I am not your nurse, but just so you know, aspirin and ibuprofen are not recommended at the same time. Tends to eat a friggin’ hole in your stomach, and I wish that was being metaphorical. It’s also not very useful, because ibuprofen and aspirin use (we think) the same chemical process to stop pain - they both block an enzyme called cyclooxygenase that your body needs to make prostoglandins that your nerves need to feel pain. If the ibuprofen is blocking the cyclooxygenase, then there is nothing left for the aspirin to block. It’s like sending out a blitz on a running play* - one guy is going to do the job, and the other is going to stand around kicking holes in the turf. In this case, the turf is your stomach!
Ibuprofen and your Tylenol #3 should do it, with far less risk of ulceration and/or GI bleeding. Tylenol works differently than ibuprofen, so it makes sense to use it with ibuprofen.
*Uh, I think. Football is not my forte, but my fiance tells me this is the analogy I’m looking for.
Usually when I am having a discussion and find that I have no logical or meaningful response to something that has been said, I simply refrain from responding. It stops me from making bizarre non sequitur posts like this one. That’s just a suggestion, mind you.
This really deserves another thread…in Great Debates.
You are talking gross generalities and picking at Tabloid headlines to make your argument. Can a woman’s problems from a boyfriend beating her be helped with medication? If the boyfriend is out of her life and there’s therapy involved, and care is given to determine the right mix and amounts of medication? Absolutely.
She can end up a well grounded individual that doesn’t continue being in abusive relationships because she feels she’s worthless.
But what’s your point?
Can a person with a broken arm, heal without a cast? Sure. It’s been done. But an X-ray, with a cast, and some PT afterwards can make sure it’s a 100% recovery.
Yeah, that’s the way our bodies and medical research work; you need to keep testing and retesting and retesting to accumulate a significant body of evidence over time. I ask you again, what is the alternative aside from - which I support - more oversight? Evidence-based medicine is awesome and necessary, and we still need randomized trials both for new and established drugs, not to mention the drug companies to create drugs.
And I think you’ve reposted that Atlantic link enough, thanks; I saw it the first half-dozen times.
To carry this further, a broken arm doesn’t need painkillers to heal, but it sure helps the person calm down so that it can be set correctly.
And if the broken arm was caused by a seizure, a drug to stop the seizures will prevent the same thing from happening again.
The problem isn’t drug usage. Psychotropic drugs DO help. Clonazepam, as imperfect as it is, helps me not look like a freakin’ lunatic–which helps me to have more self-confidence and allows me to do all the things I want to do in life, with no excuses. Right now, it’s cosmetic. Tics don’t kill anyone and mine don’t even physically hurt. But if I can tone them down with medication and present more “normally”, why not?
IMHO, the problem is that drugs keep a person from really analyzing the source of the problem. It treats symptoms, but it’s not a cure. So a person gets “hooked” on meds, in both an addictive sense as well as a psychological sense, because the source of the problem is still there. I tapered down on c-pam in an effort to see if I could handle my symptoms on my own. But what I uncovered was so scary that I stopped. I may be on this drug forever not because it’s so addictive (and it is…and I am worried about this too), but because it works too goddamn well and it has lulled me into a state of complacency about my health. People keep telling me as long as the drug works, it is pointless trying to get a diagnosis. But I disagree. Perhaps it would be pointless if things were staying the same, but they are getting worse. I’d like to stop it, but I’ve hit a brick wall. It’s hard not to feel that because I found a drug that kinda-sorta helps, it takes away the urgency and turns it into a no-big-deal situation. This isn’t good.
If neurological or neuropsychiatric problems started to reach epidemic levels, I worry that society would also see it as a no-big-deal situation, since we have ways of treating these problems. Meanwhile, the agents that are screwing up our brains are allowed to lurk in our environment undetected, doing god knows what else. This isn’t good at all.
But I sound like a conspiracy nut when I talk about this.
I’m not sure how car accidents got dragged into a thread about Rx drugs, but I can assure you that I am not “addicted” to my birth control pills (I just like to not get knocked up) and I can assure you that my boss, who’s battling a respiratory infection, is not “addicted” to her antibiotics (she just likes to breathe).
To the OP: Yes, I would say you are an anomaly. My guess is that most people have at least had a few rounds of antibiotics, and likely more than that.
In my case, I’ve had the occasional round of antibiotics, plus prescription pain meds after childbirth and minor surgery. I also took birth control pills for several years. I was diagnosed with glaucoma about 5 years ago and have taken prescription eye drops ever since (and will for the rest of my life, unless a cure is found). I’m 41.
I am referring to “prescription painkillers”, specifically opiates. More people die from overdoses directly related to these prescription drugs than die of car accidents.
This insulting comment is out of line, JoelUpchurch, regardless of how you view the appropriateness of Ms. Whatsit’s remarks regarding an article. Don’t do it again.
The point is that they are using medication instead of fixing their lives. The problem is that the woman who takes Paxil and stays with the same boyfriend isn’t going to get better. Antidepressants are designed address issues with your brain chemistry. If your brain chemistry isn’t messed up the antidepressants won’t help you except as a placebo.
Joel, isn’t it possible that the antidepressants could help her to leave him? Suppose for the sake of argument that the cause of the depression is her boyfriend. How does knowing that help if her depression is robbing her of the initiative she needs to do something about it?
If the meds can help her to get herself out of the bad situation then that’s a good thing isn’t it?
You’re creating an arbitrary causal relationship. Paxil isn’t proscribed for bruising due to wife beating. Paxil plus therapy, however, may be used afterwards to allow the person to not fear the REST of the World.
I have experienced depression. Mind numbing, lead weight, end of the world kind. It came from raising kids, the death of family members, financial issues, job loss. Every single stressor save divorce hit my dance card in a 1 year period of time.
Therapy, Lexapro, Wellbutrin, and Xanax were instrumental in helping me return to normal. You’ve found a cite that disagrees with that, and you’ll characterize my response is the same as a Born Again Christian.
That speaks more about you than it does about me.
What you are saying is dismissing what I’ve been through as bullshit…take a placebo, take a walk, breathe through the pain.
I have had the direct benefit of the medication you’re dismissing. I have seen it work on my Wife. It’s the equivalent statement of a movie star saying she thinks DipTet shots cause ADHD.
You don’t seem to understand the purpose of testing. Your comment about the money spent on drugs that weren’t approved as wasted was wrong. The tests that kept unsafe or ineffective drugs off the market was money well spent.
If you comments show you didn’t read the article, then how why should I stop posting it when the article already addressed your points. You should address why you think the article was wrong or incomplete.
When the people doing the testing have a financial incentive not to find problems, then it doesn’t matter how much you spend.
Just you wait. I took no prescription drugs at all until I was 57, then they discovered a heart problem, and now I’m on three. I had half my thyroid removed about 18 years ago, and only went on synthroid 3 years ago also.
Not if she isn’t asking for help. She is asking him for a prescription for pills. Theodore Dalrymple is the pen name for Doctor Anthony Daniels who has spent years working as a physician in Africa and in the hospitals in the worst slums in Britain and in their prisons. He has spent countless hours caring for criminals and their victims. I really want people to read what he is saying instead of something I try to summarize in a couple of sentences.
Antidepressants are a misnomer. The are designed to deal with specific chemical issues. If you don’t actually have a chemical issue, then they placebos with possible dangerous side effects.
Don’t think anyone is debating you on that…what we ARE debating you on is: There are a lot of folks dealing with depression where they are NOT ‘acting as a placebo’. Or prescribed without merit.
You are describing that what causes of your depression as external. There is no indication that antidepressants will actually help in those circumstances. Did you have any tests to indicate that your Serotonin levels were low or some other problems that the antidepressants could actually help?
So…I read your article. I have a hard time correlating the Evil lower-class people he’s talking about to my life.
Blood tests for low sertonin? Nope. It wasn’t necessary. And a cursory google backs me up:
Look…it is not my life’s goal to convince you…but what you are saying, with a single cite, is misinformed. You have a host of people disagreeing with you, many are the result of successful treatment of mental conditions where medication was part of the process.
Clinical depression, where the source is a host of external situations, IS a real condition.
You’re giving us an article on ‘Evil people doing evil things’. Its a discussion on prisoners and deadbeat dads and ‘torture chambers run by drug dealers’ fer chrissakes.
Depression is not caused by low serotonin levels. It is what happens when there is a malfunction or disruption in the serotonin reuptake process, and that can happen with low levels of serotonin, high levels of serotonin, or perfectly normal levels of serotonin.*
We know a few things can cause disruption in the serotonin reuptake process, including life stressors. So it’s entirely accurate to say that stressful events can cause Depression. Will they always? No. It’s accurate to say that a fall was the cause of a broken hip, but not all falls will result in a broken hip.
What we don’t know (unlike broken hips from falls) is what, exactly, all the contributing factors to Depression are. We know that genetics plays a part. We suspect that nutrition and general activity level play a part. But we don’t know if maybe there’s a viral component, or a meme component, or maybe something else no one has thought of. Someday, we may know what all the contributing factors of Depression are, and then we’ll be able to say why you can go through horrible things and never develop Depression and someone else can’t.
Until then, dismissing the experiences and medical conditions of those with Depression is exactly like jeering at a 92 year old 85 pound Asian woman with osteoporosis and telling her that her hip can’t possibly be broken for reals, because you tripped and fell on that curb yesterday and *your *hip is fine.
*ETA: At least, that’s one scenario in which we can see Depression. There are others.
