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Comment by imperio59 | Hacker News Reader

Horrible side effects, no tests for diagnosis, no actual cures (have you heard of these drugs actually curing depression? No. Once you get on them you are basically on them for life...)...

I think this "Science" of psychiatry has a long ways to go to actually get repeatable, scientifically proven results.

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Yes the science has a long way to go, but you're ridiculously generalizing. Some people stay on antidepressants long term, but most don't. Many psychotropics are used only short term. I think your test/cure paradigm is a bit of a "red herring"... maybe it would be nice if it were the case, but symptom (and impact) based diagnosis plus subjective improvement to symptoms, functioning and quality of life still counts to people actually suffering, as well as their families.

If you have a medical disease, you talk about finding a cure... For aids, cancer, diabetes... The research is headed towards cures.

Funny enough that all the PR and talk from Pharma companies on these psychiatric drugs is all about treatment, and "living"and "coping"with symptoms... No cures, just selling you pills that don't actually work to cure your problem, just masks the symptoms or distracts you with side effects that are worse than your original issue (like obesity, loss of sexual function, etc...)

Yes, cures happen all the time. I'm an anecdote, but I was cured of depression using venlafaxine. Talk therapy was used at various times but it was not effective. I no longer take venlafaxine and I am not depressed. I will say that getting "off" of venlafaxine is troublesome and must be pursued gradually and slowly because the withdrawal is severe. Once I was cured it took about 9 months to go drug free.

I'm on Venlafaxine (300mg/day). Previously I tried Amitriptyline, and Citalopram, both of which did not suit me, so I pulled myself off them... each time the depression and anxiety returned.

Although I am fairly happy on Venlafaxine (it stopped me killing myself, so that's a plus), I'd like to get off it at some point as the side affects are quite annoying. Can I ask you how you feel you were 'cured' and are there any resources I can look at? Thanks.

I felt that I was not depressed anymore and I started working with my psychiatrist to reduce dosage until I was on the minimum dose. Then I stopped when I was feeling particularly good and kept a bottle of 5-HTP on hand. I'm not sure if that was necessary or not.

I take venlafaxine for migraines and and of the many drugs I’ve tried, absolutely nothing compares to the withdrawal symptoms for venlafaxine. They start 12 hours after missing a dose and doctors have no official designation for them, besides being insanely nasty.

Please for the love of all that is holy, if you are on venlafaxine and want to switch to something else: titrate. Not all doctors know about the withdrawal problems with venlafaxine. They are horrendous.

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