Depression drugs hard to quit: Study
Tags taken while bins left unemptied
Antidepressants can be addictive, a new study warns. The study of 1829 New Zealanders who have taken antidepressants found that 55 per cent reported withdrawal symptoms when they stopped taking the drugs, and 27 per cent felt they were “addicted” to their medications.
The authors, University of Auckland psychologists Claire Cartwright and Kerry Gibson and Dr John Read, now of the University of East London in Britain, say doctors prescribing antidepressants should warn patients of the potential addictive effects so that they can consider alternative treatments.
They found that only 1 per cent of patients recalled being told anything about withdrawal symptoms or addiction.
Cartwright conducted in-depth interviews with 50 of the women in the study and found that many tried to stop taking antidepressants but could not. “Some of the women talked about being ready to come off antidepressants after a number of years on them, and trying to reduce them gradually, but having such disabling side-effects that they actually went back on them,” she said.
Common withdrawal symptoms included nausea, dizziness, nightmares, migraines and “brain zaps” similar to electric shocks.
One patient wrote: “It took me two months of hell to come off the antidepressants. Was massively harder than I expected.”
The survey was done via a questionnaire that was online in 2012-13. The authors acknowledged that the people who responded might have been those who wanted to complain, but 83 per cent said antidepressants helped to reduce their depression.
Pharmac data shows that one in every nine adults, including one in six women, are prescribed antidepressants each year.
The sample of 1829 patients was predominantly female (77 per cent) and European (92 per cent).
Almost half (44 per cent) had been taking antidepressants for more than three years and were still taking them when they did the survey. This group of long-term users were more likely to report both withdrawal effects (65 per cent) and addiction (35 per cent).
Addiction rates varied by medications from zero for sertraline up to 33 per cent for paroxetine.
East Ta¯maki Healthcare mental health clinical leader Dr David Codyre, a board member of Mike King’s Key to Life Trust, said paroxetine was known to have a greater risk of withdrawal symptoms.
“The dilemma is that there is a subset of depression and anxiety conditions for which paroxetine is the most effective. That is the trade-off.”
HWatch the video at nzherald.co.nz A West Auckland woman says her council-mandated bin tags are being torn off by rubbish collectors while the bin itself is left sitting, full, on the roadside.
Jackie Oberholzer told the Herald it was common for bins at her end of Bruce McLaren Rd to have their tags pulled off on a Monday but not be emptied until Thursday.
“The truck is supposed to follow the guy and as he pulls the tags off and empty the bin — not around here. A guy comes and pulls all our tags off, but then they only pick up our bins the next day or three days later.”
In the meantime, she said, schoolchildren would kick bins over, leaving rubbish in the street that residents had to pick up, and anyone with a full bin was left with nowhere to put their rubbish.
She has complained to the council and the contractors who manage West Auckland’s rubbish removal multiple times, saying once she was told that, because the first three days of the week were so busy, the trucks could be sent back later.
A spokeswoman for Auckland Council’s Waste Solutions confirmed this happened sometimes. “Depending on volume and truck capacity, we may send a truck back to make the collection later in the week.”
However, she said only a small number of missed collections on
The council introduced a bin tag system in the Waita¯kere district last October. The same system was rolled out on the North Shore in April and Papakura in May. Bruce McLaren Rd were logged and these had been attributed to residents putting their bins out too late for the 6am collection.
“If a resident has missed their weekly collection we recommend they bring the bin back on to their property until the following week.”
Oberholzer denied missing the 6am early start, saying she always put her bins out on Sunday night.
Other Aucklanders living where the tag system is used have told the Herald their stickers have been pinched by passersby and they’ve had to buy new ones.
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