Did The Manufactureres of Prozac Get It Wrong?
Jul 20th, 2008 by zania
Prozac Doesn’t Work In The Way The Manufacturers Tell Us It Does
Prozac (fluoxetine) is often the first drug of choice for doctors when they make out a prescription for someone suffering from Depression. Prozac has been prescribed for over 20 years. Many depression sufferers have found this antedepressant invaluable. It appears to have helped them get back on the road to recovery from Major Depression.
Prozac is an SSRI (Selective Serotonim Reuptake Inhibitor). It is said to work because it increases the brain’s supply of Serotonin, a nuerotransmitter. Researchers on Prozac and other SSRIs related Depression to Profound Sadness. They claimed that many people experiencing profound sadness were suffering from a chemical imbalance in their brains - they were not producing enough Serotonim. Prozac was prescribed to counteract this by increasing serotonim levels in the brain. After some weeks, the increased levels of serotonum in the brain would counteract the imbalance and the sadness would slowly disappear.
But not everyone has found Prozac (or other SSRIs) helpful. I for one experienced extreme anxiety whilst taking Prozac, so much so that I was almost literally climbing the walls with agitation. Others have found the side effects of Prozac and other SSRIs debilitating. They have suffered nausia, tummy upsets, headaches, loss of sex drive and extreme agitation to name but a few of the many side effects of SSRIs. Some, like me, have found that the side effects do not diminish with time and have decided these are too debilitating to make the increased happiness they were hoping to find worth waiting for.
Furthermore, was ‘profound sadness’ all we were feeling when we were depressed? What about muddled thoughts; forgetfulness; high anxiety; unexplainable aches and pains; extreme lethargy? Were these all simply a product of sadness? Surely not.
So we came off the Prozac and tried other methods to help us cope with our depression. We tried different pills. Some of us found our answer there. Many of us did not. We tried meditation, yoga, Zen, relaxation techniques and other forms of self-help. Many of us ended up seeing a therapist to gain a ‘talking cure’.
But we were still depressed.
We knew we had an illness. Some of us had relatives who had also suffered from depression. Was the link there? Many psychologists and psychiatrists say there is.
In which case, surely there was something physical causing our depression? Was there something ‘not quite right’ with our brains?
But the SSRIs, which were supposed to make us happy again, by adjusting our brains’ ‘chemical imbalance’, had not worked, neither had other drugs designed to alter our brain’s chemistry.
Where did we go from there?
Most of us gave up on the medication. We either put up with a life of depression or forced ourselves to take up activities ‘to take our minds off it’. We took up running, swimming, aerobics, sports, and anything else which was almost purely physical and not ‘about thinking’.
The physical activity was draining. Sometimes we felt too lethargic to even contemplate it, but when that happened we soon found ourselves feeling more depressed…
Was there a connection here?
We had read about how physical activity can raise endorphons; maybe even an ‘endorphin rush‘ which produces feelings of exhilaration. Perhaps we were becoming addicted to that endorphin rush and without it our depression was getting worse. We certainly felt a little better when we forced ourselves to exercise…
But no one appeared to have a definite answer to that one. Until fairly recently.
I was visiting Walking The Black Dog and looking at Cosmo’s Tuesday Links. And I found a link to this article:
Head Fake - How Prozac Sent The Science Of Depression In the Wrong Direction
Very interesting. The author, Jonah Lehrer, is writing about recent Research On Depression and argues that the emphasis on raising our brain’s Serotonim levels with SSRIs has taken scientists a step in the wrong direction. Many people suffering from Depression are suffering from neurologiocal symptoms, as the proponents of Prozac argued, but these symptoms are to do with the degeneration of our brain cells. This can be caused by stress and is rather like the effects of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, and appears quite scary, but in this case it is mild and reversible.
Increased levels of Serotonim will help some sufferers from Depression, but this is nothing directly to do with ‘raising our happiness levels’. It is because Serotonim helps our brains to heal in the same way that physical exercise works.
Only with physical exercise, you don’t get all those horrible side effects.
Jonah Lehrer’s article is fairly long, but it explains the argument very well. If you are suffering from depression but not having much luck with the medication you have been prescribed, I urge you to read it. It puts a whole new perspective on Depression and SSRIs .
And it could help you find ways to cope with depression, other than those pills.
Wow. This is a wonderful post. Very personal, and fascinating. Prozac appeared very quickly and has affected the lives of many millions of people. It would not be at all surprising to learn that this had happened without sufficient understanding of whether it was the best or even a good approach overall to treating depression.
Martin
Hi brain exercises (Martin),
Thanks for the comment.
Maybe I should try out your IQ training program to regenerate all my atrophied brain cells.
That’s if I have any left after coming off the Prozac…
About three years ago I was “diagnosed” with dysthymia. I read on some Internet page about it that mental stimulation could help. So I started reading again (I used to read a lot when I was a kid). Can’t say that it has had long-term effects that I’ve noticed, but if I feel pretty depressed and start reading, my mood will be much better after I take my first break, usually about 40 minutes (for a novel). Of course when I am severely and extremely depressed, I have no motivation to read and have trouble concentrating enough. Ye ole catch-22. Another thing of possible interest, a month ago I saw a show on PBS, speaker was Dr. Daniel Amen. Promoting a book called “change your brain, change your life.” He called depression a symptom, not a disease (the show wasn’t all about depression). Suggestions to help your brain: physical exercise, memory exercises, diet… He was on PBS, I hope he’s not a quack anyway. I’m starting to lose track of which organizations I can and can’t trust.
I liked your post by the way. Especially the exercise thing. so much emphasis is placed on exercise when dealing with depression, but I hardly get any effect from it. I think it’s more beneficial for anxiety, which can cause some depression. What do I know? I have a mental illness and never went to medical school. I should be locked up and forcefed meds and chicken mcnuggets.
very interesting!
I hav suffered from depression and anxiety for most of my life. I was prescribed prozac for about 6 months and it was totally useless. The Dr then put me on Cymbalta which is a SUI and a norinphrine (sp?) uptake inhibiter and , along with exercise and xanax upon occasion, I have been lifted out of depression and have greater mental clarity, and memory improvement
@ Andy,
Trouble is, even those who went to medical school can’t seem to make up their minds about what’s best for us, can they?
I suffer from Dysthymia too (at least that’s the last diagnosis they gave me…), and to tell the truth, I find exercise hard at times (especially when the weather is really hot, as it is here right now), but it does make me feel a bit better.
I’m not sure if it’s because the exercise is ‘healing my brain’, ‘producing more endorphins’, or simply because I’m a latent Anorexic who feels she’s in control when she exercises
What I do know though, is that I feel better when I am doing something rather than being tranquilized and traumatized by meds!
But that’s just me of course
@Jackal
Hi Jackal, thanks for visiting and thank you.
I like your blog by the way. It’s quite unique.
I like that!
Hi Greg,
Thanks for commenting.
Your experience with Prozac seems to be repeated again and again. My problem with this is, that Doctors (in the UK - where I was prescribed at the time - anway) tend to prescribe Prozac or another SSRI first and when the patient says they are not working, first they say ‘it will take time’ and then, when it obviously isn’t working, they prescribe another SSRI instead!
It’s only several months later that they (or a psychiatrist) prescribe something different, as you were eventually prescribed the SSNRI, Cymbalta, so the patient has had to go through months of depression with no real release.
I was offered an SSNRI (can’t remember the name now), but I knew someone who had already taken the same drug and had suffered quite traumatic side effects (massive fluid retention and kidney problems which she had never had before, plus constant blurred vision and disorientation), so I looked it up on the net, saw these side effects ‘may occur’ and refused to take it. It could have worked, but I wasn’t prepared to take the risk.
I do take a benzodiazepine like Xanax (I take Valium), on rare occasions, if I suffer a major panic attack, but I am only allowed a small supply. You see, my UK Doctor prescribed Valium when I suffered from Anorexia (I never could be sure why…) and with my extremely low weight at the time, I became addicted very quickly, even to a small dose. It took me 2 years to wean myself off.
So you can see why I prefer to find other methods to help my depression!
I’m glad that Cymbalta, plus exercise and the occasional Xanax work for you. It’s good when they finally find a combination which works.
Thanks for commenting
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I linked to the wrong page on dysthymia.
Yes, it’s pretty challenging to exercise when it’s hot. I play basketball in the morning or late evening. I go out by myself for about an hour and chase the ball around court. I can do a lot of exercising right inside my own home though, I won’t pay to go to a gym. Are you fortunate enough to have an air conditioner?
No problema on the dysthymia link
Oh yes, we have air conditioning in all main rooms. Couldn’t live without it! (seriously, sometimes the walls of our house get too hot to touch for long!).
I do aerobics workouts under the air con - that helps!
I really got more into the meditation this last week, and you wouldn’t believe how much my pain has improved. I was able to almost completely relax my whole body; never have I been so relaxed while on any drug that I’ve taken, except maybe alcohol when I binged and was on the verge of passing out. I’ll put it this way, I took Vicodin, never regularly, but it was always helpful to my pain when aspirin, tylenol, ibufrofen, aleve were ineffective. When I relax and meditate, the relaxation effect is far greater than Vicodin. The “breakthrough” came when suddenly I could feel a tingling in my ankles (which were also giving me problems). I could feel it pulsating, kind of like mini-muscle spasms. I felt a loosening, circulation increasing. After a couple days, the problems I had around my ankles had improved 100%. So I started concentrating on my arms. Within three days, my pain was, I’d say, 70% better. Same deal as the feet, but my arms, hands and near my shoulders was a lot worse. I haven’t felt this loose in 4 years. I still am in pain when I write, but if I go relax and meditate when I’m done, I can get rid of most of it. It used to be that 5 or 10 minutes on the computer and I’d be in pain for the rest of the day, and the next and the next… pretty consistent for about 4 years, but worse in the last one year. I should mention, learning how to relax, concentrate, stop your mind, and increase your mental visualizations isn’t something you can do in a week, like I made it sound. I have been dabbling with it off and on for three years. I just never stuck with it like I did last week. The book I have, Meditation for Dummies, mentions it can take a couple months to really feel better. Oh, last important thing, my pain is not like everybody else’s, and the clearance of it may not work like it did for me. Either way, meditation can be good for you, very relaxing. I was going to write an article on my site about it, obviously I have had extremely good results with it, am excited about despite my lack of !!!l, but wanted to get more long-term results before I made some big announcement on my site. But you get a comment from me here because it’s so relevant to your post.
Yes, a lot of people who suffer from pain find meditation works really well. I could be wrong here (and I’m sure you will tell me if I am), but I equate the type of meditation you are describing (becoming deeply relaxed and then concentrating on particular parts of your body) as different to some other forms of meditation which are more to do with clearing your mind completely.
As to the ‘clear your mind methods’ - I find these make my depression worse, as they can ‘let in’ things you would rather forget. It’s like one moment being completely ‘blank’ and peaceful and the next moment getting hit by a bullet you hadn’t seen coming, because your mind was ’somewhere else’. For me, this can lead to a panic attack, which is why nowadays I leave this type of meditation alone.
But relaxation and concentration, yes, that can be powerful stuff (and in a good way). I’ve practiced this a lot (I’ve learned psychic healing, believe it or not! and this method is part of the training) and it can work very well.
I hope it continues to work well for you Andy.
I’ll stay in touch to find out
[...] 25, 2008 Deep Brain Stimulation For Depression When I read that headline, I assumed meditation might be mentioned. But no, again, apparently only foreign objects can treat depression. Something [...]
[...] who think they may be suffering from depression should ask themselves "Does Prozak work?" before taking the medication. A simple exercise routine may be a better alternative. We are [...]