Ahhh, "all the facts", then.
I'm always slightly unnerved by the degree to which US parents seem eager to medicate children whose behaviour isn't just quite right - and the apparent readiness of US psychiatrists to indulge them in this. I'm not sure that parents in the UK are necessarily hugely different (we all like a pharamaceutical solution to our difficulties) but the health service is set up in such a way that this driving medicalisation is at least slightly less extreme/widespread.
Which is by the by, really; Elbereth's post just reminded me of the (narrowing) culture gap.
I've never taken Sertraline myself but I'm certainly aware of its fairly pitiful abuse potential (assuming Elbereth is defining "drugs" as those substances which can produce a pleasant, euphoric or at least interesting effect - and are therefore worth abusing). Like other SSRIs (and, come to that, many other preparations), it can be ground up into powder and snorted or injected. I recall one patient in particular who admitted to injecting himself with powdered Paroxetine and reckoned it produced a near-instantaneous high of modest proportions, with an equally instantaneous comedown - barely worth the hassle of shooting up. SSRIs work by gradually (over two to four weeks) blocking reuptake of serotonin, so I'd guess the abuse effect results from a sort of weak serotonin burst.
Mixing antidepressants with CNS depressants (alcohol, weed, etc.) is always gonna produce odd, unpredictable effects, whether or not one considers oneself to have "fucked up body chemistry". Someone I know mixed Fluoxetine with alcohol and reckoned it felt like "flying": he became manic shortly afterwards, though, and was hospitalised.
Sertraline is fairly bog-standard among SSRIs, really, with no real 'stand-out' effects that I can see. It's more adjustable, dosage-wise, than Fluoxetine and less likely to induce an agitated withdrawal state than Paroxetine. Several of my patients have complained of unpleasant side-effects (dry mouth, tremor, sexual dysfunction) and I guess I tend to view it as somewhat 'dirty' in that regard. |
