Posted by Andy Alt on January 2, 2009
Excerpt from Antidepressants, physical dependence, and semantics:
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I think I’m getting the picture here. Addiction, a negative set of behaviors that accompany some types of drug dependence, is a nasty, dirty, horrid little word. It is true that Zoloft is not addictive, in the sense that those who are dependent on it don’t normally develop negative behaviors such as seeking out the drug inappropriately, and it is also true that SSRIs don’t induce euphoric symptoms, like many addictive substances. But many tobacco and heroin addicts also have no real high anymore, and simply use to avoid withdrawal.
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I think the author did a better than I did: Addiction and SSRI Medications:
June 26, 2008 – TIME magazine’s June 16, 2008 cover story by Mark Thompson was a detailed article about US troops being given antidepressant drugs to deal with battlefield stress. A quote from the article (p 41) states “The newer drugs have fewer side effects and, unlike earlier drugs, are generally not addictive or toxic, even when taken in large quantities.” This is false, and easily disproved. Ask current and former patients if they’ve ever had physical withdrawal symptoms after stopping use of an SSRI, or search the Internet for posts and articles written by patients about addiction to SSRI medication.
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