Facebook Pixel

Antidepressants: The Story You Never Heard

By HERWriter
 
Rate This

Medical journalist and Pulitzer Prize nominee Robert Whitaker has written two books about depression and antidepressants. Here he shares the results of his extensive research. Some of his findings may surprise you. They certainly surprised me.

He takes us back to the days before antidepressants first came into use. He says that in that era, even when people were so depressed they need to be hospitalized, most of them would get better. This changed with the advent of antidepressants.

Something else surprised me too, since I'd gone to university and gotten a degree in psychology, and been told that of course, depression was linked to serotonin levels.

Whitaker says, "They investigated whether people had low serotonin ... [But] in 1983, NIMH concluded that there is no evidence that there is anything wrong in the serotonergic system of depressed patients. And this was in 1983 before Prozac was released.

"So there was never evidence that people with depression characteristically had low levels of serotonin."

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/05/08/robert-whitaker-interview.aspx

Add a CommentComments

There are no comments yet. Be the first one and get the conversation started!

Image CAPTCHA
Enter the characters shown in the image.
By submitting this form, you agree to EmpowHER's terms of service and privacy policy

We value and respect our HERWriters' experiences, but everyone is different. Many of our writers are speaking from personal experience, and what's worked for them may not work for you. Their articles are not a substitute for medical advice, although we hope you can gain knowledge from their insight.

Depression

Get Email Updates

Related Checklists

Depression Guide

Have a question? We're here to help. Ask the Community.

ASK

Health Newsletter

Receive the latest and greatest in women's health and wellness from EmpowHER - for free!