Re: OT - (somewhat) - How Prozac sent the science of depressi...

July 10, 2008

And, here our precious, , is keeping us up to date. I am glad to

read this one.

Will it heal our LOs illness in time?

Love a lot, it shows in the help given,

Imogene

In a message dated 7/10/2008 5:05:56 AM Central Daylight Time,

octoryrose@... writes:

Head fake

How Prozac sent the science of depression in the wrong direction

July 6, 2008

PROZAC IS ONE of the most successful drugs of all time. Since its

introduction as an antidepressant more than 20 years ago, Prozac has

been prescribed to more than 54 million people around the world, and

prevented untold amounts of suffering.

But the success of Prozac hasn't simply transformed the treatment of

depression: it has also transformed the science of depression. For

decades, researchers struggled to identify the underlying cause of

depression, and patients were forced to endure a series of

ineffective treatments. But then came Prozac. Like many other

antidepressants, Prozac increases the brain's supply of serotonin, a

neurotransmitter. The drug's effectiveness inspired an elegant

theory, known as the chemical hypothesis: Sadness is simply a lack of

chemical happiness. The little blue pills cheer us up because they

give the brain what it has been missing.

There's only one problem with this theory of depression: it's almost

certainly wrong, or at the very least woefully incomplete.

Experiments have since shown that lowering people's serotonin levels

does not make them depressed, nor does it worsen their symptoms if

they are already depressed.

In recent years, scientists have developed a novel theory of what

falters in the depressed brain. Instead of seeing the disease as the

result of a chemical imbalance, these researchers argue that the

brain's cells are shrinking and dying. This theory has gained

momentum in the past few months, with the publication of several high

profile scientific papers. The effectiveness of Prozac, these

scientists say, has little to do with the amount of serotonin in the

brain. Rather, the drug works because it helps heal our neurons,

allowing them to grow and thrive again.

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