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valiumland

Texas

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May 3, 2012

valiumland commented on Savage Love.

To cockyballsup-- you make good points. I have to disagree with you that it is not ethically justifiable to take a medication for its placebo effect. In that case, taking any of the newer classes of psychiatric drugs, especially the SSRIs, is not ethically justifiable, because about 80% of their reported efficacy overlaps with that of a placebo. Why this is true is poorly understood, but in fact the placebo effect is present in any medical intervention, pharmacological or otherwise. Does the fact that the patient may well be responding to the act of "doing something" rather than the actual chemical action of the drug make the use of the drug unethical? In patients that are not under investigative study, how would you even know? You wouldn't. Speaking for myself, I was on Prozac for a year to manage panic disorder. My doctor at the time fully admitted that under such a small dose, the protocol was simply to make me feel like I was empowering myself by medically addressing the problem. Was it the chemical action of the drug or the act of taking the pill that helped? We'll never know. It was a full array of interventions, including talk therapy, that helped me right the ship.

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May 2, 2012

valiumland commented on Savage Love.

To #65, just to clarify, what you're talking about is "off-label use" and it's done all the time. That's how they found out that Viagra, a blood-pressure medication, was a darned fine boner pill. Also, I am not arguing that much of the perceived benefit to SSRIs, including libido reduction, is not attributable to a placebo effect. I believe it is. But, placebo or not, that doesn't mean it doesn't work. At a 10mg per day dose, even if titrated up to 20mg for a while, let's say a year's course of medication in all, will not cause permanent loss of libido. Further, increased risk of suicidal ideation in patients treated with SSRIs is primarily a phenomenon observed in children and adolescents. Also, you're erroneously failing to draw a distinction between off-label use and anecdotal evidence. Anecdotal evidence is "oh somebody told me once that this could happen." Off-label use results from observed affects on patients already taking a prescribed drug, such as the incidence of weight loss while on Zyban.

May 2, 2012

valiumland commented on Savage Love.

Oh and also. About the "gender as social construct" thing. One thing I've learned while accruing massive student loan debt is that anyone who tells you that any human trait is 100% socially constructed or 100% NOT socially constructed is an idiot. Gender is not sex. Your gonads are formed in utero; your fears, assumptions, desires, expectations...hmm. Not entirely. It's a complex interplay of social stimuli on malleable genetic traits. Absolutism and dismissal are two hallmarks of a simplistic mind.

May 2, 2012

valiumland commented on Savage Love.

wendykh, I have to say I totally agree with you. It's frustrating to me when Dan, in his overarching desire to unconditionally accept all kinks, lambasts the idea of a low-dose SSRI and tells a guy to "freeze some spunk" in case his fetish permanently sterilizes him. I'm sorry, folks, but that's just plumb stupid. If your kink is putting a body part at grave risk for permanent damage, then it's not a kink that needs to be celebrated. As for SSRIs: The dose makes the poison. A low dose of Prozac--say, 10mg--can take the edge off a sexual compulsion, and is hardly what most people would consider chemical castration. I have a psychiatrist friend who uses it in male patients, gay and straight, who like to cruise public restrooms. Yes, restroom cruising is a kink, and everyone has a right to their kinks, but it can also get you beat up and/or arrested. If taking a baby dose of Prozac can keep you from feeling a compulsion to engage in a risky act that's ultimately not very rewarding, where is the harm in that? I just don't get it.

Apr 6, 2011

valiumland updated his or her location.

Apr 6, 2011

valiumland joined My Stranger Face

Apr 6, 2011

valiumland commented on Savage Love.

I can't decide whether Dan's age-deceit fetish is charming, like a Southern belle who is kittenishly coy about her transparently advanced age, or pathetic, like a used up, delusional gay cumrag with no idea how sad he looks.