Antidepressants don't work and most of them make you fatter.

So why take them? - It's a no-brainer.

BEFORE you go to the doctor to ask for anti-depressants, consider this research finding, reported in February 2008 in the Telegraph: Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills' by a Hull University team led by Prof Irving Kirsch. - I hope this will save a lot of people having their lives/health damaged by harmful, useless drugs.

MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as being helpful in lifting depression.

Are you on a diet? - Dieting is an often overlooked, but significant cause of depression. Good nutrition is an excellent way to improve your health. Obviously when you are not eating enough for the needs of your body and your brain you will experience both physical and mental harm. - It is not necessary (or desirable, or effective or even safe) to diet to lose weight. The safe, natural way to lose excess weight is to cut down on salt and salty food. Avoid ready meals and takeaways because these are usually highly salted and offer poor nutrition. They are likely to worsen your feelings of depression.
See amitriptyline
And see Sodium in foods

'They' are touting anti-depressants again, despite the fact that they work no better than dummy pills.

BBC News reports that despite only one in seven patients in a study experiencing improvement after 12 weeks, the study leader Professor Tony Kendrick, a GP and researcher at the University of Southampton, said although the National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence wants doctors to restrict SSRIs to the most severe cases, the SSRI drugs should be prescribed for mild to moderate depression and were 'good value for money'.

I wonder why Professor Kendrick says this, when it is so clearly not true? - Fortunately, Dr Tim Kendall, joint director of the National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health, has sensibly pointed out that using drugs for mild to moderate depression doesn't make much sense because of the risk of a lot of side-effects. He advocates psychological therapies.

Remember, Anti-depressants 'no better than dummy pills'

Non-drug therapies for depression include

a walk in the country (recommended by MIND, the mental health charity) and

improving nutrition by avoiding dieting (a well-known cause of depression) and avoiding eating salt and salty food.

Lose weight, reduce your risk of most cancers, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, stroke, heart disease, vascular dementia, osteopenia, osteoporosis, hypercholesterolaemia, depression, liver and kidney problems, and improve your health in many other ways without drugs or expense by eating less salt! - Try it! - You will feel so much better!

See my website http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/.html (The site does not sell anything and has no banners or sponsors or adverts - just helpful information.)

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/steroids.html

http://www.wildeaboutsteroids.co.uk/ami.html

Using electroconvulsive therapy for depression remains controversial. Dr Max Pemberton examines the evidence.

ECT: Doctors don't know how it works, so why use it?

This is an article by Dr Max Pemberton. It gives a largely favourable view of ECT as currently practised. But in my opinion, the most important sentence is the last one. - It states:

"In a 2001 survey for the charity Mind, 36 per cent of people found it helpful in the short term. In the long term however, 63 per cent said it was damaging."

You will gather that my personal opinion is that the brain should not be interfered with in this potentially harmful way.

A safe and effective way to reduce feelings of depression is to optimise nutrition with good healthy meals, and to avoid salt/sodium and foods containing added salt. (Dieting is notorious for causing depression.) MIND, the mental health charity, recommends a walk in the country as a good, safe, non-medical way of lifting depression, more effective than antidepressant drugs, with all their adverse side-effects.