News of the Debate on Depression
Dear first_name,
Amidst the highly public debate on depression, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) released a Public Health Advisory (PHA) warning against worsening depression and increased risk of suicidal behavior in people taking antidepressants.
After a short-term study of nine antidepressant
drugs revealed an increased risk of suicidal
behavior in children and adolescents, the
FDA directed drug manufacturers to add a
"black box" warning to all antidepressants.
The "black box" warning is the
most serious warning placed on a prescription
drug. In the FDA Review of Clinical Trials,
it warns that the rate of suicidal thinking
or behavior with these drugs was 4%, twice
the placebo risk of 2%.
Federal health officials are also looking into a suggestion by a University of Texas study that Ritalin and other stimulant drugs given to children might increase the risk of cancer later in life.
Depression is now ranked as a major global health crisis, affecting over 120 million people, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).
The symptoms of depression include feeling sad or down, losing interest in usual activities, feeling guilty, worthless or hopeless, or having sleeplessness and lack of energy. This means that practically every person on this planet suffers at one point or another from depression.
Harvard University psychiatrist Joseph
Glenmullen says the questionnaire of symptoms
used to "diagnose" depression
"may look scientific" but "when
one examines the questions asked and the
scales used, they are utterly subjective
measures..."
The "depression screening" in
the general community has undoubtedly influenced
the 60 million prescriptions for antidepressants
written in the U.S. about 10% of
the American population, including 1.5 million
children.
Allen J. Frances, Professor of Psychiatry
at Duke University Medical Center writes:
"Psychiatry's claim that mental illnesses
are brain diseases...is not true. There
are no objective diagnostic tests to confirm
or disconfirm the diagnosis of depression...There
is no blood or other biological test to
ascertain the presence or absence of a mental
illness, as there is for most bodily diseases.
If such a test were developed...then the
condition would cease to be a mental illness
and would be classified, instead, as a symptom
of a bodily disease."
While there has been no shortage of biochemical explanations for psychiatric conditions, Glenmullen is emphatic, "...not one has been proven. Quite the contrary. In every instance where such an imbalance was thought to have been found, it was later proven false."
According to Elliot S. Valenstein, PhD
and author of Blaming the Brain, "The
theories are held onto not only because
there is nothing else to take their place,
but also because they are useful in promoting
drug treatment."
As with any condition, treating only the symptoms, not the cause, has no real long-term benefits. With the current mainstream treatments, it seems therefore that no safe, effective therapy exists.
However, it is not true that no understanding of the causes of depression exists. In his book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, author and humanitarian L. Ron Hubbard lays out very clearly the exact anatomy of how the mind works, and what causes such things as stress, anxiety and unhappiness. Dianetics fully explains the source of upsets and uncontrolled emotion, and explains how to get rid of them.
Current medical thinking treats physical
illnesses as a function only of the body,
while modern psychiatry treats mental illnesses
as a dysfunction of the brain. In Dianetics,
Mr. Hubbard demonstrates how the mind affects
the body. He shows how 70% of all man's
illnesses are in fact psychosomatic, and
he wrote, "The problem of psychosomatic
illness is entirely embraced by Dianetics,
and by Dianetic technique such illness has
been eradicated entirely in every case."
Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental
Health, was first published in 1950
and has been a consistent best-seller ever
since. The information contained in this
book can help people achieve a happier and
healthier life. Dianetics Techniques go
straight to the source of the problem and
handle the cause, thus alleviating the symptoms.
Depression is a very real and tragic thing. Dianetics can help to handle it and should be a welcome solution to a condition that is now regarded as a global problem.
To find out more about Dianetics,
click here.
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