Posted by laima on August 14, 2006, at 0:27:09
In reply to Re: Is Kramer right?, posted by cecilia on August 13, 2006, at 21:18:53
> Unfortunately, not everyone responds to Prozac or any other med the way the patients in his 1st book so miraculously did. Cecilia
When prozac came out it REALLY was a miraculous breakthrough:
Easy to use, "activating", supposedly very safe, relatively free of the side effects that plagued the tricyclics and maois. And that of course was well before anyone knew about the "poop out" and before anyone spoke of sexual side effects or emotional blunting. Right before its introduction, I tried just about every single available tricyclic, one after another, but they all made me lethargic, slug-like, and gain weight. (No one dared give me, sneaky teenager, any maoi, or even mentioned the possibility.) Then came prozac- brand new- and it truely seemed miraculous. I had never even heard of it when I got my first prescription. It was the start of an entirely new class of drugs. It was supposed to revolutionize psychiatry by being safe, effective, and super-easy to prescribe. True- did not likely work for everyone-but in the begining when it worked, it REALLY worked! It worked great for me-I had dropped out of college and felt like a doomed loser, but went right back and did very well there within a couple weeks. Prozac made quite a media splash, too: on the cover of Time Magazine and everything. I get the impression Kramer was swept up in all of the excitement when he wrote that prozac book. I venture to speculate that we are all a bit wiser and more sophisticated nowadays. It's still great for some people-no doubt-but it's not a magic cure for everyone, and does come with the possibility for some hefty side effects after all.
poster:laima
thread:675829
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060810/msgs/676245.html