This topic is something I am most passionate about.  Every lecture I give, every patient I talk to, any chance I have, I discuss this horrible exploitation of human emotion in North America.  Every third American, every third patient in my office is on SSRI’s (antidepressants).  Prozac, Effexor, Zoloft, Paxil, Lexapro…. SSRI prescriptions have skyrocketed over the last decade and so have the pockets of drug companies Prozac alone netted over 180 billion dollars last year in profit.

Let’s break down the words in SSRI:  Selective Seretonin Reuptake Inhibitor.  This means that the drug Selectively Inhibits the receptors sites for Sereotonin blocking its resorption thereby allowing Seretonin to float within the synaptic cleft longer increasing positive affect (mood).

This sounds great on paper doesn’t it? WOW! Here’s what the public here’s from drug companies and then they list some of the side effects but no-one seems to listen because they are so excited about the glory of science and the prospect of an easy solution to their life.  I was molested…take this pill.  I lost my job…..take this pill. I never knew my father….take this pill.  I hate my job…..take this pill.  I hate my wife….take this pill.  I didn’t make the basketball team…take this pill. I’m fat and no-one will go out with me….take this pill. I hate my life!....take this pill.



Antidepressants were initially prescribed only to people with classic clinical depression. Clinical depression is characterized as a mental illness by such symptoms as: inability to get out of bed, inability to feel pleasure of any kind, strong desire to commit suicide and/or actual attempts to do so, dramatic weight changes, inability to accomplish even the simplest of tasks, strong guilt and/or self-hatred, and no interest in anything. Clinical depression as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) is considered to be a rare disease and should only be diagnosed by a licensed psychiatrist.

Today, antidepressants are prescribed by family physicians and general practitioners for all sorts of "off-label" indications. Many times, a patient simply tells their doctor "I'm feeling depressed" and they walk away with a prescription for Prozac. Over 50% percent of the prescriptions filled for antidepressants are for patients who have not received a mental evaluation by any licensed psychiatrist.

This problem is compounded by the fact that too often physicians do not do their due diligence in arriving at diagnoses. Having been in many doctors' offices myself and seen these practices firsthand, I can safely say that things need to change. A patient comes in and says "I've been feeling depressed a lot lately." and the doctor MAYBE asks one or two follow up questions, then writes a prescription or hands out some samples saying "try these."

What is usually not known to the patient is that the drug manufacturer sends sales representatives to go pitch these drugs to the busy physician. It is usually the responsibility of the pharmaceutical rep to keep the doctor's sample cabinet stocked. Often times the physician only knows what the sales reps have told him in their brief encounters, and what he too has seen on television.

So let’s look again at SSRI’s.  It is a drug that blocks Seretonin uptake so that it can remain in the cleft longer allowing the patient to experience “pleasant” emotion longer.  This drug unfortunately has extreme side effects one being depressed mood!  “I thought that’s why I was taking this?!

Significant insomnia affects 15%-20% of patients taking SSRIs, twice the rate with placebo. Polysomnography has consistently found that these drugs cause activation during the night: In addition to insomnia, bruxism (teeth grinding), sweating, and periodic limb movement are common. Vivid dreams and nightmares also occur. With ongoing treatment, increasing numbers of patients report lethargy and fatigue.  Suicide, suicidal or murderous thoughts are a side effect of anti-depressants that have been underplayed and research attention has not been given. I wonder why.  The FDA might have to pull hundreds of billions of dollars of profit, much from its own pockets (a huge percentage of the board on the FDA has a financial interest with big pharma, a topic I will discuss in much greater depth in another article)

There are a lot of data showing that people who sleep poorly are more likely to relapse and that suicide risk is higher.

Sleep problems often require concurrent medication: 22%-34% of patients taking SSRIs also are prescribed sedatives or hypnotics.

Sexual dysfunctions are among the most distressing SSRI side effects. Decreased libido and delayed or absent orgasm are the best known, but there are others. Perhaps the most unexpected SSRI-related problem to emerge has been weight gain, which often begins only after several months of therapy. This side effect has not been shown to be frequent or severe in controlled studies but has been reported to occur in 18%-50% of patients in some open-label studies.  These “controlled” studies are done by drug companies and are also not reporting the almost exact effectiveness of the placebo, “sugar-pill” in comparison to SSRI’s.  Some are even contesting the use of the placebo in trials.....my goodness they are sore losers upset that nothing is almost as good as their product.  I’d be mad too if I was making 200 billion dollars from selling a chemical “nothing” and sugar was beating me.  Long term studies are consistently showing the absolute devastation SSRI’s are causing individuals, families and communities.

All these side effects when there are chemicals out there that one can take that have little or no side-effects and are natural, one being SERETONIN, the neuropeptide that SSRI’s promote!

YES, you can buy seretonin in the store and it’s cheap!  It’s called 5-HTP (5-hydroxytryptophan).  Why don’t doctors prescribe seretonin.  Well most haven’t even heard of it and the ones that have are told in medical and psychology schools that there no regulatory bodies governing the production of seretonin so one should be weary prescribing it!.  I hear this all the time from doctors and it’s disgusts me that they would risk someones health with a medication that has been shown to have little effectiveness and massive side-effects and not give a natural readily available nutrient a chance!  (Please refer to my article of Supplementation for Depression)

Do you know why? They are no tall buildings in metropolitan cities with the name SERETONIN on it but there is MERCK, PFIZER…that is where the money is.  These pharmaceuticals companies can market any product successfully from ingeniously created ads on your television sets and radio channels to bribing your family doctor with nice vacations, buying them swimming pools for their homes and giving them loads of free samples and “their” research they have built an unstoppable force.  These are facts both physiological and political.  I implore you to look it up yourself and research the reality of these poisons before letting anyone you know ruin their chances of a successful life.

I didn’t discuss the importance of therapy in this article mostly because that is a large topic as well and I don’t feel that every psychologist is equipped to deal with depressed people.  I would much rather Tony Robbins work with my patients that someone following the likes of Freud or Jung.

I want to finish with an important bit of research from Duke University which found that 10 Minutes of walking improved mood and positive outlook for two hours, that’s more than Paxil and Zoloft combined!

Tell everyone you know!  Doctor M is on a mission!  Let’s start living our lives and cleansing this amazing human machine with the universal intelligence we have and unleash the power within.

Yours in Health,

- Dr. M