Dr. HollyDr. Holly

Many anti-depressant/anti-anxiety drugs prescribed today are actually anti-psychotics. Low levels of serotonin, the neurotransmitter associated with depression, has never been proven to cause depression and/or anxiety, neither has regulating it through various types of anti-depressants ever been shown to eliminate depression.
Note: over 90% (some say upwards of 98%) of serotonin is actually made in your gut – not your brain.
Note: there are various categories of pharmaceutical anti-depressants:The earliest type are the TCAs (tricyclics)
Then came the SSRIs (serotonin reuptake inhibitors)
Then came the SNRIs (serotonin-norepinephrine inhibitors)
Then came the MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors)
now anti-depressants also include anti-psychotics.
A relatively new study from researchers at: University of California, San Diego School of Medicine, Stanford University, University of Iowa (funded by the National Institute of Mental Health)found that 4 particular medications used for anti-depressant/anti-anxiety purposes (off label purposes) were both ineffective and unsafe. These drugs were prescribed for (mood disorders, PTSD, dementia, schizophrenia).
The four prescriptions studied were: aripiprazole (Abilify);
olanzapine (Zyprexa); quitiapine (Seroquel) – appeared to be the worst resperidone (Resperdal).
They concluded that these drugs should only be used for short term and the patients monitored very closely as patients could develop serious side effects. Within one year 1/3 of the patients developed metabolic syndrome and within two years, nearly 1/4 developed serious adverse effects while over 1/2 developed non-serious adverse effects!!!
Further, for patients who experienced the delusions
hallucinations, depression and/or anxiety,unusual behaviour these drugs did not appear to help.  “Our study suggests that off-label use of these drugs in older people should be short-term, and undertaken with caution,” said Dilip V. Jeste, MD, Estelle and Edgar Levi Chair in Aging, Distinguished Professor of Psychiatry and Neurosciences, and director of the Stein Institute for Research on Aging at UC San Diego.
Dr. Holly, Ph.D.,       DNM®, RHT, MH, HT
holly@choicesunlimited.ca
www.choicesunlimited.ca