Anti-depressants

‘‘Bitter Pill’’, documentary-maker Katinka Blackford Newman’s courageous article on antidepressants (Sunday, August 20) was courageous and telling, and brought back bitter memories.

I lost my daughter at 24 years of age, pulled into the quicksand of anti-depressants. She should never been given them, but unfortunately she was, and it was a downhill spiral from there on. She was a talented artist and a bright student who also volunteered at camps for the disabled. But this exemplary young woman died in a hospital due to the misguided judgement of those prescribing anti-depressants.

As she was over 18 years I had no say with the doctors.

Anti-depressants can be lethal and when I hear about another suicide I always wonder whether that person had been on this drug.

Jann McPherson, Nelson ‘‘Bitter Pill’’ consisted of extremely unfortunate but rare anecdotes, mixed in with highly selective and biased citations of scientific literature, and was wrapped in a capsule of pseudoscientific narrative that gave an impression of therapeutic value when in fact it was highly poisonous.

With depression expected to become the second leading cause of disability in the world by 2020, this kind of disinformation is potentially extremely damaging. Anti-depressants are certainly not ‘‘magic pills’’. But the evidence is clear that they work when used at the right time and at the right dose.

Dr Aram Kim, consultant psychiatrist, Waitemata District Health Board