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2024-11-11
I wouldn’t make it to the point where I had dementia without antidepressants, so there’s that.
We have a raging family debate about this going on right now. My brother is an expert in this field. My mom is on escitalopram.
The SSRI escitalopram was associated with the fastest cognitive decline, followed by the SSRIs citalopram and sertraline.
Boy that would some family debate. What's holding her back from switching to others suggested here?
Well, the fact that its a relatively new debate. Also, this is a new article to me. My brother works in the pharmaceutical field as a scientist and medical liaison. He says Trintellex is what she probably needs, seeing as cita/escita are a bad mix with alcohol.
cita/escita are a bad mix with alcohol
How bad though?
How long is a string? Mileage varies by person.
Sure. What's the mechanism of the adverse effects? Alcohol is always bad. Is it just extra taxing on the liver? Or is something specific going on?
Neuro scientists say any amount of alcohol is bad for the brain. My understanding is that alcohol damages dendrites and synapses in the brain.
escitalopram
Of course. The one and only that seems to work for me. Great.
Key paragraph, for anyone wondering which specific drugs are implicated:
The study also points to differences between different drugs. The SSRI [selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor] escitalopram was associated with the fastest cognitive decline, followed by the SSRIs citalopram and sertraline. Mirtazapine, which has a different mechanism of action, had less negative cognitive impact than escitalopram.
The Discussion portion of the paper was pretty interesting. It doesn't jump to any conclusions, emphasizing not confusing correlation and causation. It discusses some limitations to what they were able to learn and that the severity of the impact is relative to the severity of both the depression and the dementia.
Being on escitalopram has still been one of the best things in my life. I don't know if I want to experiment with that. If I'm going to be getting dementia, I'm not sure if getting it slightly sooner or later is going to make much of a difference to me. It's working for what I definitely do have now though.
With the administration discussing getting rid of access to SSRIs, I've been trying to build up a few months backup supply, so I don't want to experiment with finding something new that works as well and potentially be caught with nothing at some point. Life right now is already maxxing out how much depression it can help me deal with. 😱
So you're telling me I can be happy finally but at the same time die not knowing what anything is going on around me? Sign me up.
Antidepressants aren't about making people happy. Happy pills don't exist.
Mine make me happier lol