We have so much more than our forebears. But I remember the study that found 10x increase in depression since 30s in US.
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My suspicion is that SSRIs do virtually nothing, at least for a lot of people. But Valium can create monsters.
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Some drugs apparently help in the right circumstances, some make things worse… there's the full range there.
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The biggest problem is that human ignorance and diagnostic incompetence multiply risk factors. It's pointless to compare controlled studies-
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w/real life, where doctors are worse than chance at diagnosing correctly, don't understand false positives, and are lobbied to push drugs.
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Drugs are theoretically useful, but the notion that they don't cause more harm than good comes from failing to recognize bounded rationality
It's great if your drug passes all trials, but doctors don't have the luxury of hiring a lab - and pharmacovigilance exists for a reason.
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The human body can take 20+ years to manifest really critically adverse drug effects. Drugs are developed over 5-10 years typically.
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