Antidepressant Drugs. Record Prescriptions, but only 1 in 6 will have withdrawal symptoms!

The Lancet Psychiatry journal published a study on 5th June 2024. It found that only one in six people who stop taking antidepressants will experience withdrawal symptoms. The GP magazine, Pulse, thought that this was a good outcome.

            "This is a much lower proportion than other studies have suggested, with previous estimates that over half of patients experience symptoms".

The research found that one in three patients reported at least one withdrawal symptom such as dizziness, headache or nausea. But as 1 in 6 patients experienced the same when they stopped taking a placebo drug, it suggested that ‘approximately half of all symptoms experienced … might be due to negative expectations (the "nocebo effect”) or non-specific symptoms which may occur at any time in the general population’.

So the report concluded that about 15%, of patients experienced one or more withdrawal symptoms as a direct result of stopping antidepressants, with around 3% experiencing ‘severe symptoms’.

Pulse said that this was the first ‘meta-analysis’ on the incidence of antidepressant discontinuation symptoms, analysing 79 randomised trials, which included data from over 21,000 patients, of which 72% were women. 

So, conventional medicine now believes that the 'withdrawal symptoms' were not as bad as was previously thought, certainly after the 'nocebo effect' was used to eliminate about 50% of reported symptoms. But never mind, let's accept this, and apply it to the number of people who are taking antidepressant drugs.

According to the BMJ in 2019, the NHS prescribed a record number of antidepressants in 2018, and that the number of prescriptions for antidepressants in England had almost doubled during the previous decade.

            "Data from NHS Digital show that 70.9 million prescriptions for antidepressants were given out in 2018, compared with 36 million in 2008".

• Therefore, in 2008, 6 million people in England alone suffered from antidepressant withdrawal symptoms; and over 1 million experienced 'severe symptoms'.
• In 2018, nearly 12 million (11,816,333) people suffered from antidepressant withdrawal symptoms, with over 2 million experiencing 'severe symptoms'.

So this is presumably acceptable then? At least it seems to be acceptable to the Conventional Medical Establishment which seems quite willing to continue prescribing an ever-increasing numbers of these drugs.

The Pulse article also told us that the number of people suffering withdrawal symptoms was steadily increasing, year-on-year; and since then we have been told that as a direct result of the Covid-19 pandemic the number of people who are taking antidepressant drugs (around the world) has risen even more rapidly,  by 25%.

Perhaps I should calculate a new more up-to-date figure, but these numbers are almost meaningless once we realise that each single person within that total number are individuals, someone who is suffering as a direct result of taking pharmaceutical drugs. If the medical fraternity is pleased about this we can rest assured that the 12 million +++ patients are certainly not pleased.

There is a solution at hand, but it is a solution that will likely be ignored. In 2010 Dana Ullman (a leading homeopath) published article in Huffington Post, "Homeopathy. A Healthier Way to Treat Depression" in which he compared the safety and effectiveness of homeopathy alongside the dangers of pharmaceutical drug treatment. It surely is a must read for anyone with mental health problems!

In this same article Ullmann refers to a study that showed antidepressant drugs were ineffective, essentially useless. This is a direct quote from that article.

            "In early 2010, major media reported on a significant review of research testing antidepressant medications. What is unique about this review of research is that the researchers evaluated studies that were submitted to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), though the researchers discovered that many studies submitted to the FDA were unpublished (they found that the unpublished research consistently showed negative results of antidepressants)".

            "This meta-analysis of antidepressant medications found only modest benefits over placebo treatment in published research, but when unpublished trial data is included, the benefit falls below accepted criteria for clinical significance".

So the 12 million +++ have suffered the serious side effects of antidepressant drugs, including links to suicide and violence, plus the (now discounted) withdrawal symptoms that result - all for nothing!

This is exactly what patients get from conventional medicine: a lot of problems, adverse reactions: but not many positive outcomes!

Codeine. A harmful and addictive medical drug

Codeine is an opiate or narcotic painkilling drug, often used by conventional doctors to treat mild treat mild to moderately severe pain. Opiates have been used for thousands of years, in ancient Egypt and China. Codeine was developed in the 19th century, and used commonly in Britain.

Codeine is one of many drugs derived from the active components derived and isolated from the opium poppy, like morphine. It has now become the most widely used opiate in the world.

It is often combined with other drugs, like Paracetamol (Acetaminophen) or Aspirin. It can often hide behind many brand names. And it is often an ingredient of cough medicine, and the like. 

Conventional medicine has often claimed that the popularity of Codeine based drugs is that it is relatively safe, and has less chance of causing addiction. Any close examination of these claims shows that this is not correct.

The first problem is that not everyone can take the drug, for example, people with liver disease, 

asthma, COPD, sleep apnea, or other breathing disorders; people with kidney disease, with low blood pressure, with an under-active thyroid, with mental illness, or a history of drug or alcohol addition, and a number of other medical conditions, cannot take Codeine.

It is not known whether Codeine harms an unborn child. But for babies it is known to cause breathing problems, behaviour change, or even serious withdrawal symptoms or life-threatening addiction if feeding mothers take it.

The side effects, or DIE’s caused by Codeine.

The Nervous system. Codeine is know to cause mental and respiratory depression, stupor, delirium, somnolence, dysphoria and seizures. One side effect this these side effects is an increased risk of falls and hip fractures. Opiate drugs like codeine are also known to result in psychotic symptoms.

Withdrawal Symptoms. When coming off Codeine, and other opiate drugs, the withdrawal symptoms include agitation, restlessness, anxiety, insomnia, tremor, abdominal cramps, blurred vision, vomiting, and sweating.

Cardiovascular. Codeine is known to cause Hypotension and dizziness, especially with high doses.

Gastrointestinal. Codeine is known to cause nausea, vomiting, constipation, urinary retention and acute pancreatitis.

Dermatologic. Codeine is known to cause a number of skin complaints, including rashes and severe dermatitis.

Renal. Codeine is known to cause acute renal failure.

For a description of many more of the DIE’s caused by Codeine, visit this website.

Addiction and Withdrawal

Yet perhaps Codeine, as a painkiller, is more known (or infamous) for its addictive effects. The conventional medical establishment has provided rules for its medicinal use, but it would appear that these are often ignored either by patients, and indeed by individual doctors. The result is that my people, once they have started to take Codeine, legitimately, for medical reasons, find that they gradually feel a compulsion to take the drug, even if they have no reasonable reason for continuing to do so. Often, people who become addicted have a generalised lack of self-control. 

And the more codeine is taken, the larger to dose required to achieve the same medicinal effect; the escalation of drug taking is almost part of the written script!

Addiction is often caused by the recreational use of opiate drugs. But this should not be used to hide the fact that the medical use of Codeine is another primary cause of addiction.

And once addicted to Codeine, the withdrawal symptoms can be severe. Addicted people often neglect themselves as personal hygiene and appearance becomes unimportant. And knowledge of what the drug can do is usually no deterrent to the addict, whose decline can be rapid. 

The recommendation of the conventional doctors is not to stop taking them except under medical supervision. But surely this does not excuse the conventional medical use of such a harmfully addictive drug in the first place.    

This article was first written in the ebook "Dangerous Big Pharma Drugs"