Our experiences of SSRIs and coming off them
From Matthew Stevens, Sydney, Australia
“The antidepressant trap” alerts us to the potential dangers of long-term use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) for treating depression, with the potential for early death due to sudden cardiac events or in association with faster cognitive decline. But for many of us, the prospect of an early death is preferable to an even earlier suicide. My SSRI keeps me functional and productive, when the alternative was not to be here at all. As for the withdrawal symptoms, I can verify that they are excruciating and unbearable (29 August, p 36).
From Colin Bannon, Crapstone, Devon, UK
The most telling revelation in Mark Horowitz’s story of long-term antidepressant use was the fact that he was prescribed an SSRI for the situational anxiety experienced by so many medical students like him, which could be regarded as normal.
The second-most important revelation was that the drug was continued for 10 years, long after, I presume, the situation and the anxiety had changed. Two huge errors.
As a former GP, I remember how my patients with depression found antidepressants very helpful, usually taken for three to six months, with regular reviews and with talking therapy added on as it became available.
These drugs are an important advance in helping people with mental health conditions, but must be used with care.
More than one way to peel 鈥� or save 鈥� a banana
From Sue Ogilvy, Gundaroo, New South Wales, Australia
In his book The Future of Bananas, James Dale makes an impassioned plea to overcome distrust of genetic engineering and use the technology to save the beloved Cavendish banana from the fungal disease TR4. However, there is another path worth considering (29 August, p 26).
For more than 20 years, Australian banana-growers, famous for the eye-catching red wax tip on their bananas, have been using a biodiversity-intensive method of producing the fruit (and others) that works with natural systems and uses minimal, if any, fertilisers, pesticides or insecticides. The approach dramatically reduces vulnerability to diseases like TR4 while also reducing pollution to the Great Barrier Reef.
I can personally attest that the bananas taste great! So perhaps we should be making an equally impassioned plea to overcome distrust of nature. Let’s invest in helping fruit-growers around the world form stronger partnerships with nature to produce healthy food and maintain biodiversity.
Getting information from black holes isn’t new idea
From Alex McDowell, London, UK
There is nothing new about the idea of obtaining information about black holes from stars that orbit them. In 1783, John Michell came up with the idea of black holes (he called them dark stars) and detecting them by observing the motion of visible stars that orbit dark stars. He thought that a star exceeding 500 times the sun’s diameter and of the same density would have an escape velocity exceeding that of light (5 September, p 8).
Being asked few questions can help out introverts
From Chris Arnold, Darlington, Western Australia
David Robson’s article on why people ask so few questions in conversation no doubt struck a chord with many readers. My father, a reserved individual, leveraged off a Dale Carnegie course to develop a strategy where he anticipated who he would meet at a gathering and prepared potential questions in advance. He often reported that, at the end of many conversations, the other party would announce what a pleasure it had been meeting him, without having bothered to ask any questions in return (22 August, p 17).
I have adopted a similar strategy, and often find that a carefully chosen question can catalyse an extended conversation between others, in which I remain an interested bystander.
Another examination of the arrow of time
From Richard Probst, Los Altos, California, US
Sean Carroll’s cyclic universe has an intriguing resemblance to an earlier proposal. Carroll has the arrow of time pointing in opposite directions away from a low-entropy state. Observers on both branches experience expansion towards de Sitter space, while the entire quantum history repeats exactly (22 August, p 38).
Latham Boyle and Neil Turok described a similar picture in 2021, in Two-Sheeted Universe, Analyticity and the Arrow of Time. Their two branches also emerge from the big bang, with arrows pointing away from it, and the sheets join at de Sitter infinity to form a loop.
The apparent distinction is that Carroll demands exact recurrence of the full cycle without requiring the two branches to be identical.
Could these be two descriptions of the same global structure?
UK rollout of shingles vaccine delayed for some
From Georgina Skipper, Weymouth, Dorset, UK
An apparent link between the Shingrix shingles vaccine and reduced risk of dementia has been studied since 2017, and further links to circulatory health make it even more desirable. The proposed gradual rollout of the vaccine to the over-60s and then 55-year-olds in the UK shows that the country’s health services recognise thi s(5 September, p 13).
However, the statement in your report that the “UK’s National Health Services offer it to anyone who turned 65 on or after 1 September 2023” is deceptive. There was a tranche of people, born from 1955-58, who (starting from September 2025). This was a confusing policy. It wasn’t due to a shortage of vaccines: 65-to-67-year-olds and over-70s were still eligible, while the 67-to-70-year-olds had to wait.
Viviparity evolved many times in different animals
From Guy Cox, Sydney, Australia
That some cynodonts 鈥� ancestors of mammals 鈥� gave birth to live young is important, but it seems to be getting over-interpreted. The ability to give birth to live young has evolved multiple times. Some sharks, for example, do it. So the fact that it happened in a cynodont doesn’t necessarily imply that it was ancestral to all mammals (Letters, 5 September).