Sorry, I now realize that my phrasing was misleading. I wasn’t suggesting that people self-medicate: my point was rather that they should try standard treatments for depression before considering more speculative treatments. I have altered my comment accordingly.
I am familiar with the meta-analyses you cite, and that was partly the reason why I myself didn’t try anti-depressants for years. However, I now realize that this was a mistake, since the evidence for SSRIs is still stronger than the evidence for all the non-standard treatments that I spent countless hours reading about. Anecdotally, SSRIs did work for me, while Roberts’ “morning faces therapy” didn’t.
Yes, and to be fair there will be some people who respond really well to SSRIs & some people who really need them. My main concern is that a lot of people rush to them as the 1st option & in my experience most physicians do NOT openly & honestly discuss the risks vs benefits of treatment. In fact, I’ve worked with quite a few doctors who outright mis-characterize the drugs they’ve prescribed as incapable of causing harm.
Sorry, I now realize that my phrasing was misleading. I wasn’t suggesting that people self-medicate: my point was rather that they should try standard treatments for depression before considering more speculative treatments. I have altered my comment accordingly.
I am familiar with the meta-analyses you cite, and that was partly the reason why I myself didn’t try anti-depressants for years. However, I now realize that this was a mistake, since the evidence for SSRIs is still stronger than the evidence for all the non-standard treatments that I spent countless hours reading about. Anecdotally, SSRIs did work for me, while Roberts’ “morning faces therapy” didn’t.
Yes, and to be fair there will be some people who respond really well to SSRIs & some people who really need them. My main concern is that a lot of people rush to them as the 1st option & in my experience most physicians do NOT openly & honestly discuss the risks vs benefits of treatment. In fact, I’ve worked with quite a few doctors who outright mis-characterize the drugs they’ve prescribed as incapable of causing harm.