Anxiety medicine and memory loss

@candytoo Here are two links to scientific articles that I read:

The effects of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors on memory functioning in older adults: A systematic literature review:

-- https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/02698811221080462

Dissociable effects of acute SSRI (escitalopram) on executive, learning and emotional functions in healthy humans

-- https://www.nature.com/articles/s41386-018-0229-z

I guess I wonder where the "multitude of research" you mention originates. Doctors have been given bad information in the past. Given the rapid changes in medical treatments and technologies and the strong profit motive for drug companies to exaggerate claims of efficacy and suppress evidence of negative side effects means, to me, that patients need to proceed with caution. Doctors have to depend on what they are told or shown about the safety of treatments. They can't be expected to read through testing results from the pharmaceutical companies and it's not good if they rely on a sales rep as a source of information. Medical professionals have to be able trust that the government agencies overseeing drug testing have done their jobs but funding cutbacks have damaged these agencies.

If I'm having a bad experience with a medication I get a second opinion from a doctor not affiliated with the office of the prescribing doctor. Maybe the drug isn't damaging my health but if it makes me feel awful I ask for a different medication or other treatment options. After the OxyContin debacle it's hard to trust prevailing medical wisdom and, besides, as a patient I think I have a right to be heard, not just obediently follow.

malo

Thank you so much for your time in sending these Helen. I took a look at both articles. The first was very helpful and one I understood pretty well, but the second one I had some difficulty. I will try to take another look at it as soon as I can. I can't thank you enough!

Your comments about the efficacy of the drugs are understandable but if the question is the elevated overdose deaths caused by the doctor-prescribed drugs then you may wish to take a look at the Dr. Singer of Cato Institute who has convincingly shown (appearing, too, at Congressional Committee, I believe) that the the overdose deaths have continued to rise even after doctors were 'forced' to reduce its prescription, causing the often unnecessary pain to those who would have benefited from its use. As you might know even the SCOTUS sided with the two doctors who apparently used their judgement to (over)prescribe...but what's the alternative in a human-run world where even professionals sometimes may err in good faith 'overprescribing, as do other professionals in their fields. I think there is a difference between establishing whether the Overuse was due to addictive nature of the fentanyl, which DEA seems to disagree with and the Overuse that has caused the excessive increasing deaths (and still continue to do with new entries like Tranc, an animal tranquilizer, the latter one could attribute to the 'paucity of pleasure' among the users who often include housed and financially secure people, not just 'street people.' I hope it helps.