If you’re suffering from mild depression, you may want to reconsider taking antidepressant medication. A recent study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reveals antidepressants may not have much effect on people suffering from less severe forms of depression, according to WSYR.com.
"What we found is that patients who are on the lower end of the severity, even on the sort of middle range of severity, the medications weren’t doing much more than the placebo was,” said Dr. Robert Derubeis of the University of Pennsylvania.
Mild depression (the medical term is Dysthymic disorder) affects approximately 1.5 percent of the U.S. population ages 18 and older, according to emedtv.com. This translates into roughly 3.3 million American adults dealing with a mild form of depression.
Think about that – potentially 3.3 million Americans might be taking antidepressants with little, to no benefit from the drugs. This is a major issue considering antidepressants can carry serious negative side effects turning those prescription drugs into highly dangerous drugs that do more harm than good.
For example, here are some of the most common side effects of antidepressants…
- Nausea
- Sweating
- Problems sleeping and/or drowsiness
- Vomiting
- Dry mouth
- Difficulty passing urine
- Sexual problems
- Diarrhea
- Dizziness or light-headedness
- Weight changes
- Abdominal pain
And those are just the common side effects. More extreme side effects may include trouble breathing, heart palpitations, and a dramatic shift in body temperature (yikes!).
I would recommend doing as much research as possible into another form of treatment if you’ve been diagnosed with mild depression. If further studies substantiate the data from the JAMA study, then taking antidepressants littered with side effects may not be worth the potential pain and suffering.
About the Editors: Shapiro, Cooper, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm (NC-VA law offices ) edits the injury law blogs Northeast North Carolina Injuryboard, Virginia Beach Injuryboard, and Norfolk Injuryboard as a pro bono service to consumers.
Rick Shapiro has practiced personal injury law for over 30 years in Virginia, North Carolina, and throughout the Southeastern United States. He is a Board-Certified Civil Trial Advocate by the National Board of Trial Advocacy (ABA Accredited) and has litigated injury cases throughout the eastern United States, including wrongful death, trucking, faulty products, railroad, and medical negligence claims. During his three-decade career, Shapiro has won client appeals before the VA Supreme Court, VA Court of Appeals, NC Supreme Court, SC Supreme Court, WV Supreme Court, TN Supreme Court, and three times before the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit, underscoring Shapiro’s trial achievements. In addition, he and his law firm have won settlements/verdicts in excess of $100 million. His success in and out of the courtroom is a big reason why he was named 2019 “Lawyer of the Year” in railroad law in U.S. News & World Report's Best Lawyers publication (Norfolk, VA area), and he has been named a “Best Lawyer” and “Super Lawyer” by those peer-reviewed organizations for multiple years. Rick was also named a “Leader in the Law, Class of 2022” by Virginia Lawyers Weekly (total of 33 statewide honorees consisting of lawyers and judges across Virginia). And in September 2023, Rick was selected as a recipient of the National Board of Trial Advocacy (NBTA) 2023 President’s Award. Although many nominations were submitted from across the country, Rick was just one of eight attorneys chosen by the prestigious National Board which certifies civil trial attorneys across the U.S. Rick was also recently named to Virginia Lawyers Weekly 2024 Virginia’s Go To Lawyers Medical Malpractice. The attorneys awarded this honor are nominated by their colleagues and chosen by a panel from the publication.
One Comment
Sharon McEachern
You missed some of the big side-effects of antidepressants including: suicidal thoughts, birth defects and a life-threatening neurological disorder. Antidepressant drugs can impair male fertility, female libido and interfere with a breast cancer drug.
In 2004, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration began requiring a black box, the most serious type of warning for prescription drugs, to be added to labeling of ALL antidepressants, according to an excellent post on antidepressants and recent research on Ethic Soup blog at:
http://www.ethicsoup.com/2010/01/placebo-as-good-as-drugs-for-mild-depression.html
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