Anybody want to answer some questions for an article I'm writing?

[stargurl*]

As you may already know, I'm writing a magazine article (for school) about antidepressants, focusing on contemporary attitudes towards these medications and the experiences of young people who have taken them. This is not a scientific survey, but simply a survey of attitudes and opinions.

I would appreciate it if you'd take the time to fill out this survey. I know that some of the questions on this survey are fairly personal in nature--if you wish, you mail email your responses to me privately at aimee@uwo.ca.

There are two sections of this survey. The first is a general set of questions that everyone can answer, the second is a set of questions for people who have taken antidepressants before. Please complete the section(s) that apply to you.

Please note that by completing this survey, you may be quoted in my article. If you do not wish to have your real name attatched to any quotes and would prefer to use a pseudonym, please let me know. If you do not wish to be quoted at all, please let me know.

General questions

1. What is your full name? Where do you live? How old are you?

2. What is your current employment status (ie student, full-time employee, not currently employed, etc)?

3. What is the highest level of education that you have completed (ie high school, some university, community college, etc)?

4. The majority of people see antidepressant medications as miracle cures. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

5. Depression can be treated successfully through the use of antidepressants alone. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

6. Physicians are often eager to prescribe antidepressant medications without much concern for the underlying cause or making a proper diagnosis. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

7. Antidepressant medications are overprescribed. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

8. Do you agree with the rebranding of antidepressant medications to treat different disorders? (ie Wellbutrin marketed as the smoking cessation aid Zyban; Prozac marketed as a medication for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder)

9. Are you aware that antidepressants can cause fairly serious side effects?

10. Are you aware that people treated with antidepressants often experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking the medication?

Questions for people who have taken antidepressants before

1. When did you take an antidepressant medication for the first time? Which medication(s) did you take? How long did you remain on the medication? Have you been treated with antidepressants or other psychotropic medications since then? If so, which medications?

2. Did you find that these medications impacted your emotions or behaviour in a positive or negative way?

3. Were you warned about the side effects of this/these medication(s)? Did you experience any side effects that you were not warned about? Do you feel that your doctor(s) did an adequate job of explaining all possible side effects?

4. Were the side effects that you experienced unpleasant? Were they severe enough to make you consider discontinuing this medication against medical advice? Did you ever stop taking this/these medication(s) against medical advice?

5. Did you experience any withdrawal symptoms when you stopped taking this medication? Had you been informed that withdrawal symptoms are a fairly common occurance?

6. Overall, did you find your experience with antidepressants to be positive or negative? Why?

Once again, thank you for your time.

Aimee

 

[Bass-Invader]

I'm no expert on this, I have some experience with people who have needed these drugs, but again, far from an expert seeing as I have not had to take them myself and can only give the view of an observer. I apologize if any of my responses sound ignorant.

General questions

1. What is your full name? Where do you live? How old are you?
Check my ICQ details.

2. What is your current employment status (ie student, full-time employee, not currently employed, etc)?
Student, full-time, computer science software engineering, year 4.

3. What is the highest level of education that you have completed (ie high school, some university, community college, etc)?
look up.

4. The majority of people see antidepressant medications as miracle cures. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

Not so much miracle cures, but in many cases the only course of action. They aren't a solution so much as a treatment, a coping mechanism.

5. Depression can be treated successfully through the use of antidepressants alone. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

No, but it can help a great deal. The drain of energy depression creates on a person, the feeling of self-worthlessness, and of being beyond create a catch-22. The person may require counselling but will refuse because they don't see themselves worthy of help, and will push away their friends who try to help. A chemical treatment can sometimes lower these symptoms and open the person up to some other forms of treatment.

6. Physicians are often eager to prescribe antidepressant medications without much concern for the underlying cause or making a proper diagnosis. Do you agree or disagree? Why?

I disagree with this, and it is unfortunate. It would seem that lineups for physicians of the mental kind are always incredibly long. This means that these doctors do not have much time with each patient and it seems that just throwing drugs at the people is the quickest solution when they haven't the time. This of course has created a feeling of distrust for these doctors amongst their patients.

7. Antidepressant medications are overprescribed. Do you agree or disagree? Why?
look up.

8. Do you agree with the rebranding of antidepressant medications to treat different disorders? (ie Wellbutrin marketed as the smoking cessation aid Zyban; Prozac marketed as a medication for Premenstrual Dysphoric Disorder)

If it works for the different disorder, it really doesn't matter to me what it's called.

9. Are you aware that antidepressants can cause fairly serious side effects?

Yes, this poses the problem where people who take them become hateful towards all antidepressants when they happen to start on one which reacts negativley upon them. Some people respond particularly bad to some, and better to others, but after having one bad reaction refuse to try another.

10. Are you aware that people treated with antidepressants often experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop taking the medication?

Yes, but sometimes medication is the only recourse. What else can we do at the current time if regular counselling has failed?

Questions for people who have taken antidepressants before

 

[Rosey]

FYI odds are once the D sees this he'll erase the thread and possibly ban your ass. just so you know. he's sorta picky about this kinda thing.

 

[stargurl*]

Why? As I said, this is an article for school. I'm not writing this article for publication.

I'm taking a course called Writing for Publication and a "magazine article" is one of our assignments, but it's only for the class.

If I was writing an article for a magazine, there's no way I'd post on another magazine's board to do research. Actually, I wouldn't be doing research on message boards at all.

 

[Spinsah]

Originally posted by Rosey
FYI odds are once the D sees this he'll erase the thread and possibly ban your ass. just so you know. he's sorta picky about this kinda thing.

Come on...that's just ridiculous.

If Pest has been allowed to run rampant on this board then there's no way that Amiee's gonna get her 'ass banned'.

 

[stargurl*]

Actually Spence, the D had deleted this post accusing me of "market research" and writing the "article" for another magazine.

 

[Bass-Invader]

Originally posted by stargurl*
Actually Spence, the D had deleted this post accusing me of "market research" and writing the "article" for another magazine.

how did it come back?

 

[stargurl*]

I have no idea.

I was just doing a search and it came up

 

[alexd]

It was not deleted. but running surveys on this site is not recommended as I indicated to you in an email.

 

[stargurl*]

alexd wrote on 03-16-2002 06:45 PM:
A couple of issues I have with your antidepressant post.

- It looks too much like market research to me.

- The other magazine this is for should run ads for you to recruit these people you want to research. I don't want it on the board and I am going to delete it.

What's that about not deleting anything?

 

[alexd]

if you are reading it on the board it is not deleted. it dropped down the hierarchy because nobody responded to it. in fact it was dying quitely until you resurected it so now it will be closed.

Surveys are not allowed on the board. Read the registration rules.

School project or not, if one survey is allowed on the board I have to allow everyone else to do it and I am not going to.