Should my Child Take Anti-Depressants?

One of the biggest problems in medicine today is the fact that PCP’s (Primary Care Physicians) or FPP’s (Family Practice Physicians) have been given more and more power with their little prescription pads than ever. Most general practitioners have no educational background in psychiatry; but yet, are legally allowed to write prescriptions for psychiatric medicines. This is by far the scariest thing about the practice of medicine and is something that needs to be looked at. It is like hiring a local automobile mechanic to work on a U.S. Navy vessel; the results can be catastrophic.

If you have been seeing a PCP or FPP regularly for a substantial about of time, it is likely that you have either been subscribed an antidepressant or offered a prescription for one. Your typical family doctor is encouraged to write prescriptions for these (and many other) drugs by the deep pockets of the pharmaceutical companies. While you are hard at work paying into your insurance plans, these doctors are having lavish lunches, golf outings, and dinners with pharmaceutical representatives. Why, you ask, would someone as ill-qualified as a PCP be given the authority to write prescriptions for psychiatric medicine? The answer is simple – MONEY. Every time your doctor picks up his fancy $100 pen and pushes the frames of his $500 designer eyeglass back to his greasy forehead, he can hear the money flowing all the way to his bank account.

Doctor’s nowadays (and this applies to psychiatrists as well), are so quick to write a prescription for anyone that is sad, has mood swings, trouble sleeping, and/or has a variety of other mental ailments. What almost none of them do is ask specific questions to find out if it is really a deficiency of serotonin, dopamine, etc., or just a bad week/month/year. My point here is, some people just need some therapy and do not have any imbalance whatsoever that they need medication for. Don’t get me wrong, many people can and do benefit greatly from psychiatric help; it is just dangerous for people that really don’t. I am not a doctor and do not claim to be one in any facet. However, last time I checked, if you are diagnosed with diabetes it is because your blood has been tested and shows a deficiency of blood/sugar levels. In the medical field however, anyone that comes to see a physician claiming to have a psychological issue, gets prescribed medication for such ailment without any prior medical testing. In my opinion, anyone who shows signs of depression, severe mood swings, insomnia, hallucinations, etc. should undergo a CAT or CT scan so the proper diagnosis can be made before any medication is administered. Giving psychiatric medication to a subject who does not have a chemical deficiency in their brain can cause them anxiety, hallucinations, severe depression, psychotic episodes, and mania. There are many people out there that are trapped into taking these medications for the rest of their lives when all they really needed was some therapy. Children are the saddest cases of them all. Many children reaching the adolescent stages of their life come to their parents confused, sad, depressed and moody. What do their parents do? Why they bring them right in to the doctor thinking there is something wrong with them. The doctor then puts them on any range of psychiatric medication and sends them on their way. It is not the parents fault, they are simply doing what they think is right. Some of these adolescent teens end up hooked into these medications for the rest of there lives. Some of these teens end up loosing their minds. Some of these teens end up taking their lives!

There are many people out there that truly need these medications. But for the rest of us – we’re we all born to wear a mask hiding our own emotions from ourselves as well as others? I think not. Natural ups and downs, highs and lows, and feeling emotions when you are supposed to feel them is our birthright. Taking something to “stabilize” your moods is in essence, hiding your moods. The natural way to deal with things and find solutions is to identify problems in your emotional state and work through them. Do you learn anything about yourself or the world around you when you simply mask your natural feelings with a chemical?

Brief Medical History of Anti-Depressant Medications

In the 1960’s and 1970’s, it was thought that depression was caused exclusively by a depletion of three natural chemicals in the brain: epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine. These three chemicals were thought to be the primary causes of mood within the human brain. The solution to the inadequacy of these mood-driven chemicals in the brain was an introduction of the first two types of antidepressants MAOI’s (Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors) and Tricyclics. These antidepressant medications were proved effective in many but were also found to burn natural receptors in the brain causing (in some cases), a deeper level of depression. This usually happened when a patient’s case was misdiagnosed and the medicine was given without proper treatment and analysis. The side affects of these medicines were also very troublesome. Because of these facts, and unlike today, these medicines were only given to patients who were severely depressed and truly needed them.

It was later found that the lack of epinephrine, norepinephrine, and dopamine was not the only cause of depression; serotonin also plays a major role in the wellbeing and mental state of a person. Serotonin is another neurotransmitter that is said to have a major effect on one’s mental state because it is the regulatory control over appetite, mood, and sensory perception. This revelation brought birth to a new family of antidepressants called, SSRI’s (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors). This new family of antidepressants came with a substantial reduction in side affects and were much dangerous than there predecessors. The increased safety of these new drugs brought about the most successful business venture for the pharmaceutical companies to date. The scariest thing is not all drugs that are approved by the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) are safe.