Warning: take the warnings about SSRI with teens seriously

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Reposting for formatting and a little editing.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ling story short.. my brother has really bad anxiety. Was put on paxil. Worked well and then he started to get manic, then the mania was off the charts. We ended up having to hospitalized him, as he had a full blown psychotic break. He got off the Paxil in the hospital, but it took him a long time to get back to normal. For him, his experience with SSRIs was life threatening and possibly devastating. He now manages anxiety with good sleep hygiene and exercise. The anxiety is there, but no way will he ever take An SSRI again.

Thanks to one pp on DCUM, I found out about GABA supplement for anxiety. My DS takes it and it has worked better than any prescription medication. Maybe suggest it to your brother? It is also good for sleep and building muscles, so if he is into fitness it might be something he wouldn't mind trying?

You mean the GABA for which there is insufficient research on its efficacy and side effects? And, in a number of studies that have been done, at least one of the authors in 3 out of 4 studies was affiliated with the company producing GABA and did not disclose that affliation?

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4594160/

I only know what DS and even I experienced. It makes falling asleep easier, and it calms him and me down. I asked pediatrician and even psychiatrist about it before and both said that as a supplement it doesn't hurt to try. I was more surprised than anyone that it actually worked. That is all I am saying, relating what helped.

That may have been me who suggested GABA. GABA can work if you’re low in the amino acid it’s supplementing. If your problem is something else, like low serotonin, then it won’t help and you might be better off with an SSRI.

FWIW I own a parrot and GABA is used in parrots who feather pluck, which is a symptom of anxiety. Before the scientists here jump on me, let me say that I realize humans and parrots are different.

If it was you who recommended(it was in a Health forum, I think) thank you so much!

Hmmm, I don’t visit the Health forum much, so maybe it was somebody else. Not sure I’ve ever recommended it on DCUM, for that matter. But I’m with you on the point that it can really help some (not all) people, like me, and also that it has less risks than SSRIs, whose effects as equally if not more unknown. So glad it’s working for you and your DS!

[Anonymous]

Hmmm, I don’t visit the Health forum much, so maybe it was somebody else. Not sure I’ve ever recommended it on DCUM, for that matter. But I’m with you on the point that it can really help some (not all) people, like me, and also that it has less risks than SSRIs, whose effects as equally if not more unknown. So glad it’s working for you and your DS!

Wait, there have been YEARS of peer reviewed studies on SSRIs. There is very little research on GABA and, in one example, 3 of the 4 studies reviewed had researchers linked to the companies producing GABA that they did not disclose. Yet, you assert GABA has fewer risks and side effects than SSRIs - at least, that what it seems you're asserting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ling story short.. my brother has really bad anxiety. Was put on paxil. Worked well and then he started to get manic, then the mania was off the charts. We ended up having to hospitalized him, as he had a full blown psychotic break. He got off the Paxil in the hospital, but it took him a long time to get back to normal. For him, his experience with SSRIs was life threatening and possibly devastating. He now manages anxiety with good sleep hygiene and exercise. The anxiety is there, but no way will he ever take An SSRI again.

Thanks to one pp on DCUM, I found out about GABA supplement for anxiety. My DS takes it and it has worked better than any prescription medication. Maybe suggest it to your brother? It is also good for sleep and building muscles, so if he is into fitness it might be something he wouldn't mind trying?

To be honest, he's doing a great job managing with healthy routines. The awful experience with the SSRIs really made him work in a traditional way to feel betrer.

[Anonymous]

I don't have it in me to read this whole thread. But OP, we are dealing with this exact thing right now. My child was just hospitalized after an SSRI triggered a self harm reaction. I knew it was possible and so I guess I wasn't surprised and fortunately I was watching for it, so there is no permanent physical damage. But man is it a blow when a treatment that was working on what felt like an intractable condition is now contraindicated.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Hmmm, I don’t visit the Health forum much, so maybe it was somebody else. Not sure I’ve ever recommended it on DCUM, for that matter. But I’m with you on the point that it can really help some (not all) people, like me, and also that it has less risks than SSRIs, whose effects as equally if not more unknown. So glad it’s working for you and your DS!

Wait, there have been YEARS of peer reviewed studies on SSRIs. There is very little research on GABA and, in one example, 3 of the 4 studies reviewed had researchers linked to the companies producing GABA that they did not disclose. Yet, you assert GABA has fewer risks and side effects than SSRIs - at least, that what it seems you're asserting.

And yet here you are, pushing SSRIs, which have known side effects—well documented by years of research—including a heightened risk for suicide as OP so poignantly describes. This is why the psychiatric profession gets a bad rap. You guys have a pill for everything, regardless of well-documented side effects—as long as you’re the ones doing the prescribing. I’m the mom on the first page of this thread with the kid who had a terrible reaction to Effexor.

Can you point to any documented side effects for this GABA, anecdotal or researched? You keep mentioning these 4 studies, but a quick google shows more studies than that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Hmmm, I don’t visit the Health forum much, so maybe it was somebody else. Not sure I’ve ever recommended it on DCUM, for that matter. But I’m with you on the point that it can really help some (not all) people, like me, and also that it has less risks than SSRIs, whose effects as equally if not more unknown. So glad it’s working for you and your DS!

Wait, there have been YEARS of peer reviewed studies on SSRIs. There is very little research on GABA and, in one example, 3 of the 4 studies reviewed had researchers linked to the companies producing GABA that they did not disclose. Yet, you assert GABA has fewer risks and side effects than SSRIs - at least, that what it seems you're asserting.

Wait, there are TONS of gaps in our knowledge about SSRIs and their side effects. Yet Big Pharma has aggressively promoted their SSRI products and psychiatrists have happily swallowed it all, prescribing them in handfuls to patients. Read “Cracked: The Unhappy Truth About Psychiatry,” which may be a bit sensationalist but makes valid main points about Big Pharma and gullible psychiatrists. I’m much more worried about that than about some supplement where 1-2 of the authors was linked to the industry and I have to worry about whether the other authors were dishonest or not (and were those 4 studies peer reviewed?).