Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by DanBC 3749 days ago
Habit forming - addiction - tends to include tolerance (doesn't exist for anti depressants), pre-occupation (doesn't exist), drug seeking and holding (doesn't exist).

There are problems with anti depressants being over prescribed and misprescribed to people who should have had a talking therapy, and they are difficult for some people to stop, but calling them hanit forming is incorrect.

2 comments

Wouldn't the withdrawls qualify them as habit forming? Calling them extremely addicting would probably be inaccurate, but "There's a good chance you'll feel awful if you stop taking this" seems like it may encourage forming a habit.

Apparently there may be tolerance for antidepressants: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antidepressant_treatment_tachy...

>ADT tachyphylaxis incorporates drug sensitivity as a potential causal factor for the decreased response. However, tolerance provides a more accurate explanation. While the exact cause of ADT tachyphylaxis in individual cases is unknown, drug tolerance is a more comprehensive model, as it includes mechanisms of pharmacodynamic tolerance, metabolic tolerance, and others.[7]

There is a difference between 'addiction' and 'physical dependence'.

See: https://www.drugabuse.gov/publications/teaching-packets/neur...

Sure, but 'habit forming' is a lower bar to cross than either.
You're right, probably "addictive" was the wrong word. "Physical dependency forming" perhaps is better.