There's some weird causality here, seemingly suggesting that Prozac caused an increase in depression.<p>>"Prozac was introduced in 1988, and we all know what happened then. Depression went from a relatively rare condition (affecting well under 100,000 people in the 1950s) to an epidemic disease affecting 27 million Americans. "<p>I'm pretty sure more than 100,000 people suffered from depression in the US in 1950. They might have just gone undiagnosed and self-medicated with alcohol rather than (non-existent) pharmaceuticals. Given that the mental health state of the art in 1950 was an icepick to the frontal lobe, I can hardly blame them for not seeking treatment.<p>I would imagine that the increase in _diagnosed_ depressed patients occurred because of an increase in both awareness and viable treatment options.
Useful link: <a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=techdog" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=techdog</a> (note the blog - it is the same! note the days - they are every! note the comments (when present) - they are like "this is bunk!")<p>I'm beginning to flag these posts.
If I'm understanding the logic that this article presents... Apparently after Prozac was introduced, depression became a huge phenomenon in the US. It showed up everywhere. This is evidence to suggest that antidepressants caused depression.<p>Wat?
"This is actually some of the strongest evidence yet that psychiatric medications are connected with the sharp rise in autism that began in the 1980s."<p>Couldn't possibly be the huge rise in awareness of Autism in the 80's, Rainman anyone? Or the rise in parents age could it? Nah obviously pharmaceutics in the water. There are detectable levels of many things in all water including say arsenic: <a href="http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/arsenic/index.cfm" rel="nofollow">http://water.epa.gov/lawsregs/rulesregs/sdwa/arsenic/index.c...</a>, it's all a matter of how much, which his sources seem not to mention.
From an earlier Hacker News comment<p><a href="http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5196734" rel="nofollow">http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5196734</a><p>on a submission from this blog:<p>> > It appears you've made some sort of resolution to publish and promote a blog entry per day in 2013. 40 entries in 41 days this year vs. 46 in all of 2012. You should reconsider - whatever your reasons were, I doubt they included a desire to develop a reputation for presenting topics that were sensationalized and thinly researched [1] produced with a pace that ensures discredited theories dont get reviewed.<p>[1] <a href="http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/drug-companies-stop-hiding-your-data.html%E3%80%80" rel="nofollow">http://asserttrue.blogspot.com/2013/02/drug-companies-stop-h...</a><p>> Wow, nice spot and they have all been submitted to HN. I have never seen anyone's submission history be so hell bent on self promotion:<p><a href="https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=techdog" rel="nofollow">https://news.ycombinator.com/submitted?id=techdog</a><p>The Hacker News welcome message<p><a href="http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html" rel="nofollow">http://ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html</a><p>gives an overview of the community experiment here, summarizing the site guidelines.<p><a href="http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html" rel="nofollow">http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html</a><p>The Hacker News FAQ<p><a href="http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html" rel="nofollow">http://ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html</a><p>gives some additional details about how Hacker News is administered. The welcome message distills the basic rules into a simple statement: "Essentially there are two rules here: don't post or upvote crap links, and don't be rude or dumb in comment threads."
This seriously scares my shit out – are there any viable (domestic) water filtration systems that could reliably pull pharmaceuticals out of your drinking water?
Long Beach, Calif.: 2 (meprobamate and phenytoin). [1]<p>I'm drinking an anti-epileptic and an anti-anxiety. That sucks.<p>[1] <a href="http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-drugs-tap-water_N.htm" rel="nofollow">http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/nation/2008-03-10-drugs-...</a>