The best antidepressant

[Starjumper]

This was mistakenly posted in the Healing Circle forum, but it belongs here.

 

This isn't for me, it's for a young healer who is here as a volunteer.  

 

Back in the sixties and early seventies there was an antidepressant that was completely effective and safe.  In fact it was so good for people that some nutritionists were calling it a superfood.

 

Then the patent expired and it became generic,  The drug pushers don't like competition so they invented new antidepressants which are horrible in every way.  I suppose most everyone here knows about that.

 

Then, of course, the drug pushers pay their doctors to push the new patented high price drug and forget about the previous one, which the doctors happily do because their whole mode of work goes against the principles of do no harm.

 

As far as I know the original generic drug should still be available although it may be hard to find.

 

SO, the million dollar question here is this:  "What is the name of that original antidepressant"

[Kar3n]

1 hour ago, Starjumper said:

SO, the million dollar question here is this:  "What is the name of that original antidepressant"

Was it a prescription drug or a type of food? 

 

One of the first Rx antidepressants was isoniazid, an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis.

[silent thunder]

  I'm intrigued.

 

This class of Tetracyclic antidepressants emerged in the 50's mostly for anxiety and eating disorders it seems.

 

Here's an alphabetical list of Tetracyclics, if any ring a bell.

Although you said nutritional and superfood... so back to duck duck go

 

 

[Starjumper]

9 hours ago, Kar3n said:

Was it a prescription drug or a type of food? 

 

One of the first Rx antidepressants was isoniazid, an antibiotic used to treat tuberculosis.

 

It is a prescription drug, which is why it had the patented/generic transition.  I have a twenty or more years old newsletter which tells about it but that is in a box somewhere in Seattle.  Some day I'll get back there and look for it.

Edited May 6, 2019 by Starjumper

[Starjumper]

On 5/5/2019 at 11:28 PM, silent thunder said:

  I'm intrigued.

 

This class of Tetracyclic antidepressants emerged in the 50's mostly for anxiety and eating disorders it seems.

 

Here's an alphabetical list of Tetracyclics, if any ring a bell.

Although you said nutritional and superfood... so back to duck duck go

 

Do you know if there were antidepressants before that?

 

I was thinking that so many people come here with depression that if they knew about the old fashioned medicine it could provide better results.

 

I had a buddy in Seattle who used to go to lots of free clinics and talk them into giving him all kinds of mood altering drugs, and I saw him a couple of times when he really was acting weird, you could see the the drugs were really hurting him.

Edited May 7, 2019 by Starjumper

[silent thunder]

1 hour ago, Starjumper said:

 

Do you know if there were antidepressants before that?

I found out that in the 40-50's the majority of what folks were seeking relief from their GP for was anxiety according to records.  Depression was not really on the radar.  Though that shifted throughout the 60's and by the 70's prescriptions for anti-depressives began to exceed anxiety for the first time 18 million to 13 million respectively.

 

Perhaps the hangover from WW2 and the Cold War 50's had folks more generally anxious, not even relaxed enough to be depressed.  Or as the following article outlines, perhaps it was due to mis-assumptions by doctors and lack of clear diagnosing guidelines.

 

Hoping to find the natural option you mentioned, I searched for depression treatments used in the 60's, instead of searching specifically for anti-depressents.  No luck with any descriptions of natural treatment options back then, but this article titled How an Age of Anxiety became and Age of Depression has quite a bit of information about various treatments from the 40's going forward and the approach doctors had with patients, particularly regarding how diagnosis shifted in the field as a whole and more stringent standards were demanded and developed.  This coincided with the shift from general anxiety to depression.

 

1 hour ago, Starjumper said:

 

I was thinking that so many people come here with depression that if they knew about the old fashioned medicine it could provide better results.

 

I had a buddy in Seattle who used to go to lot's of free clinics and talk them into giving him all kinds of mood altering drugs, and I saw him a couple of times when he really was acting weird, you could see the the drugs were really hurting him.

 

I'll do some more digging today after I evict the ghosts of Jacob's Ladder who moved into my head lol and perhaps focus on natural treatments in Europe that may have been adopted here after the war.

[rideforever]

Any good ?

 

First generation antidepressants 
 
TCAs and MAOIs 
 
The discovery of antidepressants could be described as a ‘lucky accident’. During the 1950s, while 
carrying out trials on a new medication for tuberculosis (TB), researchers noticed that the 
medication also had a mood improving effect. 
 
This initial discovery led to the creation of two classes of first generation antidepressants: 
 
Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs), of which the most widely used type was: 
 
Amitriptyline 
Dosulepin 
Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs),of which the two most widely used types were: 
 
Moclobemide 
Phenelzine. 
Both TCAs and MAOIs proved to be effective in treating depression, but they did cause a wide range 
of side effects, which were often unpleasant. These included: 
 
constipation, 
sweating, 
shaking or trembling, and 
difficulty sleeping.

[thelerner]

might be fun to do a line of research:

Not the singular drug/food looked for but worthwhile nonetheless:

Intelligent diet is a powerful tonic, not a cure all but like regular exercise aids you a 1,000 ways. 

<addon>> Thats not to belittle anti-depressants role in mental health care.  Telling a clinically depressed person to eat more Watercress isn't very helpful.  Finding the right anti-depressant pill can be a godsend, but it's tricky.  

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6147775/

"Table 2

Antidepressant foods

Antidepressant animal foods	AFS range	Antidepressant plant foods	AFS range
Oyster	56%	Watercress	127%
Liver and organ meats (spleen, kidneys, or heart)	18%-38%	Spinach	97%
Poultry giblets	31%	Mustard, turnip, or beet greens	76%-93%
Clam	30%	Lettuces (red, green, romaine)	74%-99%
Mussels	28%	Swiss chard	90%
Octopus	27%	Fresh herbs (cilantro, basil, or parsley)	73%-75%
Crab	24%	Chicory greens	74%
Goat	23%	Pummelo	69%
Tuna	15%-21%	Peppers (bell, serrano, or jalapeno)	39%-56%
Smelt	20%	Kale or collards	48%-62%
Fish roe	19%	Pumpkin	46%
Bluefish	19%	Dandelion greens	43%
Wolffish	19%	Cauliflower	41%-42%
Pollock	18%	Kohlrabi	41%
Lobster	17%	Red cabbage	41%
Rainbow trout	16%-17%	Broccoli	41%
Snail or whelk	16%	Brussels sprouts	35%
Spot fish	16%	Acerola	34%
Salmon	10%-16%	Butternut squash	34%
Herring	16%	Papaya	31%
Emu	16%	Lemon	31%
Snapper	16%	Strawberry	31%

Open in a separate window

AFS: Antidepressant food score.

Table 3

Food categories and mean antidepressant food score

Food category	Mean AFS
Vegetables	48%
Organ meats	25%
Fruits	20%
Seafood	16%
Legumes	8%
Meats	8%
Grains	5%
Nuts & seeds	5%
Dairy	3%

AFS: Antidepressant food score.

DISCUSSION

To our knowledge, The Antidepressant Food Score (AFS) is the first nutrient profiling system created to inform dietary recommendations concerning mental health. This evidence-based approach is unique in that it is based on Antidepressant Nutrient density. That is, nutrients considered have been shown in human studies to be beneficial with regards to treatment or prevention of depressive disorders. Our findings include a list of individual foods as well as food rankings within categories that can be incorporated in the design of subsequent research studies or recommended to patients as part of a healthy dietary pattern of their choosing.

 

Interestingly, many foods with a high AFS are not commonly eaten as part of the Western dietary pattern. Specifically, the majority of the United States adult population does not meet daily recommendations for vegetables. The Healthy People 2010 initiative aimed to increase vegetable consumption of adults and found that only 27.2 percent ate three of more servings of vegetables per day[30]. Average annual seafood intake for Americans is 14.6 pounds, and the USDA estimates that 80-90 percent of the population fails to meet the recommendation of two servings of seafood per week[31].

 

On the contrary, top scoring foods on the AFS; seafood, leafy greens, cruciferous vegetables, and nuts are commonly consumed as part of a variety of traditional diets. The Mediterranean dietary pattern is but one example of a consistent pattern: traditional diets contain more nutrient dense foods and fewer highly processed foods. The evidence linking dietary patterns and depressive disorders supports the consumption of a whole-foods based traditional diet as opposed to a Western dietary pattern to prevent and promote recovery from depression. This emerging literature provides some external validity to the results of the AFS while our study serves to identify what some of the “active ingredients” of these traditional diets may be.

 

Selecting foods based on nutrient density is one way to meet daily nutrient requirements without consuming excessive calories, which may have benefits beyond mental health[32]."

 

 

 

Edited May 6, 2019 by thelerner

[3bob]

Read this Dr., he describes in medical detail how early and more recent variations of so called anti-depressants have very seriously damaged and done much worse to people - almost solely  in the name of profit and power.

So don't swallow the pills and the lies to begin with and if you did then be very careful about weaning off of them since withdrawal can be very dangerous.

 

"Peter R. Breggin MD is a Harvard-trained psychiatrist and former Consultant at NIMH and for the FAA. He is known as “The Conscience of Psychiatry” for his many decades of successful efforts to reform the mental health field. His work provides the foundation for modern criticism of psychiatric diagnoses and drugs, and it also leads the way in promoting more caring and effective therapies. His research and educational projects have brought about major changes in the FDA-approved Full Prescribing Information, or labels, for dozens of antipsychotic and antidepressant drugs. He continues to educate the public and professions about the tragic psychiatric drugging of America’s must vulnerable citizens including women, children, and the elderly.

Dr. Breggin’s earliest reform efforts in the 1970s brought an almost complete stop to lobotomy and psychosurgery in the Western World. Then in the 1990s, he and his wife Ginger prevented a federal eugenics project on the nation’s inner-city children. Both his anti-lobotomy and their anti-eugenics campaigns are described in his book co-authored with Ginger, The War Against Children of Color, as well as in many scientific articles. "

Edited May 10, 2019 by 3bob

[Pavel Karavaev]

On 06.05.2019 at 5:52 PM, thelerner said:

Watercress 127%
 Spinach 97%

Interesting. Maybe that's why I like these products so much.
Recently, I ate spinach every day for several days in a row, and noticed that my organism seemed to be happy to receive such food!