were taking beta blockers or calcium channel blockers such as amlodipine (Norvasc) or nifedipine (Procardia) were twice as likely… to require hospitalization for depression.” BTW, the hosts of the show, Drs. Joe and Terry Graedon, mentioned FLUOROQUINOLONE ANTIBIOTICS as potentially causing Depression as well.
- The April 2012 issue of the American Journal of Hypertension (Symptoms of Depression and Anxiety and Adherence to Antihypertensive Medication) said that, “Only 69% of known hypertensive patients receiving pharmacologic treatment in the United States have their blood pressure controlled. Hypertension control rates in other developed countries are even lower, ranging from 20 to 50%. Failure to control hypertension is largely due to nonadherence to prescribed treatments. In fact, adherence during the first year of treatment is about 50% and 50% of patients with refractory hypertension are in fact nonadherent. The physical symptoms distress index the sexual symptoms distress index, and the sleep dysfunction scale were used to evaluate symptoms related to antihypertensive medications, sexual function, and sleep problems, respectively. Overall, patients with at least mild depression were 2.48 times more likely to become nonadherent.” Despite knowing full well about the link we are currently discussing, these completely unbiased researchers (unbiased? see my work on EVIDENCE-BASED MEDICINE) didn’t even mention the aversion people have to medication side effects as a potential reason, instead blaming it on the Depression itself. And in case you were not aware, this quote hinted at a sad, scary reality — that antidepressants are considered the “ANTI-APHRODISIAC” of medications.
- Harvard Women’s Health Watch published a 2009 article titled Medications for Treating Hypertension, in which they mentioned “Depression” as a side effect 8 separate times. But here is what you must understand about the reporting of side effects. We know from dozens of studies, many of them meta-analysis, that side effects are only reported to the proper agencies at best, 10% of the time. Usually, however, it’s closer to 1% (HERE). This means that thanks to dramatically skewed statistics, virtually all drugs are far more dangerous than we are ever led to believe. Until they are pulled off the market and we start seeing adds to call Dewey, Cheatam, and Howe.
- The December 1991 copy of the Journal of Family Practice (Depression Associated with Antihypertensive Drugs) stated, “Depression is a potential side effect of antihypertensive drug therapy. Consideration of this side effect is a reason often cited by physicians for not choosing certain drugs. Treatment groups consisted of 466 patients receiving: (1) no drug therapy, (2) diuretics only, (3) diuretics plus reserpine, and (4) diuretics plus beta-blockers. 35.4% of the hypertensive population was depressed. Reserpine or beta-blocker therapy did not cause any more depression than any other antihypertensive treatment.” Interesting, but it’s kind of like me saying that drinking diesel fuel does not cause any more complications than drinking gasoline. The problem is, it doesn’t cause any less. All while over 1/3 of those taking the BP meds that their doctor continually warns them they’ll die without, are causing obvious and rampant Depression.
- You’ll have to dust off the TIME MACHINE for this bullet point. Researchers from UCLA published a study in a 1990 issue of Drugs (Antihypertensive Medications and Depression) that concluded, “The association between antihypertensive medications and depression has been recognized for over 40 years. More recently, our understanding of the role of neurotransmitters in the etiology of depression has helped us understand how antihypertensive drugs cause depression…. All patients receiving medication to treat hypertension should be evaluated periodically for depression, and if depression occurs, medication should be suspected as playing a role in its etiology.“
Did you catch that? A study published almost three decades ago said that we’d known about the link between high blood pressure meds and Depression for four decades clear back then. That’s 70 years folks. Here’s the good news. There are things that you can be doing, steps you can be taking, and ideas you can be stealing (from my site, of course), to help reverse this unholy mess.
Once you realize, as I showed you earlier, that everything is inflammation, it stands to reason that reducing said inflammation might just put you on a path to solving at least some of your physical and mental health issues. HERE is a generic starting point that at the very least, should get you thinking differently about your health. Oh: and if you liked what you just read, be sure and take a look at the rest of our site. While you’re at it, help spread the wealth by liking, sharing, or following on FACEBOOK.