scrubbedexpat091

It's pretty much all medications now, other than ativan they never give me anything medication wise, but they hand out ativan like candy.

Ketamine is showing promise for some mental health disorders, hard treatment to access, but studies are looking promising for some disorders, so it might be an option more widely available in the future.

(the ketamine is dispensed by a medical professional in controlled environment, not talking about taking it at the street drug level.)

Lion in Winter

They are looking at therapeutic uses of dmt as well, aren't they?

scrubbedexpat091

They are indeed, as well as psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and I am sure others. I know University of California San Francisco is doing a psilocybin study and bipolar. Might be other studies I would imagine as well.

Ketamine interests me as currently there isn't any medication that is found to really work for borderline and Ketamine seems promising.

https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/...-2019052216673 (not BPD related)

Esketamine which uses only 1 of the 2 molecules found in the other type of Ketamine, is FDA approved for use with other antidepressants in 2019 for depression, and approved in 2020 for short term treatment of suicidal thoughts, the drug itself has been around since 1997, but its very expensive when used for depression as the nasal spray version appears to be under patent and not available generic form.

caretaker

I've heard of theraputic micro-dosing of mushrooms, and a bit about ketamine, but DMT is a real surprise. I assume that would be micro-doses as well. 45 years ago the medications were basic in comparison, suitability and dosage to a degree found by trial and error and side effects sometimes extreme.

scrubbedexpat091

Side effects have gotten better, but it's still largely trial and error, doctors try this or that and see what works, even when something works, eventually in the case of anti-psychotics especially, they just stop working after a period of time.

What works for one person wont for another, doctors half the time don't seem to really understand it all...lol

Anti-depressants have less side effects generally compared to their anti-psychotic cousins.

caretaker

True, but they can still be pretty severe. I played ping-pong against the Czech junior ping-pong champion (we used it as a diagnostic tool); typically 11-0, 11-0, 11-0, 11-1, 11-0, and they doubled his Valium..... 11-2, 11-2, 11-3, 11-3. He said after the increase he was seeing 4 ping-pong balls coming at him instead of 1.

scrubbedexpat091

Inability to achieve pleasure from sex is one of the most common side effects of mental health drugs. Medications effect us all a bit differently.

Risperdal made by Johnson & Johnson was linked to men growing breasts, they were sued over it for apparently not properly disclosing this side affect, and the company also got into trouble for marketing the drug for dementia patients when its not approved for dementia patients.

Risperdal can also cause women to lactate by raising the hormone that triggers lactation, can also make female breasts grow larger.

That drug can also cause pituitary gland tumors as well, among other issues.

caretaker

I had to take stock of a patient's belongings, 3 or 4 big cases like for washers and dryers down in the basement, and in with the contents was a huge stash of Neuleptil, all in the sample packs that would be distributed to psychiatrists (can't remember specifics of dosage), but hundreds of capsules. I set them aside (well, you never know..) and looked it up in the pharmacopia we had in the nursing station, then flushed them all. I was already taking some pretty good drugs but didn't want any part of that.
Before long someone (won't say who, but her initials are Jerseygirl) might tell us to get a room.

scrubbedexpat091

Never heard of that drug, not even much on it, but I did learn for whatever reason it's not approved for use in the US.

Some interesting side effects listed though, mask like facial expression, drooling, shuffling walk, and apparently if given to someone with dementia can cause serious and fatal side effects.

I can see why it might not be approved for use in the US, there are certainly better medications out there.....

caretaker

What I tell people about home-made liquor; if I won't drink it, you'd better not try it.

Steerpike

This is quite mind-boggling, given the amount of effort drug companies spend disclosing possible side-effects on their TV ads!

scrubbedexpat091

Johnson and Johnson has a bit of a record it seems with not being truthful and doing some shady stuff to sell drugs. And to think they are one of the companies developing a COVID vaccine.

Some of what I can recall about this particular drug

- J&J marketed it for children, but do not have FDA approval for use in children.

- Marketed it for dementia patients, again not approved for use in dementia patients and FDA discovered the drug increases risk of premature death in such patients.

- Did not communicate the risks of young males growing breasts with doctors, patients, or pharmacists.

- Since 2010 has settled with the federal government to the tune of $2.5 billion dollars for paying kickbacks to multiple medical facilities in exchange for their physicians prescribing the drug

- There have so far been 7 bellwether trials, 4 trials ended with juries finding for plaintiffs, and 3 trials ended with J&J winning. J&J has also settled at least 2 cases out of court.

- Some 13,000 lawsuits have been filed.

- In 2019, a jury awarded a plaintiff $8 billion in punitive damages. (will surely be reduced on appeal.)

- Young males who take this drug are 4 to 5 times more likely to develop breasts.

- The drug increases the hormone prolactin which is the cause of the issues

RICH

The reason all those nasty side effects are quoted in the ads is because they have been or might be sued for those things.It does not necessarily mean it does not do what it says it does. Same will apply with covid vaccine. I suppose there are differences between vaccines and drugs, but same principles.

Steerpike

Yeah, but if they knew that drug 'x' may cause breast development in young men, then I would think they could have safely disclosed that among the sea of side effects they typically disclose. Once I hear those side-effects, I glaze over and just assume it's all CYA b/s, not very likely, etc so they could list every possible problem known to man and it wouldn't influence me, if my doctor said 'it's worth trying'. Now, I haven't taken any prescription medication in my life, ever, stronger than a skin creme or a brief course to address shingles once, so I'm probably not very representative!

Zoe Bell

As well as the side effects mentioned by Jsmith, i can tell you that the "acceptable" side effects i currently suffer form include chronic acid reflux, short term memory issues, "brain fog" ( hard to describe but if you've had it , you know what i mean!), dizziness and coordination issues. I'm generally feeling like I'm in a good place at the moment , so of course the question is " do I stop taking them?". Not an easy question, you can't just stop and the potential side effects from coming down scare me