Antidepressants and antipsychotics could serve as alternatives to opioids, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/14/other-medications-opioids-alternatives-study
Antidepressants and antipsychotics could serve as alternatives to opioids, study finds
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/14/other-medications-opioids-alternatives-study
16 Comments
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They’re going to need the dopamine support for sure
How would employers react to this? I would love to try some sort of alternative treatment for depression, but I’m worried my employer would negatively spin this if they found out through a drug screening.
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Duloxetine is already an alternative
I can see how. I was in a lot of emotional pain that began to effect my immune system and body overall.
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Link to the actual [article.](https://escholarship.org/uc/item/82r3t6bq) It’s a meta analysis for anyone who couldn’t read past the headline, so the researchers just reviewed recent literature, not an actual performed experiment.
As a life long SSRI/SNRI/2nd and 3rd gen Antipsychotic/and ketamine patient the only one of those I would consider having pain relief is ketamine. But you can’t work on it, you can’t sleep on it, can’t drive. I take one or two 200mg lozenges once or twice a month if my back flares up and I get 100% relief for a whole nigtht but say I take it at 7pm I’m still awake at like 1-2 am holding walls trying to walk around the house.
Opiates are notoriously poor for back pain, headache and abdominal pain and frequently cause harm. The reason they get prescribed so much is expectation and reputation that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. IV paracetamol gets prescribed a lot too despite not being particularly better than oral. Back pain in particular doesn’t have strong evidence for any medication being effective, the best you get is that some drugs may work some of the time but mostly not.
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Tianeptine would be great for this purpose if not for it’s troublesomely low duration and ease of physical dependence.
And tardive dyskenesia will be rampant
I certainly haven’t ever experienced any pain relief from any of these, but they have caused me infinitely worse side effects than any opioid. Currently, absolutely nothing comes close to the efficacy of opioids, but it seems downright irresponsible to prescribe these drugs for pain relief.
Not for pain relief they can’t. I’ve been in SSRIs or SNRIs for 25 years and they don’t do anything for pain.