Prescribe Medicines for Mental Health Makes Your Mental Health Worse

Question

Many people believe that the medicine they are prescribed for their mental health makes their mental health worse and that doctors are just using them for money. I believe that this can be true because most of the side effects of antidepressant medication are suicidal thoughts etc.

Answer 1

According to the National Library of Medicine, It is hard to say if this is true of false. While on one hand psychiatric medicine has been linked to the death of many people aged 65 and older, trials trying to show the effects of psychiatric drugs on mental health are almost always biased because most patients are already normally taking their psychiatric medicine and giving the other half placebo medicine is just showing the withdrawals of not taking their psychiatric medicine. On the other hand Psychiatric conditions are common and complex. According to  Allan H Young, professor of mood disorders, Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neurosciences, King’s College London, UK , "Raised standardized mortality rates and reduced life expectancy have been reported in people with psychiatric disorders such as psychosis and mood and personality disorders. These increased death rates are only partly because of suicide and mostly attributable to coexisting physical health disorders. All therapeutic interventions may potentially do both good and harm. Psychiatric drugs are as beneficial as other treatments used for common, complex medical conditions." https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4707562/

Comments

I think what you're saying is that it depends on the drug, the person, the person's specific mental illness(es), and the outcome and that every situation is different? I like that you sourced medical literature -- that's always better than lesser known websites or centers.

Answer 2

According to the article, "Flooding the world with psychiatric drugs could boost the burden of mental disorders," prescribed medicines can potentially worsen mental health disorders. This is because the SSRI's cause a biological change that can lead to persistent dysphoria. "While this rise in disability may be due to many factors, there are two ways that increased use of antidepressants can contribute to it. Although antidepressants may provide a small benefit over placebo over the short term, there have now been a number of studies concluding that these drugs increase the risk that a person will become chronically depressed over the long term. "

https://www.statnews.com/2018/10/22/flooding-world-psychiatric-drugs-boost-burden-mental-disorders/

Comments

So how would you rate the claim? Don't forget to select a rating for each fact-check.

Answer 3

When I first read this my immediate thought was, that's not true at all. However, in some situations taking medication for your mental health can be harmful. 

This isn't just a problem in mental health, other medications can do this as well for other issues. But with mental health it becomes more severe and noticable. As with any medication not everyone will react the same way. What works for one might not work for another. 

According to calmclinic.com medication can effect in a few different ways.

1) "Physiological Dependence That's when the body requires the medicine because it's adapted to the effects. Your brain starts to depend on it, to the point where your natural stress coping ability gets even worse. "

2) "Psychological Dependence Perhaps more troubling is psychological dependence. This is when you depend so much on the medicine that you don't do anything else to cure your anxiety."

Stress Medications - What Medicines Deal With Stress? (calmclinic.com)

Answer 4

According to the Sage Neuroscience Center, "As with any medication, you can experience side effects, and this does not mean that the medication is ineffective." It is hard to say whether or not a medication for mental health makes your mental health worse. The Sage Neuroscience Center said, "Psychiatric medications can be used to treat specific symptoms and not others, which means that you may experience some side effects." This means that the medications are going to hone in on one symptom, they aren't going to fix all of them at once. So, it is hard to tell because as one symptom gets better, another might get worse. It's important to keep track of symptoms so you can decide whether medication is the right treatment for you or not. 

Source: https://sageclinic.org/blog/debunking-myths-psychiatric-medication/

Answer 5

This is both true and untrue. 
The side effects of these medicines can certainly make mental health worse. Anxiety medicine, depression medicine, etc. have side effects such as suicidal thoughts, weight gain, which can in turn, cause mental health issues, among many others. 

These medicines, when monitored correctly, given at the right dose, and when the right medication is found, can greatly improve mental health. Anxiety medicine, for example, works in this way:

"Benzodiazepines enhance the activity of the neurotransmitter GABA—a chemical in the brain that helps you to feel calm. Their effect also produces drowsiness, making it easier to fall asleep and sleep through the night."

https://www.camh.ca/en/health-info/mental-illness-and-addiction-index/anti-anxiety-medications-benzodiazepines#:~:text=What%20does%20Anti%2Danxiety%20Medications,and%20sleep%20through%20the%20night.

There are many different types of medicine, lexapro, trintellix, prozac, among so many others, and some of them can make your mental health worse, but if you find the right one for you, your mental health will improve.

Answer 6

<!--StartFragment-->

 

There is data claiming prescribed mental health drugs do help but then also deterioate your mental health because of their side effects or because they are only relief medicines but not altering the chemistry of these disorders in your brain. According to an article by National Library of Medicine, pyschotropic drugs don't actually alter or cure mental illness, available treatment are only providing longterm/short term relief, "without resolution of the underlying conditions." This is because there is little practical clinical relevance found to significantly improve the treatment of psychiatric disorders. There is not enough research, not enough effort to resolve mental illness. In fact, these drugs do have effects on the various brain systems, the symptoms returning after one discontinues the medication, or one being purged into a medications severe side effects. But then we need to understand how these medications are actually not disease specific, they are used across different diagnosis, which is why they were curated. The effect of many psychiatric drugs are similar to anti-inflammatory agents, and they enhance mental functions as they put a halt on symptoms.

According to another article by NCBI, psychiatric medications have a mixed success in that the reason and purpose of these drugs is still misunderstood. These prescribed drugs vary across the diagnosis' and the extremity of the mental illness across each individual. This is a fault in the clinical research team and the desire to make an impactful change, but at the end of the day with the limited studies on these medications, each drug treatment is a primarily trial and error situation. Therefore, this is a controversial claim, which is nor wrong but nor correct, because it requires more research and clinical trials.

<!--EndFragment-->

Answer 7

Medicine that is prescribed to help people with mental illnesses are intended to treat the illness. These medications "influence the brain chemicals that regulate emotions and thought patterns" (NAMI). However, there are also many negative side effects that can come with the medications. Some may experience insomnia, suicidal thoughts, fatigue, and other symptoms. These mainly occur because the brain has to get used to the medicine. It may take a while for the brain to properly react to the chemicals that is being introduced to it. Ultimately, a person should take medicine for their mental health if they feel it is best for them. Whether the medicine makes their condition better or worse depends on the person.

https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Treatments/Mental-Health-Medications

Answer 8

So, this claim can be true, but also can be false. The chemicals in every single person's brain are different, and so mental illness is going to look different in every person. There are different types of these medications, and if given the wrong one, can cause a negative reaction. Keep in mind, there's no testing that can be done to determine the chemicals in a person's brain. Let's look at the medications for depression. From Psych Web MD, the first one is an SSRI which is selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. These types of medications increase the amount of serotonin in the brain (more serotonin= more happy). However, if the issue does not lie in the lack of serotonin, then there can be issues. The next one is selective norepinephrine reuptake inhibitors (SNRIs) which increases the amount of Norepinephrine in the brain (lack of norepinephrine= depressive and anxiety symptoms). There is also a third, but still under clinical testing. It's also important to note that psychiatric medications themselves are not cures. They are meant to be used alongside other forms of therapy. These medications are tools, but without other proper techniques and changes in thinking, they may not even do anything. Take a hammer for example, a person has to actually put in the work themselves for the hammer to do anything, but it's still a helpful tool. It's the same thing with mental illnesses like depression. A person has to also put in the work themselves in order to get the results they want. 

Psychotropic Medications: Types, Their Use, and Side Effects (webmd.com)

Answer 9

Prescribed medicines can have different effects for everyone, it all depends what mental health issue it's being treated and what medicine is being taken. In the article "Mental Health Medicines" it states "However, predicting who will respond to what medication can be difficult because different medications may work better for one person than for another". There are different mental health issues and different medications help, but the side effects can vary from patient to patient. Some people might experience more " In some cases, children, teenagers, and young adults under 25 may experience an increase in suicidal thoughts or behavior when taking antidepressants". 

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/mental-health-medications

https://www.nami.org/About-Mental-Illness/Treatments/Mental-Health-Medications