One of the most widely used antidepressants has just been implicated in breeding antibiotic resistan

[ravi_iitian]

"Specifically, as researchers from Australia's University of Queensland have just discovered, a drug called fluoxetine - a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), and the key ingredient in antidepressants such as Prozac and Sarafem."

https://www.sciencealert.com/antidepressant-medication-fluoxetine-prozac-may-raise-antibiotic-resist...

[resultsassoc]

As a long-time user of the drug, I believe that death by antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a better option than death by suicide.

[ravi_iitian]

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@Bill H wrote:

As a long-time user of the drug, I believe that death by antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a better option than death by suicide.

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 I agree.

[gilbert-phyllis]

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@Bill H wrote:

As a long-time user of the drug, I believe that death by antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a better option than death by suicide.

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That's not the point. According to the article, fluoxetine is very persistent in the environment and that is where the damage is occurring in terms of triggering antibiotic resistance. In all likelihood, it wouldn't be you that perishes from a superbug, but somebody else. Maybe someone like me, who works hard to avoid using products (like antibacterial soap) that are known or suspected to contribute to this problem, and avoids taking antibiotics unless absolutely necessary.

To be clear, I am NOT suggesting you should discontinue your medication. What we need is more attention and resources focused on understanding and finding solutions to this very serious problem. Meanwhile, having lost an extended family member to a resistant bacterial infection (contracted while in the hospital following completely successful brain surgery), I'm compelled to point out that glib, over-simplified comments that reduce a complex situation to a false dichotomy are simply not useful.

[versailles]

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@Phyllis G wrote:

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I'm compelled to point out that glib, over-simplified comments that reduce a complex situation to a false dichotomy are simply not useful.

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Ah come on, almost all political and societal debates are conducted that way. It does wonders, you can fit an entire issue in just one tweet.

[yitwail]

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@Phyllis G wrote:

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To be clear, I am NOT suggesting you should discontinue your medication. What we need is more attention and resources focused on understanding and finding solutions to this very serious problem. 

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So what's the solution? Test every current and future persistent drug for its effect on antibiotic resistance, and find allternatives for the drugs that do increase antibiotic resistance?

[reinierb]

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@Phyllis G wrote:

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@Bill H wrote:

As a long-time user of the drug, I believe that death by antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a better option than death by suicide.

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To be clear, I am NOT suggesting you should discontinue your medication. What we need is more attention and resources focused on understanding and finding solutions to this very serious problem. 

I'm sorry for your loss, but you clearly don't understand depression in quite the same way that people who suffer from it do. For some, it can get so bad that even thinking about suicide is too much trouble, so I'm with Bill on this- I'd also rather die from a drug resistant disease than from a condition that makes you hover between merely existing and a state of catatonic oblivion. 

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[gilbert-phyllis]

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@Reinier B wrote:

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@Phyllis G wrote:

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@Bill H wrote:

As a long-time user of the drug, I believe that death by antibiotic-resistant bacteria is a better option than death by suicide.

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To be clear, I am NOT suggesting you should discontinue your medication. What we need is more attention and resources focused on understanding and finding solutions to this very serious problem. 

I'm sorry for your loss, but you clearly don't understand depression in quite the same way that people who suffer from it do. For some, it can get so bad that even thinking about suicide is too much trouble, so I'm with Bill on this- I'd also rather die from a drug resistant disease than from a condition that makes you hover between merely existing and a state of catatonic oblivion. 

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I understand depression very well. I understand that decisions about medical care and treatment invariably involve trade-offs. Sometimes that is about weighing side effects and sometimes it's about choosing which risk to mitigate while allowing another to rise. I understand some decisions, e.g. whether or not to vaccinate, involve responsibility for others as well as oneself. Taking fluoxetine is not one of them because nobody is calling for anybody to stop taking it.

The point I tried to make is that recognizing an unintended consequence does not equate with calling for elimination of something that clearly benefits many. The linked article specifically stated, "That doesn't mean that everyone needs to stop taking it immediately; for many people, fluoxetine is a fantastic life-saving medication. However, the study does point to other areas that need to be looked into." 

Nobody's asking Bill or anybody else to change their meds. So why comment as if that's on the table, thereby (often) derailing the conversation into a secondary narrative that is utterly misleading with respect to the original article or essay. I think it's a rhetorical tic, one that I find particularly annoying because it's so common nowadays in the dumpster fire that passes for civic discourse in the U.S. 

Also, I make room for the possibility that I'm developing tics of my own.

[ravi_iitian]

An aspirin a day won't make healthy adults live longer, study shows

“Millions of healthy people take small doses of aspirin regularly in the belief that the drug will prevent heart attacks and strokes. But when researchers looked at more than 19,000 people in Australia and the United States over nearly five years, they found it wasn't so.”

https://www.sciencealert.com/an-aspirin-a-day-won-t-make-healthy-people-live-longer-says-new-study

[versailles]

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@Ravindra B wrote:

An aspirin a day won't make healthy adults live longer, study shows

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 Plus, it's very bad for the stomach.