Mood disorders such as depression have been a known adverse side effect of drug use since at least the 1950’s.
A drug-induced mood disorder is the onset of symptoms of mental distress while a person is taking or withdrawing from these drugs.
Despite the plethora of reported cases, there are few controlled studies of this phenomenon. Many different drugs have been implicated in the onset of drug-induced mental symptoms. Many different hypotheses have been put forward regarding the etiology of these reactions, but since the actual action of many of these drugs is unknown, these are mostly just guesses.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) even has multiple categories for this “mental illness,” for example:
291.8 Alcohol-Induced Mood Disorder
292.84 Substance-Induced Mood Disorder, and so on.
The many possible symptoms of mental stress caused by drug use or withdrawal make it easy to receive an unfounded or fraudulent diagnosis; i.e. a diagnosis of some psychiatric disorder rather than an adverse drug reaction. Naturally, diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder is treated with a psychiatric drug, adding to the drug-induced stress.
Common symptoms arising from the adverse effects of drugs include depression, fatigue, insomnia or other sleep problems, irritability, gastro-intestinal problems, mania, inattention, lack of motor control, suicidal thoughts, hallucinations. Elderly patients may be more likely to take drugs and therefore may have a greater exposure to the risks of adverse drug reactions.
How can one tell if mental symptoms are drug-related? Quick resolution of symptoms after stopping the drug is a good clue, although one must also watch for withdrawal effects. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent non-psychiatric medical doctor. In any case, a thorough, searching medical examination by a non-psychiatric medical doctor is encouraged to find and treat any real medical conditions that are contributing to the problems.
For more information about the side effects of common psychiatric drugs, go to http://www.cchrstl.org/sideeffects.shtml.
We refer readers to this reference:
http://www.drugfreeworld.org/#/lookinside/marijuana-booklet-english
Do you know how, when they give you an anti-depressant, they tell you to, “Be sure to remember to take it – or you’ll become MORE Depressed, when you forget to, then you were before you started taking the pills?”
Okay. Now, do you remember how they tell you that Medical Marijuana will make you “feel better,” but that when you, “Stop taking it, and the feel better goes away – THEN YOU’LL FEEL MORE DEPRESSED THAN YOU DID BEFORE YOU TOOK THE MEDICAL MARIJUANA?”
If it makes you feel better, it’s non-toxic (according Encyclopedia Britanica), and it stimulates Serotonin and Dopamine (according to a whole lot of semi-sequestered Research done in Holland) – then WHAT IS the difference between Medical Marijuana, and Prozac?
Here’s difference: Pot works better, works INSTANTLY – and thus allows one to have exquisite control over ones moods, and it’s not Poisonous; and Prozac is NONE OF THOSE THINGS.
It DOES, however, make Big PharmaCo LOTS OF MONEY!
Pots Medicine – not a ‘Drug of Abuse’ – and it always has been!