Category: Antidepressants

Despite being perceived as safe by the general public, herbal medicines actually carry considerable risks.

St John’s Wort — a popular herbal treatment for depression — can have serious side-effects, research finds.

These include dangerous changes in body temperature and blood pressure.

The research compared the side-effects of St John’s Wort with those of fluoxetine — an antidepressant also known as Prozac, Animex-On, Sarafem, Adofen and Deprex.

The side-effects of St John’s Wort were just as serious as for the antidepressant.

These included:

• anxiety,
• panic attacks,
• dizziness,
• vomiting,
• amnesia and aggression.

St John’s Wort can also interact with other drugs, such as blood thinners, the contraceptive pill and other antidepressants.

Mrs Claire Hoban, the study’s first author, said:

“There is a common belief that because something is natural and can be purchased from a health food shop without a prescription, it’s safe.

However, people need to start thinking of St John’s Wort, and other herbal medicines, as a drug and seek advice from a qualified healthcare practitioner to be sure they use it safely.

It’s concerning to see such severe adverse reactions in our population, when people believe they are doing something proactive for their health with little risk.

During 2000-2013, we found 84 reports of adverse reactions to St John’s Wort and 447 to fluoxetine.

While there were fewer confirmed cases of side effects for St John’s Wort, we know that less people use St John’s Wort and adverse reactions for herbal medicines largely go unreported because they are not considered drugs.

Furthermore, we found that the reported reactions for St John’s Wort were very similar to fluoxetine, which included anxiety, panic attacks, dizziness, vomiting, amnesia and aggression.”

St John’s Wort is available in many countries without a prescription.

Dr Ian Musgrave who co-authored, the study, said:

“It’s important that doctors and pharmacists know about all the drugs their patients take, not just prescription drugs, because herbal medicines like St John’s Wort can have serious reactions with some pharmacy medicines, like antidepressants, the contraceptive pill and some blood thinners.

Based on this research, I’d also like to see bottles of St John’s Wort containing improved warnings of the potential adverse reactions.”

The study was published in the journal Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Physiology (Hoban et al., 2015).

Largest ever survey of long-term antidepressant use.

Over half of people experience withdrawal symptoms when trying to quit antidepressants, research finds.

Antidepressant withdrawal symptoms — which typically last around two to three months — include headaches, nausea and anxiety.

In addition, almost one-third of people report becoming addicted to antidepressants.

Despite these high numbers, only 1% of people could recall the prescribing doctor mentioning withdrawal problems as a possible side-effect.

Particularly high rates of withdrawal symptoms were reported for Paroxetine, which is known commercially as Paxil, Seroxat and others.

Professor John Read, who led the study, said:

“This study was not designed to definitively answer the question of whether or not antidepressants are addictive because there are a range of expert definitions of addiction.

But what it did set out to do was make a significant contribution to the estimated rates of long-term usage in relation to self-reported withdrawal and addiction by directly asking users about their experience.

The results point to a significant number of people prescribed antidepressants who have experienced some withdrawal effects and who believe the drugs are addictive.”

The results come from a survey of 1,829 New Zealanders who were asked about their experience of antidepressants.

The results showed that 54.9% had experienced at least some withdrawal symptoms.

Among these, 25.1% reported severe withdrawal symptoms.

Of the 27.4% of people who reported some level of addiction, 6.2% rated it ‘severe’, 9.4% said it was ‘moderate’ and 11.8% said ‘mild’.

The remainder reported that they had not become addicted.

Some people went back on antidepressants to avoid the withdrawal symptoms.

Rise in antidepressant prescription

Around 10% of people in some countries, such as the US and the UK, are prescribed antidepressants each year.

Professor Read said:

“Given some evidence from research conducted in the UK, it appears that the rise in antidepressant prescriptions can be explained by repeat prescriptions rather than new patients.

So given that people are staying on antidepressants for longer, the issue of whether or not people feel addicted and whether or not those who stop taking them are experiencing withdrawal symptoms becomes important.”

The study was published in the International Journal of Mental Health Nursing (Read et al., 2018).

Two aspects of personality linked to depression are changed by antidepressants.

Antidepressants can change two aspects of personality that are linked to depression, research finds.

Neuroticism — which is characterised by negative thinking in a range of areas — was reduced in people taking a common antidepressant.

At the same time, people’s extroversion was increased, making them feel more outgoing and sociable.

Extroversion is also linked to feeling more positive emotions.

The antidepressant tested in the study is called paroxetine, which is known commercially as Paxil and Seroxat, among other names.

The studies authors write:

“Patients taking paroxetine reported 6.8 times as much change on neuroticism and 3.5 times as much change on extraversion as placebo patients matched for depression improvement.”

For the study, 120 depressed patients took paroxetine and were compared to people given cognitive therapy and a placebo over 12 months.

All three groups saw improvements, even the placebo group.

However, only those taking the antidepressant experienced changes to their personality.

They authors explain:

“Neuroticism and extraversion are 2 of the 5 primary personality dimensions in the Five-Factor Model of Personality.

Neuroticism refers to a tendency to experience negative emotions and emotional instability; extraversion encompasses social extraversion, dominance, and a tendency to experience positive emotions.”

While antidepressants can be effective, still relatively little is known about how they work.

The study’s authors write:

“One possibility is that the biochemical properties of SSRIs directly produce real personality change.

Furthermore, because neuroticism is an important risk factor that captures much of the genetic vulnerability for major depressive disorder, change in neuroticism (and in neurobiological factors underlying neuroticism) might have contributed to depression improvement.”

The study was published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry (Tang et al., 2009).