Talk about scary! Many doctors are currently prescribing anti-depressants to treat hot flashes in menopausal women. Anti-depressants are serious drugs used to treat anxiety and major depressive disorders. They are not created to treat these specific symptoms.
Overall, 55 per cent of the women in the drug group versus 36 per cent taking a placebo reported a decrease of at least 50 per cent in “hot flash frequency,” according to the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
But the prospect of large numbers of essentially healthy women being treated “off label” with psychiatric drugs for symptoms of menopause is making critics uneasy.
“You’re looking at something that is actually a drug for a fairly serious psychiatric disorder that is being used for something that is a normal part of menopause,” says Barbara Mintzes, an assistant professor with the Therapeutics Initiative at the University of B.C.
The new study involved 205 healthy women, aged 40 to 62, with moderate to severe hot flashes who were randomized to receive 10 or 20 mg a day of escitalopram or a matching placebo. The frequency and severity of hot flashes or night sweats were recorded in daily dairies. The researchers looked at the total number of hot flashes or night sweats in a 24-hour period; the women also rated their “hot flash bother” on a scale from one to four – none, a little, moderately or a lot. To read the whole story from Canada.com, click here!
Slim Smoothie is a detoxifying meal replacement shake. Specially formulated by a physician, nutritionist and pharmacist for weight loss. An innovative new formula that will curb your appetite, boost energy and accelerate weight loss. 
Medical Research Reaches a New Low Point. Ellen Freeman and authors of this JAMA study (all on the payroll of Forest Labs, maker of Lexapro) used Lexepro to show the drug is “marginally” more effective than placebo for Hot Flashes. This is laughable. Surely you must be joking? SSRI drugs are addictive drugs with adverse side effects including loss of sexual function, akasthesias, agitation, movement disorders, violence and suicide. Lexapro for Hot Flashes is merely another example of the medical victimization of women. The study should have been rejected by the ethics committee and never been done. Menopausal symptoms are caused by hormone deficiency, not Lexapro deficiency and the proper treatment is bioidentical hormones.
For More:
http://jeffreydach.com/2011/01/19/lexepro-for-hot-flashes-medical-victimization-or-joke.aspx
jeffrey dach md