Is society over-medicated?
In my previous blog entry, I described my experiences of the effect that certain medication - in that case, antidepressants - can have on someone’s judgement and character, and the effect on their relationships and even those around them. I also referred to an NHS report from 2016 that contained some startling facts, including:
‘48%, of adults had taken at least one prescribed medicine in the last week, and almost a quarter, 24%, had taken three or more’
‘...commonly used prescribed medicines were antihypertensives (by 15% of adults) and lipid-lowering medicines (14%); followed by proton-pump inhibitors for reducing acid in the stomach (11%); analgesics and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (11%); and antidepressants (10%)’
The idea that ten percent of the population could be taking something to cause them to behave in the way my ex wife did should shock people. What effect might this level of medication be having on society?
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It's not just antidepressants or even prescription medication that causes problems. How many times has someone said to you that they’ve been taking tablets that gave them ‘brain fog’, or made them feel more out of touch, or mentally slower, than they should ?
Three months ago I suffered a nasty tummy upset, quite probably Norovirus. I had three days of running to the loo and maybe a week of feeling quite weak; I thought that would be it. But a week after the trips to the loo ended I came out in blotches - hives (Urticaria). I’m still getting them, through the day I’m ok but the itching makes things tricky at night.
I haven’t tried to contact a GP; in this post-Covid world that’s just too much of a challenge. I have been to a pharmacy, and tried a number of their products. Antihistamine creams are no good, some other skin creams (such as Eurax) do seem to help; however, getting a good night’s sleep is a problem, so I have tried a number of antihistamine tablets.
Loratadine, taken around 7pm, does help me sleep - but not right through; after taking one I’ll wake up around 4am for an hour of frantic scratching, then maybe doze until after 7. I’m used to this tablet, I’ve taken it before; it leaves me a bit sleepy in the morning, but by 10am I am back to normal and am able to think properly.
I tried another one, Phenergan in an attempt to avoid the middle-of-the-night itching. It's stronger, and contains a clear warning that it will make you drowsy. It did more than that to me. I’d sleep right beyond seven, but would be left more than drowsy, I’d be dopey for most of the day. By that, I mean more than just not quite awake: my brain seemed to work more slowly; perhaps I was suffering a type of ‘brain fog’. I couldn’t hear as well as I usually can (hearing requires your brain to put the sounds together that are detected by the ears, so if your brain isn’t working well your ability to follow a conversation will be affected). I also seemed grumpy - perhaps caused by the other problems, or perhaps further caused by my poor brain function.
To be honest, I wasn’t myself when taking Phenergan. I wasn’t as friendly as I would normally be; it affected my judgement. If I had needed to make an important decision I might have struggled to take all relevant facts and views into account and make the right one.
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I’m reminded of a story Viv often tells me. When she was a toddler she had a number of seizures. The doctors put her on various drugs, and she went on the train up to London rto see a specialist every few months.
She started school but was not one of the sharpest in the class; her teachers did not expect much of her, academically.
By the time she was around six or seven her mother had decided that the tablets weren’t needed any more, and - from what I know - took Viv off them without the doctors knowing.
Viv’s performance at school then improved dramatically. Within a month or two she was getting top marks, her teachers were taken aback.
Viv remained off antiepileptic drugs for many years, her seizures only returning when she was in her fifties. By this time drugs were available that didn’t have quite the effect of those she had in her childhood, generally she’s affected by other conditions rather than by the drugs she’s been prescribed. If she had stayed on them for longer, it is doubtful that she would ever have achieved what she did.
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Antidepressants do, however, seem to be a significant problem. A quick scan through recognised medical websites (WebMD, NHS.uk, bmj.com) reveals that problems with antidepressants are well known to the world of medical science. What to me is the problem is how patients are expected to respond should they experience them: WebMD, for instance, says that you should ‘tell your doctor right away if you feel aggressive or violent’. Someone taking antidepressants will - if they behave like my ex wife used to - not consider that their behaviour is aggressive or unusual; would a carer, or family member, be taken seriously if they advised the doctor of a problem, or would ‘patient confidentiality’ get in the way?.
The NHS site doesn’t actually mention aggression as a side effect. It lists a number of problems that may arise for someone taking antidepressants, among other potential problems, ‘confusion’, ‘disorientation’, ‘agitation’ (certainly something I frequently saw in my ex), ‘drowsiness’, ‘weight gain’, ‘loss of libido’, ‘failure to achieve orgasm’ and ‘feeling agitated, shaky or anxious’. It's not really selling the drugs very well (who wants to put on weight and lose the ability to cum?), but what are these drugs doing to the mental faculties of the ten percent of the UK adult population that is taking them? How much is their judgement being affected by their ‘confusion’, ‘disorientation’, ‘drowsiness’, etc. and are they going to do strange things as a result ?
Moreover, however big the problem is, it is getting bigger over time. In 2020 Public Health England reported on the problem of dependence upon prescription medication - including antidepressants. ‘More people are taking prescribed medicines for longer’ was a leading conclusion; antidepressants specifically, they reported, ‘are being prescribed more and for longer’.
The report continues:
‘This means more people are at risk of becoming addicted to them or having problems when they stop using them. It also costs the NHS a lot of money, some of which is wasted because the medicines do not work for everyone all the time, especially if they are used for too long‘. (It is impressive that the authors are concerned about the costs of the drugs, rather than the consequences of their use on society.)
The statistics presented in this PHE report are in a different form to those in the 2016 NHS report, and present some other worrying figures:
‘PHE’s analysis shows that, in 2017 to 2018, 11.5 million adults in England (26% of the adult population) received, and had dispensed, one or more prescriptions for any of the medicines within the scope of the review. The totals for each medicine were:
• antidepressants 7.3 million people (17% of the adult population)
• opioid pain medicines 5.6 million (13%)
• gabapentinoids 1.5 million (3%)
• benzodiazepines 1.4 million (3%)
• z-drugs 1.0 million (2%)’
The document also provides details on the changes in use of these drugs over time:
‘Between 2015 to 2016 and 2017 to 2018 the rate of prescribing for antidepressants increased from 15.8% of the adult population to 16.6% and for gabapentinoids from 2.9% to 3.3%. There was a small decrease in prescribing rates for the other 3 medicine classes.
From this I do draw a slightly optimistic conclusion that there are people who don’t stay on antidepressants for long; the 2016 survey reports 10% of the population being on them at any one time, rather less than the 15.8% that received a prescription for them in the twelve month period shown in this report. However the 2020 report does show that 7% of those taking antidepressants have been taking them for at least three years - when the evidence is that they are of little benefit over such a length of time (and, in my experience, could be detrimental to the patient’s and their carers’ well-being).
Seven percent of 15 million is around one million people, and one million people behaving in the way my ex wife used to behave is scary, indeed.
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A number of commentators have been reported - in publications such as the Daily Sceptic - as wondering why the behaviour of the UK population has been the way it has over the last two years: in May 2021 it was reported that ten percent of the population wanted lockdown restrictions to last forever.
I’m not wholly surprised. We see behaviours now such as taking, without challenge, expert opinion as fact, or showing an inability or unwillingness to see or comprehend detail, being reluctant to behave differently to the crowd, or being comfortable to rebuke dissenters, often vocally and publicly, might these behaviours possibly be signs of populace-wide ‘brain fog’? They’re certainly the sort of things I used to see in my ex wife.
How many of that ten per cent who wanted lockdown restrictions to last for ever were, perhaps, suffering with anxiety and stress related issues? Were they already worried about something in their life, and might they have been prescribed tablets that could, among other things, make them ‘agitated’ or cause ‘drowsiness’, ‘confusion’ or ‘disorientation’?
Someone off work with ‘stress’ might have little else to do than to respond to online opinion polls (the fully employed don’t have time for such trivia). Laura Dodsworth, in her book ‘A State of Fear’, tells how fear was a result of government action because the government thought the population wouldn’t comply. Was the level of compliance, and the social media storm inflicted on those who dissented from the favoured view, partly a result of half of the populace being on medication?
In any other age, would millions of people taking drugs that affect their judgement be considered healthy?
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References
https://thoughtsofacarer.blogspot.com/2022/02/and-you-wonder-why-im-sceptical-on.html
http://healthsurvey.hscic.gov.uk/media/63790/HSE2016-pres-med.pdf
https://www.webmd.com/depression/side-effects-antidepressants
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/prescribed-medicines-review-report
https://dailysceptic.org/2021/05/16/one-in-ten-britons-wants-lockdown-restrictions-to-last-forever/
https://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/12/08/antidepressant.personality.changes/
Just been listening to Peter Hitchens on Mike Graham's show on Talk Radio (4 July), he mentioned that some of the violent crimes we see in modern society - and, compared to the past - seem to not take very seriously - are committed by people on antipsycotic or antidepressant drugs. He, and MG, both expressed surprise that government does not take this matter more seriously - might they believe that because these drugs are prescribed they are harmless?
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