There are many people who are having problems in dealing with depression and other serious medical problems. Many of those problems may be actually *caused* by medicine taken for those or other problems. What follows is an excerpt from a letter written to a friend in early 1988.
The types of effects I'm talking about are directly caused depression (mild to severe), fatigue (depressing), shortness of breathe (depressing), listlessness (depressing), mood alteration, sexual dysfunction (depressing), emotional changes (depressing), alteration of normal physical functioning (i.e. bodily functions, digestion, etc.). The foregoing list, while tedious (and depressing), is nowhere near complete.
About a year ago I decided to take a more active roll in my physical care. It wasn't that I didn't trust the doctor, but things just didn't seem right. I was in a perpetual state of "angry depression" and was of the strong opinion the game just wasn't worth the candle. I picked up a couple books on medicines and immediately recognized many of the symptoms I had experienced were not "my fault".
A word about depression is in order here. When someone is ill, especially if he is getting on in years ("Is this the END?"), his emotions are naturally at a lowered level. Should he become disabled, then depression is a normal reaction (a double hit). And if that ain't enuff, a stroke victim gets another kick - in much the same manner the physical control area of the brain is damaged, the emotional control area is damaged also. So the stroke victim's otherwise normal/natural ability to handle depression is tangibly impaired. In precisely the same manner I am unable to control my arm or leg, I am unable to control my emotions. Which is the only reason I've HAD to retire. An additional problem for a stroke victim is that he is not told about the emotional control damage, so the emotional roller coaster is considered a mental reaction rather than a physical result. I can go a good deal farther but you get the idea. You can imagine the effect of additional medically induced depression in such a receptive environment.
The truly insidious nature of depression is that it is considered internally (mentally) generated. I can't express the uplift when I realized that many of the physical and emotional problems I was experiencing were not a result of my body failing or mental deterioration, but were directly attributable to the medicine. Upon realizing that, I informed the doctor I was going to take ("seize" might be a better word) an active roll in "medicine approval".
It's a very easy jump from the above to blaming the doctor, but it's a jump in the wrong direction. Consider the following:
1) A doctor has to be able to treat a multiplicity of illnesses and injuries, any one of which could probably be broken down into several specialities.
2) He may have to see as many a hundred patients a week, each of whom may have a different problem or a similar one requiring individual treatment.
3) There are hundreds (thousands) of medicines available for varied treatments (I have been told there are 93 that can affect hypertension alone) that can have widely varying degrees of efficacy in (or effect on) any given individual.
4) Almost no medicine has no side effect. The prevailing hope is the side effects will be relatively benign or at least treatable with complimentary medicine which of course has its own side effects ........
5) Many of the problems mentioned are not the type of thing a person normally talks about easily. The doctor (usually) is too busy (or perceives himself to be) to take the time to probe into the patient's total well being (both physical AND mental). And as a result, doesn't discern any medicinally induced side effects.
Perhaps two recent anecdotes can better serve to illustrate what I mean. After a lengthy series of varying types of hypertension medicine (then currently on about my 15th), I returned to the doctor's office for yet another checkup.
Says me "You don't need that pumpin' machine. I can tell by how well I feel that the blood pressure is right down where it belongs." He checked it anyway (stubborn fella) and sure enough it was right on the money. He literally jumped up and exulted:"We finally got it!" Then as an afterthought "Any side effects?"
Says me "Just a little depression."
Says he "How severe?"
Says me "Well, I'm just about to flip a coin to decide whether to just get in the car and drive off somewhere or get a gun and blow my fucking head off. But I thought I'd talk to you first."
(He turned gray>
Needless to say, we changed therapies yet again. The point is I realized the ***MEDICINE NOT ME*** was at the root of the depression and so was able to handle it. Believe me when I say I was not exaggerating in the least.
Recently, a friend called my wife because she was worried about her father. Normally an extremely active man of 78 (he often uses a moped or a bike for local transportation) he was depressed and listless despite being under a doctor's care, several in fact. It seems last fall, he went to see a local general practitioner about a relatively minor, but potentially serious, physical condition. The doctor prescribed some medicine (side effect - slight depression), but the condition didn't improve. The gp sent him to a specialist who prescribed additional medicines (side effects - slight depression, fatigue, etc.). His daughter became increasingly concerned about his attitude and general malaise so she called the specialist who recommended a psychiatrist. Who sees Dad and prescribes uppers to cure his depression - on top of everything else. By now the poor old guy doesn't know if he is coming or going.
He woke his daughter one night having hallucinations. That's when she called my wife who gave her a couple of our prescription books to read. The old fella soon dropped two doctors, half a dozen pills a day, and returned to his former ebullient pain in the neck. Because he now recognizes that many of his problems are a result of the medicine he is able to handle it and overcome it.
A few weeks ago, there was a series of articles in the ASBURY PARK PRESS regarding the abnormally high rate of suicide in the elderly, which prompted my friend to ponder how large a part medication might play given his recent experience. He contacted Assemblyman S. who professed an interest in looking into it.
There's more but you get the idea. I have come to the conclusion that one's health is entirely too important to be trusted to a doctor unquestionably.
(end of excerpt)
April 1996
For the Record, I'm am currently on my 25th blood pressure medication (and still looking for the "right" one. My doctor tells me I am extraordinarily sensitive (less than 1 in a 100/1000 people are this sensitive).
Just to put how individually affective meds can be, I have been taking minoxydil since 87 or 88, with occasional "drug holidays" to try other drugs for the persistent bp. The worst side effect (for me) has been shortness of breath. I recently called Upjohn (the drug manufacturer) to see what info or suggestions they might have. I was told that Loniten (minoxydil) has been on the market since 1978 and in that time there have been less than *30* reported incidences of shortness of breath. That's out of (tens of?) 1000's of users in that time.
If you think about it, our bodies are really nothing more than an extraordinary complex of intricate chemical reactions that vary (sometimes widely) from individual to individual. What we do when we take medicine is to hopefully alter some of those reactions in a beneficial manner. To be able to predict how an additional chemical (medicine) is going to react within that complex is, at best, trial and error and a matter of averages ("this seems to work in most of my patients").
If anyone out there is taking medicine (no matter what it is) on a regular basis, you should read up on it. It may be having an effect in other areas of your well being you're not aware of.
Keep pluggin everybody.