In my line of work - being a corporate shrink - there's a movement at the moment called "Authentic Happiness". this is all based on the premise that you can learn the tricks of being happy. Happy people live longer, have more fulfilling relationships, are healthier and generally live "better" lives. Psychologists have, traditionally, looked at what causes abnormality - depression, obsessions, anxiety and the like and sought to cure these conditions. Then someone (bloke called Seilgman, actually) decided to turn the paradigm on its head and look at what factors promote psychological wellness. He found that gratitude, forgiveness, investing in relationships and playing to strengths are all correlated with psychological well being and a feeling of contentment. Check it out at http://www.authentichappiness.sas.upenn.edu/profile.aspx
All good stuff.
Apart from, for me, a nagging doubt at the back of my mind about the value to individuals of experiencing the full range of emotions. Don't get me wrong, extremes (clinical depression, anxiety and so on) are debilitating and I wouldn't wish them on anyone. I've had too much personal and professional experience to glamorize them for a moment. But there's something about this current trend to cure, avoid, medicate or otherwise deny experiences that seems to me to lessen and diminish the overall experience of what it is to be human.
I wrote this post a while back, apropos of goodness knows what. Nice to see that sometimes random musings and thoughts are validated by mainstream opinion. The news broke this week that Prozac is no better than placebo (the drug not the band - not sure that anyone's run that comparison) in the treatment of mild to moderate depression. Eli Lily, the corporate monster who've made a stack from licensing the drug, suppressed results that didn't fit the party line (i.e. span the story). A team of researchers, using the Freedom of Information Act, demanded to see the whole lot, and, wouldn't you know it, when you take all results into account the treatment effect disappears. Oops.
The other interesting (to me anyway) part of the story has been a rush of articles on the upside of depression (or at least why, in an evolutionary sense it's survived as a thing rather than being selected out). Check out http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2008/feb/27/mentalhealth for one view on this.
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6 comments:
"span the story"????
I've been on Prozac for about three years. Almost the instant I started taking it I felt better, though that could quite conceivably be because I thought I was doing something to help myself. I've tried to come off it twice. Both times I've failed because "real" emotions (which I'd missed, and wanted to experience again) came crashing back in all their black-and-white-and-shades-in-between glory. Whether or not anti-Ds work, trying to come off them appears to be nigh on impossible. I can't afford to have what I fear could be a nervous breakdown...people depend on me. There's a lot more to say, clearly, but perhaps not here!
Claire
If the drug company produced something that didn't actually work, but convinced enough people that it did to make them genuinely feel better and help thme get on with their lives (as it has for a great many people) shouldn't they be applauded?
hmmm....
The research evidence about SSRIs (of which Prozac is one) is mixed at best. I think referring to them "spinning" the story is valid - not publishing evidence that runs counter to the story you want to tell is "spin" in my book. There's also the issue of some of the negative side effects of the drugs being actively surpressed (I think it was Sertraline, but I could be wrong, that was linked with suicidal ideation and an increase in suicides in a certain subset of the population). Drug now withdrawn.
And as for the "so what, as long as it works?" angle - would be ok maybe were these drugs not so aggressively marketed and expensive. And there's something about the "Emperor's New Clothes" line inherent in that argument that sticks in my throat. I would prefer it if Eli Lily and the like stuck their enormous research budgets into developing therapies and interventions with a known track record (like CBT for example) or indeed evaluating the stuff that they are doing properly. And also (I'm just waking up into an auto rant now) there is something very inherently dangerous into taking the power for being well away from individuals and projecting it onto a pill. That's the route to dependency. So it's the sound of one hand clapping for the drug companies from Poobah Mansions.
As I mention in the blog, I'm in no way romantisising mental illness. I took Prozac for a year as part of a treatment package when depressed. It was a miserable, terrifying and hopefully one off experience (the depression not taking the drug, which to be honest for me was neither here nor there). And yes, C, you're right, there is a lot more to say, but not for here.
Just a quick comment on what you said, GP. I resisted going on anti-Ds for ages because I felt the problem wasn't inside me, but was more a reaction on my part to the situation in which I found myself, i.e. trying to bring up twin babies virtually by myself. If the money could have gone into helping me with child care, and to get some rest and some time to myself, I might never have succumbed to drugs. And now, I appear to be addicted. Well done, Eli Lily et al.
Claire
Claire I feel for you. Having entered by own, albeit short and rapidly lifted, period of being very low (I am not knowledgable enough to say it was depression) after my daughter was born recently I really feel for you. I felt utterly out of control, on a rollarcoaster that I couldn't get off and scared myself. I was petrified that I would do something bad to myself and spent a lot of nights, head in hands, crying because I couldn't cope.
Thankfully I have a great support network here (GP being one) and the luxury of a full time nanny who, when I finally let her do something, gave me some much needed rest and perspective.
My hat goes off to anyone who manages it, alone, and with twins. You are superwoman, drugs or no drugs.
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