The Dark Side Of Prozac Essay Research

The Dark Side Of Prozac Essay, Research Paper

The Dark Side of Prozac

Cuting, purging, hungering, and drug maltreatment are all suicidal behaviours faced by Americans today. Americans like to believe that the consumption of a simple pill will assist fade out their jobs. Society tends to disregard the inauspicious effects of anti-depressants because of the admirations that they work. With the mass measure of anti-depressants on the market, Prozac is found to be one of the more popular drugs. Equally great as Prozac may look to be, the content of this paper will reason that Prozac has a negative consequence on suicidal behaviours.

Prozac is used to handle depression, binge-eating syndrome, and intoxicant dependence, merely to call a few utilizations. Prozac is portion of a group of drugs called Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors ( SSRIs ) , which help refill normal degrees of 5-hydroxytryptamine to the encephalon ( Ruh 949 ) . Serotonin is a neurotransmitter which helps us make up one’s mind whether a glass is half full or half empty. ( Lemonick 150 ) Scientists are merely get downing to understand a chemical s function in the map of the human organic structure ( Lemonick ) . This is a really interesting find ; if this apprehension is recent, how is it possible that over 20 old ages ago, Prozac started to be marketed? Prozac is a chemical, and it is possible that there are many negative maps of Prozac that scientists have non yet discovered.

Normally ascertained side effects of Prozac are concern, insomnia, sleepiness, jitteriness, anorexia nervosa, and anxiousness ( Long ) . It is common cognition that anorexia is the

starvation of oneself. Anorexia is merely every bit much a mental disease as it is a physical disease. Anorexia is a terrible disease that causes internal harm, and even decease. Obviously, for Prozac to do anorexia, the drug must drastically change a individual s manner of thought. So while Prozac may be used to handle one suicidal behaviour in an single such as binge-eating syndrome, drug maltreatment, or self-mutilation, it may do another, more serious suicidal behaviour.

In 1987, the German BGA, a group equivalent to the United States & # 8217 ; FDA, refused to O.K. Prozac based upon surveies conducted by Eli Lilly, the shapers of Prozac, which stated that Prozac given to non-suicidal patients had a higher rate of self-destruction efforts and decease by self-destruction. The survey besides showed that 1 in 100 old non-suicidal patients developed strong anxiousness and agitation doing efforts of self-destruction ( Garnett ) . One inquiry that arises is, why does Eli Lilly continue to market Prozac if, in their ain surveies, strong inauspicious effects were found? The reply is merely money. One theory concluded is that physicians give patients Prozac to assist with their status, in bend the Prozac worsens a patient s symptoms. When the symptoms worsen, the patient returns to the physician who so incr

eases the dose of the Prozac. This addition in the dose benefits merely one group, Eli Lilly. It could be a confederacy of Eli Lilly to feed America full of uneffective Prozac, or merely a apparent illustration of a drug that worsens a patients status.

Eli Lilly has late announced that they are bring forthing a new and improved Prozac ( Garnett ) . Leah Garnett studies that Eli Lilly notes that the new version will non bring forth several bing side effects including, akathisia, self-destructive ideas, and self-mutilation ( Debate about effects of Prozac ) . With all the ill fame of Prozac, it seems that Eli Lilly is seeking to conceal the fact that Prozac has unsafe side effects. It should be known that suicidal ideas

and self-mutilation are suicidal behaviours, and it is obvious that Prozac is non a really effectual anti-depressant because it causes these terrible effects.

There is another possibility that Prozac and other antidepressants will merely work for the patients that believe that the drugs will work for them. This decision is based on the research done with placebos. Placebos are inert, inactive pills used in surveies to mensurate the efficaciousness of antidepressants. & # 8220 ; One reappraisal of antidepressant literature indicates overall that tierce of patients do non better with antidepressant intervention, one-third improve with placebos, and an extra thrid show a response to medicine they would non hold attained with placebos. Administering a curative drug is non merely a medical, biological act. It is besides a complex societal act, its effectivity mediated by the patient & # 8217 ; s outlooks & # 8221 ; ( Antidepressants for Happiness ) .

In other words, a simple pill, that is inactive can handle a individual & # 8217 ; s depression. This is possible through the ideas of the individual taking the antidepressant. The placebos work because the people believe that they will work, therefore, assisting to bring around a individual & # 8217 ; s status. Now if it is thought approximately, wouldn & # 8217 ; t it besides be possible that if a individual were on Prozac and they didn & # 8217 ; t believe that it would work for them, so it would non be effectual? This is why Prozac has a negative consequence on suicidal behaviours ; because if people do non desire Prozac to work for them, they will go on with their suicidal behaviours.

Self-destructive behaviours happen in every metropolis, county, and province in the United States. With everything that society does non cognize about the encephalon, people should be careful of taking a pill that is supposed to assist them with their jobs. A bulk of research done on Prozac proves that Prozac is unsafe and may be uneffective. Behind every good consequence

attributed to Prozac, there is at least one harmful consequence that it causes. Americans should non let for the negative consequence that Prozac has on suicidal behaviours.