Depression Kills

Although this comes from the BBC, it might as well have come from NBC.  A study has shown that general practitioners are not doing well at spotting depression in their patients.

The timing is ironic, especially in light of someone’s blog mentioning a six million dollar study to determine that texting while driving is dangerous.  Was a study even necessary?

I would bet that if the study were extended, it would show that even psychiatrists and therapists were not spotting it well either.  Besides - depression it out… bipolar is in!

All we hear recently is how our government is going to help us with socialized medicine.  This in itself is frightening, not to mention wrong, instilling a deep sense of dread in those with a few live brain cells left.  What we’re not hearing is a peep about behavioral health.  This is telling.  What it’s telling us is that as badly as they are going to foul healthcare, behavioral health is going to be (further) mangled beyond recognition.

People have been walking around depressed, sometimes for their entire lives.  This system is broken beyond recognition and not likely to get any better, no matter what the religious figure in the White House tells us.  We are not told about mental health issues.  When we’re little, we point and giggle.  There is no understanding.  Because there is no understanding, there is no recognition.

Depression?  Most people think depression is simply a mood (I’m depressed because my girlfriend left me).  It’s normal to be depressed or sad at certain times.  When it persists or if it has been going on for years, this is depression.  It must be recognized and treated.

As campy as it seems, some of the best descriptions of depression recently have come from commercials for antidepressants.

“Depression hurts.”  You BET it does.

“I feel like I have to keep winding myself up to get simple things done each day.”  Yup.

My friend’s father gets out of bed and sits in a chair.  Until it’s time to go to bed.

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Mental health is not an exact science.   This is but one reason people are in this mess.

Our good friends in Canada have a frequently talked about socialized medicine program.  What they don’t talk about is that their mental health programs suck eggs, just like ours!  They also don’t talk about having to wait months, sometimes in great pain, for an MRI.

There is also another tier of service emerging in Canada and England: the private tier.  People pay privately to get better care.  It used to be illegal but now it’s becoming necessary.

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There is medicine.  Sort of.

Antidepressants come in a number of classes.  The really old MAO Inhibitors.  The tricyclics.  The SSRI’s (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors).  The SNRI’s selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors).  The SSRI/SNRI mixes.  The oddballs.

None works correctly, particularly well, or without side effects.  Some of them wear out (Prozac Poop-Out).

A particularly nasty irony is one of the most common side effects: they inhibit or kill the libido (sex drive/function to us normal folks).  Yes, it’s not enough that you’re depressed - now the plumbing doesn’t work.  THAT’s depressing.

Oops - time for the `little blue pill’ then.

A pharmacist told me that some docs prescribe Prozac for premature ejaculation.

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Insurance companies, the Evil Empire, have taken to dictating which medicines you can take.  If your doctor wants to prescribe a certain pill, he has to check with the insurance company.  They don’t want to pay for the expensive pill - they insist the doc start with the cheaper ones and work their way up.  The doctor has to document this in order to get the correct medicine - up front on eventually.

They’re screwing with your sanity, folks.

And what happens when you get seriously depressed?  You can become suicidal.  Or Homicidal.  Or plain old dangerous to yourself or others.  You might have to visit the Happy Place<tm>.

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I don’t know about you, but I think it’s rather important that depression be spotted early.