Changes in the Drug Laws?

[woza17]

Hope you feel better soon Raoul. While we are on the subject of drugs, I got a very disturbing e-mail from a Chinese friend who has been prescribed fluoxetrine for depression. I looked it up on the internet and it is a prozac type of drug for juveniles apparently. She is 25.

What worries me is that she is very depressed and suicidal and it was advised that the person taking the drug should be monitored to see if there are any extreme changes in their behaviour. My friend is in another province and she is really quite isolated in that there is noone she can really confide in.
Her mother and aunty advise her not to take the medication. I have advised her to take the medication and have the doctor moniter her "progress".

My understanding is that it takes a while forthe drugs to kick in. Does anyone have any experience of these type of drugs?

[Mr Nobody]

I know a little. Depends a lot on the dose. The problem is that the doctor can incorrectly calculate the dose, and the patient swings to manic, things like that. Manic is horrible to everyone else except the patient. Depressing is horrible to everyone.

Constant monitoring by those that know her would be ideal. Alone, no.

[con's fly is open]

Woz, there are a slew of antidepressants on the market, each of which works on some people but not others. No one can predict which ones will work for a given person, let alone how well or whether there'll be side effects.

To make matters trickier, depression works in a cycle, so it takes a few weeks to figure out whether they're helping, and whter the dosage is optimal.

Lastly, mood swings, combined with potential calamities resulting from the depression itself, can present a suicide/self-destructive behavioural risk even when the subject in not in the depth of the depressive cycle. Relay this to your friend, and make sure you stay in contact. If she is VERY diligent in monitoring her own day-to-day condition, she may be able to self-diagnose and head off potential grief from the wrong dosage... or medication.

Remind her that there are many other anti-depressants out there, and to have no qualms about trading this stuff in if it feels wrong to her. Finding the porridge that's just right is mostly blind guesswork, and it could take her a long time to get it right.