[PEN-L:5443] Re: Re: More Dark Musings

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Tom Walker wrote:

>
> The 'beneficial' effects of Prozac have been shown in controlled trials to
> be no better than those of a placebo with side effects.

Several points:

1) The research on clinical depression and manic depression is and
always has been in a state of confusion. Postive statments such as
this are not valid.

2) Leaving aside the question of  whether any given anti-depressant
(AD) works on those suffering from some form of clinical depression,
of course neither Prozac nor any other AD either has or has been
claimed to have any effect whatsoever on (common language)
depression stemming from awareness that things are pretty damn
gloomy out there.

3) Technically, Prozac is one of a large family of drugs called
selective serotonin re-uptake inhibitors (SSRIs). The most
positive claims for SSRIs is that they work in about 60% to
80% of cases. That leaves a lot of room for foul-ups in any
one "test." Serotonin is one of about 60 *known* neurotransmitters,
the functions of most of which are not known. Quite a bit, but far
from a enough, is known about the functions of serotonin and two
or three other neurotransmitters.

Carrol