Why? Whatever the issue might be, and whatever might be happening to us, we always want to know why. (Note: you can read a bit more about that in my post on attribution theory.) For people taking psychiatric medications for mental illness, there's often a lot going on in both mind and body, and it … Continue reading Do you tend to blame your illness or your meds?
Borderline personality disorder (BPD) is a difficult to treat condition that can cause significant distress for those living with it. While the gold standard for treatment is psychotherapy, specifically dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT), medications may also play a supporting role, and that's what this post will focus on. Antidepressants, particularly SSRIs, are some of the … Continue reading The role of medications in borderline personality disorder
Your Mental Health and You is written by Sandy Pace, whose blog I've followed for some time. He has a degree in psychology, lives with ADHD, and has experienced addiction. The book covers various areas of your life and your thinking where you could make changes to promote better mental health. It's immediately clear how passionate … Continue reading Book Review: Your Mental Health and You
Depression and Medications The emerging blogger series is a way to give mental health bloggers who are early in their blogging evolution the opportunity to have their work seen by a wider audience. It's also a way to introduce you as a reader to some new bloggers you may not have discovered yet. To start … Continue reading Emerging Blogger Series: Brenda
In many countries, direct to consumer advertising (DTCA) of prescription drugs is either prohibited or tightly restricted. The United States is a notable exception, along with New Zealand. For tv ads, the standard pattern is to talk about the illness, talk about the amazing benefits of the drug, and then provide the required long list … Continue reading Should pharmaceutical advertising be banned?
I recently watched the documentary Letters From Generation Rx on Amazon Prime, which looked at instances of people experiencing significant side effects while on psychiatric medication, including people who took the lives of either themselves or others while on psychiatric meds. One man featured in the film was a Canadian Member of Parliament whose teenage … Continue reading Dead if you do, dead if you don’t? Weighing the risks & benefits of medications
I recently saw an article on the Canadian news site cbc.ca. It warned that there was a manufacturer's shortage of the antidepressant bupropion, both brand name and generic. No reason was given for the shortage, and Health Canada doesn't require this information. The brand name manufacturer told CBC that the shortage had been resolved … Continue reading Where did our meds go?
I have never had a problem with medications in general, and in my work as a nurse I've seen how much good they can do. Despite that, I've gone off the meds I take for depression a few times, and that's what this post is about. My first episode of depression was in 2007. I … Continue reading My experiences of going off meds
In this post I'll take a look at some of the available treatment guidelines for anxiety disorders. While psychotherapies are extremely important in the management of anxiety disorders, this post will focus only on anti-anxiety medications. The treatment guidelines I refer to come from the British Association for Psychopharmacology and the World Federation of Societies … Continue reading Evidence-based treatment of anxiety
The Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) trial studied 2876 people with major depressive disorder to evaluate their response to depression treatment in a real-world setting. Unlike the randomized controlled trials that are often used to evaluate a drug's efficacy, there were few exclusion criteria, the patient and their physician knew which drug they … Continue reading What the STAR*D study means for depression treatment