Posted by med_empowered on July 19, 2005, at 20:17:34
In reply to What where the top prescibed drugs of the 1980's, posted by rjlockhart98 on July 19, 2005, at 15:29:38
The 80s were apparently a weird decade in psychiatry. Quaaludes were put into Schedule II in 1980; in 1984, they were officially banned (Schedule I) and production was halted. Basically, in the 80s they had to deal with the fallout of the 70s--addicts, abusers, damaged former users and aging boomers and their kids-- while admitting that a lot of the old standbys had serious problems. Tricyclic antidepressants were 1st line AD treatment; it seems that MAOIs were regarded with lots of suspicion, as they are now. Barbiturates were apparently still used, at least more than they are today. In the United States, barbiturates were standard therapy well into the 1970s, at which time there was a definite trend towards using benzos instead of barbiturates...apparently, though, barbs were still RX'd in the 80s, at least in sufficient supply to keep the street supply going, lol. Benzos were big, but it seems there was also lots of anti-benzo phobia in some circles in the post-Betty Ford era, so it was a mixed bag. Stimulants weren't nearly as often RX'd as there are now; Adderall wasn't even on the market (it had originally been introduced in the 60s as Obetrol, a diet drug; it didn't really "hit it big" until it was re-introduced as Adderal XR in the 90s). From the people I've talked to, a lot of the old drugs were still floating around--people were RX'd Placidyl and what not. Clozapine research was ongoing in the US and Europe, although Clozapine has never been a terribly widely used medication. Amineptine was still around, though it apparently wasn't a huge hit. In the early 80s, Asendin (amoxapine) hit the market...it seemed to relieve depression quickly and work when nothing else had. It also causes NMS, TD, and EPS. Celexa was floating around in Europe...although Prozac gets all the fame for being the first SSRI, Celexa came first and is actually waaay cleaner than Prozac. Other than that....ECT, which is still controversial but enjoying a bit of a resurgence in popularity, was not used very much at all...in fact, the city of Berkley, CA banned ECT within city limits in the early 80s (some shrinks apparently sued and got the ban overturned, but this kinda shows you the general feeling people had towards ECT).
poster:med_empowered
thread:530150
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050718/msgs/530305.html