Walking and talking are better than anti-depressants
Guardian
Thursday June 14, 2001
We would like to commend Charlotte Raven for her thought-provoking piece on the dangers of seeing SSRI anti-depressants as the solution to depression (G2, June 12). The recent tragic case of Donald Schell may well be an unfortunate consequence of the disturbing 732% rise in the prescribing of the SSRIs in the past five years. During this time, we at Mind have heard from thousands of people who experience debilitating side effects and withdrawal symptoms from these drugs.
Few people are provided with sensible information and advice on the side effects and many have told us that when they do report side effects to their GPs they are all too often dismissed or patronised. We do not refute that some people can find them helpful. But what we have been consis tently hearing from people is that, all too often, they are not offered any alternative to a prescription for pills.
A recent survey by Mind
found that 65% of people with mental health problems found that exercise helped
to relieve the symptoms of depression, yet 58% of people did not know that GP's
can prescribe exercise. A wide range of talking treatment can also be effective
and it would seem sensible to explore other options of treatment before someone
is prescribed a drug such as Seroxat, but it is usually, as Charlotte Raven
so rightly points out, the GP's first choice of treatment.
Judi Clements
Chief executive,
Mind ?
Charlotte Raven's opinions on mental health bear no relation to the fact that services are not "effectively privatised", in fact almost all the 600,000 people who are under specialist mental health care are treated by the NHS. Most are living in the community where they can obtain help with housing and employment as well as clinical care. To suggest that specialised in-patient units in the private sector are what these patients need is to misunderstand mental illness.
There is also extensive
evidence that both anti-depressants and psychological treatments such as cognitive
therapy are effective and it is national policy to make them widely available.
Prof Louis Appleby
National director for mental health, Department of Health ?
Charlotte Raven assumes
all forms of depression are caused by deep-seated psychological problems. The
type of depressive illness that many people suffer from is caused by the brain's
inability to supply a regular amount of the chemicals needed to control mood.
This means that no therapy will work, in the long or short-term. I am 40 and
have suffered from depression for 25 years. I have found that only SSRIs have
helped me. I have had mild side effects, but these are nothing compared to the
anguish caused by depression (one of the more extreme side effects of which
can be suicide and no amount of therapy can undo that). I realise these drugs
will not cure my illness, but my life has been transformed for the better because
of them.
Martin Latham
Gloucester
Guardian Unlimited c Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001