Are Drugs Behind Dementia Epidemic?

[L. Coyote]

http://consortiumnews.com/2012/04/10/are-drugs-behind-dementia-epidemic/

Millions of Americans, when facing depression or even just anxiety, turn to powerful psychiatric drugs marketed by pharmaceutical giants, whose ads gloss over the risks in fast-talking fine print. A counter-movement warning of the dangers from an over-prescribed society is emerging, as Gary G. Kohls describes.

By Gary G. Kohls, MD

Since the introduction of major tranquilizers like Thorazine and Haldol, “minor” tranquilizers like Miltown, Librium and Valium and the dozens of so-called “antidepressants” like Prozac, Zoloft and Paxil, tens of millions of unsuspecting Americans have become mired deeply, to the point of permanent disability, in the American mental “health” system.

Many of these innocents have actually been made “crazy” and often disabled by the use of – or the withdrawal from – these commonly prescribed, brain-altering and, for many, brain-damaging psychiatric drugs that have been, for many decades, cavalierly handed out like candy – often in untested and therefore unapproved combinations of two or more.

.................

[marybourg]

1. They probably balance the number

of genuinely mentally ill individuals who DON'T take their prescribed meds.

[msongs]

2. best post on DU today....and highly believable. a government that values drones not health

aiding and abetting for profit corporations and a public always looking for the easy way out.

[TheWraith]

5. Thank you for our daily dose of anti-scientific conspiracy theorism. nt

[ellenfl]

7. i don't take any of these drugs and i had decided that i would

no longer take some of the drugs prescribed for me. i will find natural alternatives.

since i went off the statin i have been taking, i am again able to sleep . . . and i didn't even know insomnia was a side effect. i did know that statins raised blood sugar and i had one doctor who wanted to put me on metformin, a diabetes medication with its own newly revealed problems.

we're being used as guinea pigs or merely as income producers for big pharma. i no longer trust the medical community to look after my welfare. i am also going to cut back on the dental x-rays.

thank you for this article. it supports my decision to abstain.

ellen fl

[Mimosa]

11. Metformin is like poison

I have friends who take it. Yikes! is all i can say.

[laundry_queen]

13. Any links?

I've taken metformin off and on (for PCOS) and last I heard it prevented pancreatic cancer. What's the bad news on it now?

[Mimosa]

14. Laundry Queen, I am just repeating what an MD pal says

But if you google Metformin is poison the first link or so goes to an Emory university study. And look at the rest.

http://www.google.com/webhp?sa=N&tab=lw#hl=en&sugexp=llsin&gs_nf=1&cp=16&gs_id=2r&xhr=t&q=metformin+poisoning&pf=p&sclient=psy-ab&oq=metformin+poison&aq=0&aqi=g1g-v3&aql=&gs_l=&pbx=1&fp=1&biw=1405&bih=631&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&cad=b

[laundry_queen]

22. That just brought me to google home

but even when I entered metformin is poison, I didn't get the link. Almost every link that is listed is about lactic acidosis which is rare and a very well known side effect that you get lectured about when you start metformin and usually results from high doses. I think I'd trade that off for a 62% reduction in pancreatic cancer.

[ingac70]

20. It wrecks your kidneys. n/t

[laundry_queen]

23. So does every other prescription drug

Well, that or your liver. How do you think your body clears the stuff?

[jwirr]

19. What new problems does Metforim have? I have no side effects.

[tridim]

3. I prefer natual alternatives

But can't take them because I'm not free.

[OffWithTheirHeads]

4. I took Paxil for awhile.

My brain that usually functions to a 64th of an inch started to find +- 1/2 inch acceptable. It was not acceptable to me or in my trade so I quit. Didn't really make me happier, just dulled the edge. I'll stick with Vodka thanks. At least when I wake up in the morning, +- a 64th is still the standard.

[marions ghost]

6. Excellent article

I have a friend who has been on anti-depressants for over 10 years. There has been a noticeable decline in her level of functioning even though other factors in her life have taken a turn for the better. I wonder if the drugs are doing it. I don't think anti-depressants should be taken for such an extended period.

[adigal]

8. I have always had bad anxiety, used to drink to control it

I also have ADD, and many people with ADD drink to self-medicate. I stopped drinking and take a very low dose of a very mild antidepressant. I always said I would never take drugs, but you know what - it stops that constant running in my brain. My brain never turned off, all night long it would go over and over whatever was going on in my life - sometimes good, sometimes bad, didn't matter. Over and over and over. Now I finally can sleep and can function, because I am not up all night with a racing brain.

And I ran for years and did triathlons, when I would train for 5 to 6 hours a day, and even that never shut my brain up. My meds do, and I am very thankful that they do.

[tridim]

15. I used to use cannabis for that, now I can't at risk of prison.

It worked beutifully for me.

[Odin2005]

9. What a load of crap.

"So-Called Antidepressants"

tip-off that this is woo-woo.

[Mimosa]

16. I am sure you're not an MD

My best pals have always been physicians. They all have prescribed SSRIs and other anti-depressants. And MD's don't think pharmaceutical anti-depressants are truly effective. Insurance and gov health programs would rather sedate people and supress their brain acrivity rather than pay for genuine psychotherapy.

[Odin2005]

17. I had panic attacks all the time before I started taking Paxil.

I haven't had one since.

[Union Scribe]

24. I have to agree

When I hit that line it was like, "uh oh, paging L. Ron Hubbard, paging Dr. Hubbard..."

[nadinbrzezinski]

25. Yup, woo

when PROPERLY used medications tend to do more good than bad... though ALL meds have potentially lethal side effects.

The only correct thing in that piece is that Americans think pills solve EVERYTHING and at times demand viagra from doctors, when they happen to be women. No true story. We were kidding with doc on that, she sheepishly admitted that some of her patients demanded it, while being women.

AH COMMERCIALS!

[sad sally]

10. There are some real dangers with the over medication of seniors not many like to acknowledge

I've seen here how some like to say how great the ACA has been for seniors, when too many times they are the people doctors have little time for and pharmaceutical/drug stores are more than happy to have them taking multiple prescriptions. Those feel-good commercials saying how the man or woman working at the local pharmacy cares about you is bs.

Over medication effects cognition and the mental capacity of seniors. They've been mistakenly diagnosed with depression, dementia and Alzheimer's. And in turn are given even more medication for depression and dementia related diseases. The more doctors the senior goes to the greater the chance of being over medicated - resulting in being diagnosed as "crazy."

[glinda]

21. My elderly father was in hospital twice recently and also "therapy". He has had four doctors

prescribe four different sets and amounts of drugs in two months time. Our family has a hard time getting the info on all of this and co-operation from the Doctors in releasing full information on what drugs were all given and when.
They just throw drugs at seniors like candy.Was shocked when I heard my dad say "he felt sick and needed some drugs". Totally F(&^&%ed up.

[Zax2me]

12. Nah.

But we could do with less medication overall, no doubt.

[sarcasmo]

18. I believe this to be true. My wife was on such a high dose of Neurontin it was turning her into

a Zombie. Cut the dosage in half and everything evened out and went back to her normal.

[Mopar151]

26. Mrs. Mopar was on that

She called them "stupid pills", and has trouble remembering events from the period she was on it.