With the constant barrage of side effects linked to various antidepressant medications, it can be daunting to try to find one that is deemed safe. SSRIs like Paxil and Effexor have long been proven to be dangerous, so the question remains — are any antidepressant medications safe?
Research has shown that SSRI medications like Paxil and Effexor have the potential to be fatal for some users. Those drugs are linked with a variety of adverse side effects including aggressive behavior and suicidal thoughts and behaviors. The drugs have also been linked to birth defect in babies whose mothers take the drugs while pregnant. SSRIs like Paxil and Effexor have also caused such aggressive behaviors that patients taking the drugs have been known to commit homicides. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the drugs are highly addictive. Most patients that try to come off of the drugs experience severe withdrawal symptoms.
The other type of antidepressant are Tricyclics, which are still used for severe depression (such as doxepin and amoxapene), but they also have side effects which include confusion and seizures. Finally, there is Noradrenaline Reuptake Inhibitors (NARI) such as Reboxetine; however, it’s not currently available in the United States. NARI medications work similarly to SSRIs but boast fewer adverse side effects.
Tricyclics seem to be the safer alternative to SSRIs, but not by much. The fact is that there isn’t any certain way to assume that antidepressants are useful at all, since research is starting to show that these medications may not work any better than talk therapy and exercise. In fact, many doctors are starting to prescribe lifestyle changes over medications as a means of safely treating depression. The reason for this is because is there is even research that has proven that antidepressants don’t work any better than placebos at treating depression.
Still, antidepressant medication prescriptions are up 400 percent according to the newest research. That just doesn’t add up when you consider the risk-to-benefit ratio. Until people realize that they don’t need pills to cure all of their symptoms, prescriptions will likely continue to rise.
