Paul ‘Guido Fawkes’ Staines says that Gordon Brown may be taking an anti-depressant of the MAOI class; apparently the story is doing the rounds of the Westminster village. The article goes to show what a little shit Paul Staines is.
Begin brief rant
Mental illness is not a lot of fun. It’s also poorly understood by a lot of people. Staines has decided to make taking medication for depression be ‘pill-popping’ and to make the pills seem riven with side-effects. This pisses me off mightily, mostly because when I was first prescribed an anti-depressant, it scared the hell out of me and I wandered around with it in my pocket for three days before plucking up the courage to take the damn thing. Instead of ignoring what is by any standards a non-story, Staines uses it as a convenient stick with which to beat a political opponent, irrespective of its veracity or the broader effects of his way of discussing mental illness.
End brief rant
Firstly the science.
According to Dr Staines, MAOIs
are very rarely prescribed since the arrival of Prozac derivatives, used only sparingly when dealing with severely depressed patients.
ORLY?
newer MAOIs such as selegiline and moclobemide provide a safer alternative and are now sometimes used as first-line therapy
Thankyou, twelve seconds on Wikipedia. I’m not going to prescription advice from Staines. He’s not a doctor and doesn’t know what he’s talking about. I’ll check in the BNF when I’m back at home.
Secondly, the history.
When Kjell Magne Bondevik was suffering a depressive episode, he took three weeks leave to recuperate. Norway did not fall apart. Anne Enger Lahnstein became acting PM while he was away, and then everything went back to normal with perhaps a slightly better understanding of depression. There is a former PM of the UK who also suffered from depressive episodes – one Winston Churchill. The memo appears not to have reached Staines – depression can be managed effectively. Having depression doesn’t mean you can’t do your job.
Thirdly, the morality.
He has the audacity to use his ‘Is Brown Bonkers?’ image. Depression is an evil disease, but to describe someone suffering from it as ‘bonkers’ is not just crude, it’s flat wrong and makes life just a little bit harder for sufferers. Staines describes Brown’s use of antidepressants as ‘alleged’. It’s not a crime.
I was under the impression that private health matters generally stayed private. Funnily enough, I don’t consider Paul Staines innuendo enough of a reason to change that. If Brown is suffering from depression, I hope he improves soon. I hope no-one gives Staines the time of day when he tries to portray Brown as dangerously unstable.
xD.
Update 1655: Penny Red weighs in.