This is the sort of book you wish your doctor would read.

It looks holistically at depression considering the biomedical model (i.e. there is something wrong with your body and in particular your brain) as well as psychosocial factors, lifestyle changes and other environmental influences. Is It Me or My Med

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

s is penned by David Karp, who has long term depression and anxiety. He interviewed 50 people (including teens) with major depression and manic depression to gauge their attitudes about taking antidepressants and dealing with depression and the stigma around it.

Why people take antidepressants
C

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

mmonly accepted wisdom is that depression is caused by a biochemical balance in the brain which can be helped by taking antidepressants. Not everyone accepts this hypothesis. Some believe that depression and other mental illnesses can be fixed through meditation, counselling or other types of therapy, dietar

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

changes, exercise or sheer willpower.

According to an anonymous academic who blogs here http://clinpsyc.blogspot.com Please. There may well be brain issues in people with various “mental illnesses,” but this whole ‘chemical imbalance’ thing is 95% marketing, 5% science. Find a serious scientist who will

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

tep up to the mic (sic) and tell us about the definitive chemical imbalance that causes bipolar, schizophrenia, or much of anything else in the mental disorder world.

While there were many people that resisted medication there were some who welcomed it with relief. Many patients were anxious for anything th

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

t might grant them some relief from unrelenting feelings of sadness, worthlessness and at times suicidal ideation.

Individuals reported varying degrees of success with antidepressants. For some, taking medications were a lifesaver that enabled them to feel more confident, overcome feelings of hopelessness a

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

d get on with life. However large numbers of people reported dissatisfaction with the side-effects of meds, failure of the meds to work effectively, gained only short-term relief from antidepressants or felt ostracised by being labelled as someone who needed to take psychotropic medications.

There were seve

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

al patients who refused to take meds, or found themselves hopeful that they would one day be able to wean themselves off antidepressants. Overall, the majority of patients interviewed did not like taking meds for depression, bipolar or anxiety.

This attitude is also reflected in the attitude of the author,

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

ho has tried unsuccessfully to withdraw from taking antidepressants and antianxiolytic meds.

The people interviewed referred to searching for identity and not knowing whether the self on drugs is the ‘normal’ person or the one off drugs. Many felt pressure to conform to society’s expectation of normalcy.

T

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

e book includes a quote from Francis Fukuyama:

There is a disconcerting symmetry between Prozac and Ritalin. The former is prescribed for depressed women lacking in self-esteem; it gives them more of the alpha-like feelings that comes with high serotonin levels. Ritalin on the other hand, is pr

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

scribed largely for young bots who do not want to sit still in class because nature never designed them to behave that way.

How your relationship with your doctor affects you
It was also evident throughout the book that the relationship of the individual to their health profession

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

l made a substantial difference. In situations where the individual felt that the health professional listened to their needs and offered trustworthy advice, patients were more likely to take meds and more likely to have success with them.

In this respect the placebo effect of medications was influenced not

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

only by the knowledge that they were taking meds for their depression but also by their trust in the Health Professional prescribing the meds.

Married to antidepressant meds
The author has a wonderful quote on taking meds:

an unexpected relationship will become permanent

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

He uses this quote (from a fortune cookie) as an analogy to taking meds. He suggests that many people are encouraged to take meds as a temporary measure not realising that for some they will need to be on antidepressants for the rest of their life – either because the illness is too severe or because the w

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

thdrawal symptoms of stopping are too painful.

Doctors encourage patients to take meds likening the antidepressants to treatments for diabetes or headaches. However there is one critical difference - antidepressants are mind altering substances.

In my experience with doctors they are all reading from the s

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

me script. They all want you to believe that antidepressants are better than the alternative. I’m not convinced that is always the case. From my own personal experience the side-effects of meds often outweigh the benefits.

Do the drugs really work?
The author points out many of these drugs are r

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

latively new. While they have been tested and found safe this is only within the parameters of their testing. If a drug has only been around for 10 years there is no way to know what it’s long term effect may be on someone who needs to take that med for another 50 years.

For many the improvement from antide

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

ressants is only slightly greater than the placebo effect. According to one study of SSRI antidepressants http://content.apa.org/journals/pre/5/1/23

Approximately 80% of the response to medication was duplicated in placebo control groups, and the mean difference between drug and placebo was appr

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

ximately 2 points on the 17-item (50-point) and 21-item (62-point) Hamilton Depression Scale.

There were many patients interviewed in the book who had little or no relief from the prescribed antidepressants or find the side-effects unpalatable.

The book is sympathetically written and will be h

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

lpful for people feeling isolated, confused or curious about anti-depressants. It is ideal for anyone who has ever considered taking medications for depression or other mental illnesses. It would also be useful for anyone who has colleagues or loved ones with depression, bipolar (manic depression) or anxiety

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products