Prozac Harmful Or Helpful Essay Research

Prozac Harmful Or Helpful Essay, Research Paper

Prozac: Harmful or Helpful.

Many people suffer from depression at some point in their lives. Among women

in western countries, major depression is by far the most common illness (Shorter 43).

Treatment for depression varies among health care providers, but the prescription of

antidepressants seems to be the most common remedy. Prozac and other selective

serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are being used to treat depression, panic disorder,

bulimia, obsessive-compulsive behavior, and many other illnesses. Prozac has become

the most common and best-selling antidepressant in the United States. It has been

prescribed for over twenty-one million people (Packard 18). Nonetheless, many of these

people are unnecessarily taking Prozac and it is doing them more harm than good.

There are many possible causes for depression, ranging from stress, physical and

emotional changes, crises, and chemical imbalance in the brain. There are also several

ways to treat depression such as therapy, a change in diet, and a regular exercise

program. The current trend is for doctors to immediately prescribe Prozac before

exploring the other treatment options. However, Prozac was associated with more

hospitalizations, deaths, or other serious adverse reactions reported to the FDA than any

other drug in America (qtd. in Freundlich 2).

Eli Lilly Pharmaceutical Company created Prozac in 1974, but it wasn t approved

by the FDA until 1987. The first of the SSRIs, Prozac inhibits or blocks the recapture of

the neurotransmitter serotonin by nerve cells ( Prozac 2). This allows the serotonin to

remain in the brain for a longer period of time creating a lasting euphoric state.

Serotonin plays a complex part in the functioning of the body and brain. Researchers and

doctors are just starting to understand its role. So far, the tools used to manipulate

serotonin in the human brain are more like pharmacological machetes than they are like

scalpels–crudely effective but capable of doing plenty of collateral damage (Lemonick

3).

Prozac is supposed to help improve a person s mood by increasing the level of

serotonin present in the brain. However, problems can occur if receptors in the brain

stem and spinal cord are over-stimulated. Sufferers endure fever, chills, muscle spasms,

agitation and confusion, dubbed serotonin syndrome ( Warning 1).

Frank Van Meerendonk was prescribed Prozac in 1990. He was taking this

medication not because of depression but for dizziness, fatigue, tinnitus and hearing loss,

after severe flu. After five days on Prozac, he was a wreck. I felt as if a magnet were

pulling the back of my head. There were electrical surges rising in my body…I was

terrified (qtd. in Warning 1). He was suffering from serotonin syndrome.

Serotonin syndrome…is a very dangerous and a potentially fatal side effect of

serotonergic enhancing drugs which can have multiple psychiatric and non-psychiatric

symptoms ( What is Serotonin Syndrome. 1). This toxic condition requires increased

clinical awareness in order to prevent, identify, and treat the condition immediately. The

rate of incidence of this syndrome is on the rise. The suspected cause of that increase is

the introduction of the SSRIs.

Serotonin syndrome is generally caused by a combination of two or more drugs,

one of which is often a selective serotonergic medication. The drugs which are known to

most frequently contribute to this condition are the combining of monoamine oxidase

inhibitor with Prozac. The best treatment for serotonin syndrome is to cease taking the

offending medication or medications and wait for the symptoms to resolve. If the

offending medication is discontinued, the condition will frequently resolve on its own

within twenty-four hours ( What is Serotonin Syndrome. 1-2).

Many victims of the over-prescription of Prozac are children. In 1997, at least

580,000 children (Huffington, Peppermint 28) were being prescribed Prozac, even

though safety and effectiveness in pediatric patients had not, and still has not, been

established (Huffington, U.S. Attention 1). As with most antidepressant prescriptions,

doctors are prescribing Prozac for children without any psychiatric evaluation. Yet, in a

Prozac ad, symptoms of depression included feeling unusually sad or irritable to

finding it hard to concentrate, both of which are things that all normal children

experience at some time (Huffington, Peppermint 28).

Prozac and other SSRIs are some of the biggest money makers ever for the

pharmaceutical companies. The use of Prozac among children from ages 6-12 went from

41,000 in 1995 to 203,000 in 1996 ( ICFDA 3). The number of new Prozac

prescriptions written for children increased almost four hundred percent in just one year.

Prozac is a very potent mind-altering drug that has not been approved for use in children

and yet

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