Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards

I thought anti-depressants were for:

1) long-term depression with no apparent causal event
2) depression with a causal event but which did not resolve in a reasonable amount of time
3) depression so severe that the depressed person could not function adequately without chemical intervention
4) depression so severe that talk therapy could not be effective without chemical intervention

I know they're also prescribed "off-label" in "non-therapeutic" doses (i.e., less than would be used to treat depression) for IBS. And I know from something posted in the LR that Elavil can be used for insomnia and chronic pain - from the dosage, it sounds like that's at "non-therapeutic" levels, also. All of this seems reasonable to me - using big drugs to treat big or intractable problems.

What I'm hearing a lot about now (not just on the Boards, but from people I know) is using anti-depressants to handle "life event" problems - relatives dying, spouses leaving, bad jobs, bad marriages - where there is no chronic, unrelieved, long-term depression and no consideration of talk therapy. ADs are such big, big drugs that this trend makes me nervous. It makes me even more nervous for a short-term situation - getting onto and off of ADs can be a miserable process. Beyond all that, people are supposed to be unhappy when sad things happen - it's part of what motivates us to change, to move on, to find another way, to understand. And beyond all of that is my bone-deep feminism - I'm old enough to remember when women who were unhappy with their lives were told to take Valium every day, get over it, and cheer up.

I'm not saying someone who is in Kree's position - a miserable supervisor, unhelpful co-workers, and unable to leave for four months - should suck it up and tough it out. I'm just saying that anti-depressants seem like overkill as the first line of defense. There are milder drugs (including Valium, ironically enough) that can help with sleep problems and anxiety and have, it seems to me, fewer side-effects.

I certainly know that anti-depressants, like all major psychoactive drugs, are a Godsend for people who truly need them and whose lives would be unlivable without them. I just think they should be a last resort.

I'm pretty sure I'm going to get clobbered for this but I needed to say it. I'll be off the Boards for a day or two, so I'll check for bruises when I'm back on.

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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]

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