Can you die from using antidepressants? Absolutely, according to a large study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.
For the first time, scientists have found an alarming link between the use of antidepressant medications and sudden cardiac death in women not previously diagnosed with heart disease.
Scientists long-ago documented a link between depression and heart disease, but this study based on a long-term study of 63,000 women shows that women with clinically diagnosed depression who took antidepressants were more than twice as likely to experience sudden cardiac death as those who did not take the drugs.
The results, based on data collected in the long-running Nurses Health Study, show that the more severe a woman’s depression, the greater her risk of sudden heart failure and death in a group of women never diagnosed with heart disease. However, researchers tied the risk of death not to the depression alone, but to the prescription medications used to treat it.
The results do not necessarily apply to men, since only women are involved in the Nurses Health Study.
The antidepressant drugs were not associated with a higher risk of heart attacks or overall fatal heart disease.
Researchers said the study’s findings were “surprising” and “merit scrutiny.”
The use of antidepressant medications is pervasive in American society. One in ten American is using antidepressants, according to recent government figures and that number has nearly tripled in the last decade. Drugs like Xanax, Prozac and Zoloft are in such wide use that 17-year old I know says she is the only teen among her friends who is not using antidepressants.
Doctors are prescribing antidepressants like candy and we’re happily gobbling them up, despite their obvious risks. There are also the not-so- obvious ones, like the fact that lack of attentiveness associated with these drugs has been blamed for anywhere from 300,000 to 2 million car accidents a year.
I can’t imagine any drug being worth the risk of a sudden heart failure, but the widespread use of these dangerous drugs is even more perplexing when we consider that they only work in in about one-third of the people who take them.
Yet medical literature is highly biased toward supporting the use of antidepressants and there have been suggestions that negative studies have been biased or even suppressed. I can pnl;y surmise that is because these drugs rake in big buck for the drug companies.
I can’t for the life of me underdstand why anyone woudl want to take these drugs, especially in light of the likelihood that:
1. They don’t work
2. They might kill you
These are dangerous drugs. They should not be on the market. I am perplexed that the mainstream media has not widely reported this important story.
Depression is a disease, most often caused by brain chemistry imbalances. It requires treatment.
Fortunately, if you are clinically depressed, you have choices.
There are numerous natural ways of approaching the problem without the high risks.
Among the best supplements are GABA, rhodiola, St. John’s wort, 5-HTP, SAM-e, phenylalanine and tyrosine.
WARNING: If you are taking prescription antidepressants, DO NOT stop taking them suddenly. This can also cause severe health problems.
You can learn more natural ways to treat brain chemistry imbalances in the April 30 session of the ongoing 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health no-cost teleseminar series with Dr. Hyla Cass and myself, based on our book, 8 Weeks to Vibrant Health: A Take Charge Plan for Women. You can register for the teleseminars here and you can buy the book here.
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