I was given Cipralex temporarily in my early 20s for anxiety w/ a very positive experience (lack of sex drive is a major downside and why everyone I know doesn't use them or stopped): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Escitalopram
I'm curious if anxiety is similarly being targeted here? (didnt read the paper)
One angle I've seen in certain circles is that people who are against gun legislation in the US are claiming that SSRI use is the real root cause for all the gun violence.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0924977X2...
We don't know whether this is a significant factor in gun violence.
Agreed it doesn't do these things, but there is value in publicizing the fact that "the idea that depression results from a 'chemical imbalance' is hypothetical." Anecdotally, most people I've encountered that are depressed view the chemical imbalance theory as fact. This has consequences in how they approach treatment (medication-centric) and in how they view their situation (inalterable).
If anything (in my experience) people are too biased against medicine. And as others pointed out, this isn't at all evidence that medicines don't work - their efficacy is based on double-blind studies, not on chemical imbalance hypotheses.
There are many other possible mechanisms that aren't related to the environment. Publicizing studies like this beyond academia is only likely to cause confusion and unfounded anti-medicine sentiment.
Not everything needs to be constructive. You sound like you don't appreciate this kind of work. I don't see a problem about this "not being new" nor being "just a meta review".
Should scientists "shut up unless they have new or good things to say"?
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-0-230-58944-5
Obviously I have not read every line of the new paper and I have no idea if it has any new research.
I’m not proposing this, I honestly don’t know the answer since the latter has been put forth as a kind of miracle drug for depression.
I believe this comes from the religious culture in the USA and the core tenet of religion being that God is all powerful and you must relinquish your problems to God while acknowledging your lack of power and remaining in submission. That line of thinking gives a sense of relief, but ultimately causes people to avoid dealing with things directly due to not realizing how powerful their minds really are (as far as being able to make changes on their own without “magic pills” that often leave you feeling worse).
Ironically, religion also helps a bit because people often “find God” and turn their lives around for the better due to the benefits of prayer which are often described as peace or serenity. However, prayer is LITERALLY just forgiveness/open heart meditation. That sense of relief people feel after praying and releasing all of their problems to God for 15 minutes? That can be achieved without identifying as powerless without the help of a supreme deity.
Sorry about the rant, but this has been on my mind for a while now.