Prozac: Wonder Pill or Killer Drug?
Fourteen years ago, Eli Lilly and Company made a staggering step in prescription medicine. In January of 1988, Lilly and Company released the antidepressant Prozac. "Prozac - a brand name for fluoxetine hydrochloride - has been used by more than thirteen million people in the world" (Opler 26). This makes it the most widely prescribed antidepressant in the world. While Prozac has been called a miracle drug, because of all the people it has helped, it has also been denounced as a killer drug. There are many different advantages and disadvantages to taking Prozac as well as miscellaneous prescriptions. People use Prozac for diverse disorders. A person on Prozac also must go through three phases in order to be cleared of any signs of depression.While taking Prozac, treatment can be divided into three distinct phases: acute, continuation, and maintenance. Acute phase takes place during the early weeks of treatment. This treatment can last for 6 to 12 weeks and is used to control the disabling symptoms of depression and to help the patient function more normally in everyday activities (Hyman 64). Many patients see progress within 1 to 2 weeks, but it may take four weeks or more for treatment to be fully effective. If the
" It documented six cases of patients who developed violent suicidal thoughts while taking Prozac. Martin Teicher reported that when patients began taking Prozac, "none of them were suicidal and all were hopeful and optimistic about the treatment" (Nichols 36). Prozac is the only solution to that. In 1990, it had become the best-selling antidepressant in the world, but when there is popularity, backlash is not so far behind. Most recently, in an article published on Chemist & Druggist, the author wrote that according to researchers, "Prozac may stimulate the growth of brain tumors" (Freeman 9). With three episodes, the chance of developing depression is eighty percent. Prozac may cause insomnia and weight loss in some patients. In this book, the author states that Prozac had the ability to transform one's personality. For this reason, one must follow the three phases accurately. Once a person experiences a single episode of depression, they have a fifty percent chance of having another. Over the next couple of months, media moved from this controversy to other disputable discoveries. It causes "sexual dysfunction (decreased libido, orgasmic and ejaculatory inhibition, and erectile difficulties) in about 60 percent of patients" (Joseph 76). Along with several other psychiatric drugs, Prozac was discovered in the blood of a man charged with the assassination of a rabbi. patient shows little or no improvement during the acute phase, the doctor has to either change the dose of Prozac, change to a different antidepressant altogether, recommending psychotherapy or referring the patient to a specialist.
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