(CNN) – When Robert F. Kennedy Jr. answered a question about his position In antidepressant In the recent confirmation hearing of the US Senate, he sparked a discussion on whether the drug was as addictive as the drugs that were generally abused.
“I know people, including family members who are far worse than SSRI than people get off in heroin.” Kennedy said January 29 hearing Antidepressant Selected as a selective serotonin reorganization inhibitors. Kennedy told the committee members that he had been addicted to Heroin for 14 years when he was young and recovered for 42 years.
Is the antidepressant addictive? The short answer is an expert who talks with CNN.
There are differences between the (addictive) drugs and the dependence on the drug that treats mental health disorders, they said.
In fact, and what Kennedy appears at the hearing is that some people experience difficult withdrawal symptoms when they terminate the antidepressant. The reason is that there are several reasons, but not because it is addicted to the antidepressant.
Dr. Gail Saltz, a professor of psychiatric professor of Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City, said that it is also important for us to communicate with the drug in order not to contribute to the stigma that can prevent people from being helped with mental health problems.
Josef Wit-Doerring, a psychiatrist and co-founder of TaperClinic, a private practice based on Palm Desert, said, “It is true, but the context is important.”
Wint Doerring said, “If you don’t know it well, you may doubt that you will have more difficult time than you listen to it. “And it is not true. It is for those who are very vulnerable to withdrawal. It’s a lot. ”
Therefore, it is also important to admit various experiences of antidepressants when making treatment decisions, Witt-doerring said.
CNN contacted the Ministry of Health and Welfare to ask Kennedy for opinions.
Drug addictive
Experts say that addictive drugs start with each neurological chemical characteristics and functions, experts say.
All addictive drugs Dr. Keith Humphreys, who studied addiction as a professor of psychiatric and behavioral science in California, California, provides intense rewards through dopamine systems in the brain, including heroin and other opioids, cocaine and alcohol. This reward is intensive compared to other rewards that humans enjoy, such as eating when you are hungry, hugging your baby, warm when it’s cold, or having sex when you wake up.
“Addictive drugs can produce large spikes in dopamine. Humphrey said. “This is why the brain is likely to kidnap the brain. ‘Wow, this should be really important. It is more important than eating and caring for my baby. ‘”
Humphreys said, “This is a completely different mechanism from the way the antidepressant works. The selective serotonin is mainly Serotonin.
“They are increasing their time spending on brain synapses,” he added. The antidepressant achieves it by inhibiting reorganization or absorption of serotonin by the synaptic nerve ending that secretes it.
Humphreys said, “Honestly, the reason why I can’t understand is helpful for many people to be better with mood and anxiety.
Anti -Ululje does not reward people or give the best of the world. They help most people feel more stably. Thus, Dr. RAGY GIRGIS, a clinical psychiatrist professor at Columbia University in New York, said the drug was “pure therapeutic.” “They have no actual abuse potential. People will not desire them. ”
Addictive properties, thus craving refer to another major difference between addictive drugs and antidepressants.
The former said, “It leads to repeated participation in finding and using drugs despite the results,” said Humphreys. It comes with the feeling that you can’t control consumption. This feelings are compulsive about what to do when people who are addicted to drugs, how effective when they use the next hit, and what they need to do when they get the next hit.
Experts said that the behavior that pursues such compensation and health problems that can cause drugs can interfere with individual functions until the time of the destruction of their lives at work or at home or socially. And as time goes by, given the tendency of brain resistance to the drug, people can reach the best as they first experienced using more and more money.
People can experience less rewards because of natural experiences such as eating or having sex. All these patterns are why addiction is clinically known. Drug disorder.
On the other hand, antidepressants help many people feel more stably, improve their lives, and sometimes help to overcome material use disorders.
When people suffer from drugs, symptoms can generally include stirring, diarrhea, nausea, sweat, chills, stomach cramps, muscle pain, tremors, appetite changes, sweating, fatigue, depression, vomiting, seizure and intense desire. The deaths caused by withdrawal such as related seizures or heart failure are also possible, especially when someone stops taking the drug.
Anti -Ulje withdrawal tells the drug
Therefore, why do some people have difficulty getting off if an antidepressant addict is not addictive?
Humphreys said there is a difference between dependence and addiction. All dependence means that the body has been adjusted by a person repeatedly taken by a human being, which means that it has been adjusted by a person repeatedly drunk so that it can suffer from withdrawal syndrome, which is the opposite of the influence of the drug. People can withdraw from various things they consume, even if they are not drugs.
Saltz said that antidepressants that prevent the brain from re -absorbing the serotonin are causing the level of chemicals. In this environment, some of the serotonin producers in the brain can be reduced. If you quit the drug, ideally will return to a normal amount of receptor, but the brain may need time to adjust. If the brain does not adapt to the same speed as reducing drug intake, it can cause withdrawal symptoms such as dizziness, headache, nausea, insomnia and irritability.
Most people who take antidepressants will not experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop drugs, experts said. But the amount you do is 15% In 2024 researchHumphreys reached 33%.
One of the embarrassing symptoms is that many patients call it “brain zaps.” This is a feeling of electric shock to the spine or in the brain. Symptoms usually last a few weeks to six months.
But for many years or decades, “There are hundreds of thousands of people who are called long-term withdrawal, and can be interpreted as up to 10%of long-term antidepressant users, Witt-doerring said. Some of these people go into acute forbidden, accompanied by ears, light sensitivity, digestion, serious anxiety and cognitive impairment.
Wint-Doerring said, “Many people risked their lives because they could commit suicide because they could be extreme.
Otherwise, other experts said that they could not die by withdrawal of antidepressants.
Some of the people who mobilized these symptoms were mobilized and led the UK’s national health services to add “long -term withdrawal” to the official medical terminology database in 2023. As a result, doctors can make a record of patients who have experienced patients and better collect information about symptoms and treatment. NHS also established a discouraged clinic to allow patients to stop the antidepressants safely.
Some people have no reason to experience withdrawal, but others are unknown, but there are some solid predictors, experts said. All withdrawals occur when a person who uses an antidepressant suddenly suddenly stop taking it for at least for at least a few months. It is too common for the patient to do so without talking with a doctor after deciding that he no longer wants to take the medicine. Drug doses are also important.
But service providers regularly occur for people who procure the patient too quickly within a one to three months, Witt Doerring said. Some people can do it in this way according to the period of drug treatment, but I think it is best to tap the WITT Doering for more than 9 to 18 months.
Witt-doerring may have genetic or biological factors that make people very sensitive, Witt-doerring said. But most people added that if they are completed properly, they can escape the antidepressant without problems.
Saltz said, “RFK JR. Or will not argue with others. ” It is always a perfect experience to prohibit antidepressants, but “compared with the withdrawal of illegal drugs is not a fair comparison in two sums of physiological, psychological or effects on your life and welfare.”
Humphreys is concerned about taking antidepressants because of the concern about what can happen if I decide to end later, “I don’t know if I will benefit without trying, and there’s no risk of trying.” “Depression is a rotten experience, so I commit wrong in terms of attempts.”
The antidepressant added that it could not work for everyone or the first attempt could not work for you. Record the side effects that can be patient and share with medical professionals.
“Reality is that for some people, they are a drug that saves life. Literally they do not kill themselves or do not harm themselves. Or they may not kill themselves, but they will destroy their lives. ”
If you already want to take antidepressants and quit, experts said they would only do so.
CNN wire
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