The Highwire with Del Bigtree - SSRI’S DEVASTATING SIDE EFFECTS

Episode Date: May 7, 2024

The pandemic response supercharged a mental health crisis and now some in the medical community are publicly calling a dangerous solution – over-the-counter antidepressants. With new science showing long term issues even after discontinuing the drugs, including sexual dysfunction, many are wondering why there is a push to make them available over the counter.Become a supporter of this podcast: https://www.spreaker.com/podcast/the-highwire-with-del-bigtree--3620606/support.

We can take some steps right now, very simple steps, to avoid making an already bad crisis worse. And what am I talking about? Well, it's hard to turn on any news report nowadays or listen to any podcasts without the subject matter sounding like this. Take a listen. All right. First of its kind to me report by the peer review journal The Lancet says mental health issues were magnified by the pandemic. Data shows rates of depression and anxiety and young people rose by more than 50 percent in studies from 2010 to 2019.

Nearly one out of every three American adults reported having symptoms of anxiety or depression this summer. An additional 53 million cases of major depressive disorder and 76 million cases of anxiety disorders were caused by COVID. We have seen increased reports of distress, increased reports of stress, increased reports of individuals feeling overwhelmed.

A newest study by the American Academy of Pediatrics finds a 64% increase in antidepressants being prescribed to young people since just 2020. And it's even higher for girls between the ages of 12 and 17, which saw a 130% increase since March of 2020. Pharmaceutical companies worldwide are reporting spikes in the most commonly prescribed antidepressant drugs from 10% in Australia to as high as 34% in the U.S. While the rise in numbers is alarming, antidepressants, they can actually be life-saving. They say to keep an eye on your child's behavior and mood changes. Yeah, I mean, it's one of those I told you so. As we saw that happening with the COVID pandemic,

you're going to destroy the lives of these kids and people and lock them down, take their jobs, and here we are. And so the question is, can people be helped in a different way? Can we do stuff to not make this any worse? And let's focus on, in that report, it talks about the widespread use of antidepressants. And this is one of the big tools in the toolbox for psychiatry. It's perhaps one of the biggest.

The SSRIs, these are for mood disorders. These are for depression, bipolar disorders. And we look at some of the data surrounding this medicine, almost three decades now of use for this drug, basically, this drug class. And here's a study because people are becoming long-term users of these drugs now. This isn't just 30 days to get my life straight. this is something you're on for two, five years and counting. So here's a study out of the year. I swear everyone I have met that, you know,

is involved with this process of taking these drugs is finding that they're never off of them. I mean, it just seems to me like you're on this for life. Like, where do they go? If I needed it now, why do I suddenly no longer need it? Right. And so it just seems like they're on these things forever. Right.

And so what some of the data showing? Because you'll hear a lot of the positives about this, but there's a study out of the year. UK, and it looked at over 220,000 people. They looked at the primary care records for them. They went back in and looked at this, looking at long-term treatment of antidepressants and adverse outcomes. And what do they conclude?

The authors concluded our findings indicate an association between long-term antidepressant usage and elevated risks of CHDS coronary heart disease, cerebral vascular disease, CBD mortality and all-cause mortality. Wow. This is not a good thing if you're talking about. long-term usage. And let's look at one of these, one of the popular ones, SSRIs. This is selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors. This is Zoloft. Let's just look at the package insert of Zoloft right at the top. You don't even have to search for this. It's on the first page. Warning, suicidal thoughts and

behaviors, all in capital letters, the black box warning. Antidepressants increased the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors in pediatric and young adult patients. So, I mean, this is always something that perplexes me because you're taking this to kind of avoid that in some people. And it literally is causing the thing you're trying to avoid. And these things are given to some of these drugs are given to people as young as eight. So this is what we're talking about here. And we've talked about it before and I'm going to put it out there. And I know it's super controversial. But while we're discussing all the school shootings in these issues that are taking place in this nation like we're seeing nowhere else in the world, this has certainly got to be on the table.

I mean, I know a lot of people say you can't blame those drugs, but when you see that label, what happens? You know, suicidal thoughts, suicidal ideation. And then when you look at most of the manifestos by these, you know, kids that go and do these atrocities, it's just this I don't want to live anymore and I don't care if anyone else does. And we're giving this product that enhances that. I mean, this is where we've got to get into these regulatory agencies. Will we, can we do some studies on just the psychological effects? Is it possible? This is what we're seeing.

Is it kids that were on these that are shooting up to schools or they just came off of it? I mean, things that we've got to be looking at. Put it all on the table as we have these conversations. And this class of drugs, SSRIs, they, last year, and we've reported on this, there was a lightning bolt that shot through this idea of changing and playing around with these brain chemicals. And this is this study here. It was in nature. It's titled the serotonin theory of depression.

and it was a systematic umbrella review of the evidence. So they looked at 17 studies. Most of these studies were meta-analysis and systemic reviews. And just for the viewers out there, those are some of the strongest forms of evidence you can possibly find. So if you think of like a pyramid, the weakest would be a case study. Look at maybe one person and say, well, it did something for one person. But the meta-analysis, the systemic reviews, that looks at just bundles of studies.

So this is what this study was dealing with. And what did they conclude? They wrote this. our comprehensive review of the major strands of research on serotonin shows there is no convincing evidence that depression is associated with or caused by lower serotonin concentrations or activity. This review suggests that the huge research effort based on the serotonin hypothesis has not produced convincing evidence of a biochemical basis to depression. This is consistent with research on many other biological markers.

We suggest it is time to acknowledge that the serotonin theory of depression is not empirically substantiated. This is huge. I mean, that's amazing. I just want to put my bias in here. The pharmaceutical industry is really good at crafting their studies, and those are usually the only studies being done worldwide. When all the studies that you have funded yourself to prove that this works end up leading to that result, which is we just don't see that the serotonin seems to be affecting depression at all, that's probably in a mountain of funding to try and make studies show that it actually is connected. So what would happen if unbiased research was taking place to be like, this is the biggest scam in the history of the world?

Right. And so let's get to the heart of this conversation, this story here. So as people are coming off these drugs, they're finding, again, 30 years of usage of these drugs, and they're finding still new side effects for people withdrawing from these drugs. One of them is called, you're not going to believe it's called brainzap. And this is actually written up here. It says in SSRI withdrawal, brain zaps go from overlook symptom to center stage. And it says physicians were initially unaware or dismissive of brain zaps due to limited information and a focus on downplaying the addictive nature of antidepressants.

So the doctors were so interested on saying these aren't addictive, you can come off these any time, and this is, you know, they're saying it's rare, see we've heard that before, but these are, this is basically electrical, shot that goes through people's brains. They feel it inside their brains. It's actually reading about it. It's on the surface of the brain, but you feel inside your brain. It's obviously very disturbing. Some people say it's like my brain has to stop and reboot when it happens. It itself causes anxiety, cognitive issues. And so this is something that's happening that people are, doctors are just now paying attention to you. So why are we bringing up all this information? Well, it's because of this article in stat news, which just knocked me off my seat.

The time has come for over-the-counter antidepressants. Now, you're ready for this. Now, what are they talking about here? They're just talking about doing these things out like candy. And a new license has to be given for that to become over-the-counter. So you think, okay, great. Well, maybe they can start incorporating some of these new side effects, do some new research on this.

The serotonin theory is in question. Maybe we can finally get to the root of this. But you go into this article, and it talks about this new licensing to get this done. It says this process would primarily involve studies to prove that consumers can understand and follow the medication label, not new clinical trials, because more than three decades of evidence shows that SSRI antidepresents are safe and effective. We need to really pump breaks here as a society because anybody knows common sense. These aren't these aren't safe. There's there's risk to them. And five seconds of research will prove that.

And for people to go out and say, I just want to make a call for the team right here because it just says, I read that. I just reflect on Aldous Huxley, who wrote Brave New World at the center of that was this idea of Soma. Everyone's going to be taking a drug to be made happy. And I remember, you know, there's a famous interview he did back in like the beginning of television, I believe, with Mike Wallace early, early in his career, where he predicts that we're all going to be taking a drug to accept the world that we shouldn't be accepting. Take a look at this. In this book, which you mentioned, this book of mine, Brave New World, I postulated a substance called soma, which was a very versatile drug. It would make people feel happy in small doses.

It would make them see visions in medium doses, and it would send them to sleep in large doses. Well, I don't think such a drug exists now, nor do I think it will ever exist. But we do have drugs which will do some of these things. I think it's quite on the cards that we may have drugs which will profoundly change our mental state without doing it any harm. I mean, this is the pharmacological revolution which has taken place, that we have now powerful mind-changing drugs which physiologically speaking are almost costless. I mean, they are not like opium or like cocaine, which do change the state of mind, but

to leave terrible results physiologically and morally. I mean, how shocking is that? It's like the guy is like taking a time capsule from the moment we live in, going back into like, you know, 1950, 1960 early, you know, and then saying you're all going to be taking drugs. And here we are. Here's the moment it's happening

where suddenly I can just walk in and just drug myself, drug my kid. Oh, they're misbehaving. Let me just drug them. Let the school just drug them. with a product that, as you pointed out, doesn't even do its job. And we don't have to go down this road. This will say something about society that we may not be able to reverse at that point.

And what we're finding, too, this is New York Times, that antidepressants are addictive. People can't get off them. So this is something, obviously, that wasn't at the beginning. They weren't really studying this when they started doling these out, Prozac by the millions of doses. And this is, you know, obviously another issue. a laundry list of issues. But here is another one. This one has just come about in, you know, the last, I would say, about five years. Again, what was considered rare, doctors weren't listening to their patients because they thought this was just a side effect of depression itself. We're

talking about sexual dysfunction, not during the drug while you're on it after you stop taking the drug. Here's one of the headlines. They're calling it an epidemic, the hidden epidemic of sexual dysfunction, which experts blame on SSRI antidepressants. And let's just go in here because it will unpack this a little bit because a lot of people are just hearing this for the first time it says the symptoms they describe these are the patients are strikingly similar genital numbness a total lack of sensation around the growing and for men erectile dysfunction many report they no longer experience sexual or romantic attraction at all and have been left with an emotional numbness most have seen relationships collapse as a result while others have missed

out on the chance to have children some have never experienced pleasure during sex called anhodonia and worry they never will. Significantly, all have found their symptoms repeatedly dismissed by medical professionals who insisted they are linked to their underlying depression and not the pills. Dr. Joanna Moncrief, Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at the University College London, says the majority of people taking SSRIs will get some form of sexual dysfunction. There's no doubt about that. They're prescribed as sex offenders to curb the libido, so it isn't a huge stretch to imagine that symptoms persist. She adds, the other thing that makes that makes it convincing is all the evidence about prolonged withdrawal symptoms from SSRIs.

If you take drugs for a long time, they alter the brain in ways that may be permanent or at least take a long time to normalize. Wait a minute. So it just said that they actually prescribe these things to sex offenders because it knows. They know that it inhibits, you know, your sexual desire. And so, I mean, again, like we talk about, you know, we should be looking at school shootings when we, this other conversation, We've been having a lot on this desire, this confusion, this, you know, body dysmorphia, the transgender thing in children. Many of these children feeling like they're in the wrong body as we've talked to those

that are trying to detransition saying I was depressed. I, you know, I was on antidepressants. My psychiatrist said maybe I'm in the wrong body. I decided to get a sex change operation. Well, now doesn't that sort of at least potentially bring in a cause of why so many kids are saying that they just feel like they're in the wrong body. I mean, if you've got numbness and you've got no attraction to, you know, based on gender or sexuality, I mean, what a mess they're making with this whole thing.

It seems like that would be a common sense approach to perhaps start some studies, but absolutely. And in 2019, the European Medicines Agency actually added their own black box warning specifically for this. And this is it right here. You can look at it. It's talking sexual dysfunction, selective serotonin uptake inhibitors. And it says there have been reports of long-lasting sexual dysfunction where the symptoms have continued despite discontinuation of SSRIs and SNRIs. So they're calling it really is post-SSRI sexual dysfunction. So this is actually a term now. And so we're reporting on all of this. And it's a lot to take in. Obviously, there's a direction here. We're following the evidence. But it's important to understand that you can't just quit these medications. There are safe ways to do this and correct ways to do this.

And they talk about the medical community does something called tapering. They do cross tapering. They manage the symptoms as you're coming off this. It's a very delicate process. So in fact, the Cleveland Clinic actually put out a complete review of some of these issues in their medical journal discontinuing antidepressants, perils and pitfalls. And it goes through all of some of the strategies, all of the things that may happen to look out for. But it's interesting that says in there, one of the sentences or paragraphs, it says, who is most at risk of discontinuation symptoms? You think that would be an important question for the medical community? It says, despite extensive literature on ADS, that's antidepressant discontinuation syndrome, again, there's a

term for it. There is still little known about the patient characteristics that pose the most risk. No one's ever looked. Nevertheless, though the risk of ADS cannot be eliminated, it can be reduce their awareness of known risk factors. So that's where we're at right now. Amazing. We just need to have awareness of this. But, you know, the takeaway- Let me just make that caveat, too, to everyone in the audience, for those of you that maybe, you know, are using SSRIs, we mean no judgment on this show. We are simply showing what we find. We're, you know, we're on an investigation, showing the side effects. I'm sure there's people that, you know, have had their lives saved by these products. But if you watch a show like this to

decide I need to get off of those drugs, definitely please consult a professional in doing that. We want to make sure that everybody is safe and healthy and there's the right way to do things and clearly based on those warnings the wrong way.