While I cannot argue with the short-term use of atypicals for treating depression,

huh?? did you mean to say that?? I can't imagine any time an atypical would be good for depression. Atypicals are by their very nature depresssing They sedate the hell out of you and depress cognition if nothing else.

Did you mean mania? I can see allowing for extremely short term use for acute manic and psychotic states, but that's as far as I can imagine them being used legitimately.

Depression? Never.

yes i actually did mean to say what i said. i think anti-psychotics can be useful for some people who are suicidally depressed and agitated beyond all measure. once upon a time, they were used by psych docs to treat just such a situation but with the injunction that they only be used for a couple of days in order to get whomever off the floor or ceiling as it were. now the atypicals are being pushed for long term use, ie, 'prevention,' and the distinction i am tryign to make is that atypicals have their place in very short term use, but that they are almost worthless longer term.

agitated depression, okay. yes that can be dangerous--i suppose it could be argued such a state is a "mixed" state. I wouldn't call that simply depression.

Brief use for psychotic depression, maybe. Anything else, no way.

And AstraZeneca has already indicated they are going after generalized anxiety disorder and, it appears, depression, for Seroquel.

4% prevalence rate for bipolar -- that's setting the bar low. Lilly pegged it (and maybe still does) at 6% when they were promoting Zyprexa. As for any having any basis in reality, well, marketing is based on what you can convince others to believe, not what is actually true.

Happy New Year, Philip.

The problem with treating any of the "disorders" of the DSM is that they don't actually exist. They are names given to grouped observed behaviors.

The APA admits they don't know what causes these disorders.

Where does one end and another begin. How would you correctly decide how to treat someone with more than one disorder?

There is circumstantial evidence that depression is an outcome of Subliminal Distraction exposure. There is no drug capable of treating this problem. It is a form of operant conditioning.

There is no recognition of this phenomenon and no drug testing eliminates this exposure when evaluating drugs.

The seminal case for this exposure as a cause of depression is the mass insanity event on the Belgian Polar Expedition of 1898.

Seroquel XR- March 07.

Seroquel has short term use qualities; long term, it's no good. But, as most of the literature states, nothing is really measured beyond a 6 week trial. It's up to the patient to learn and identify what drug works for them, just like Tylenol vs. Advil.

It's an informed consumer that knows how to use this stuff. It's the little kids like Rebecca Riley, dead at age 4 who we need to focus on here.

The watered-down DSM bullshit is going to kill/injure a much larger innocent population than the ones commenting here.

They just added Seroquel to my med mix for anxiety.

Doc didn't even care that I said diabetes ran in the family and I am scared to take this med. Just take it and be a good girl.Then he gave me a box of samples to get me started for a New Years Present.

I hate docs and I hate meds.

Susan,
Read the stuff at the Last Psychiatrist on Seroquel before you take it. You may decide to try some benedryl instead.

Good luck and best wishes. I too, hate docs and hate meds. I avoid both like the plague. I'm trying to get better at "yessing" them. It's a matter of self preservation, I think.