General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Giving a lecture on old-timey quack medicines tomorrow [View all]HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)in 75% of listed endangered species. do you think they didn't do their homework?
your dedication to ignoring the content of my posts is admirablly single-minded.
'listening to prozac' was published in 1993 & marks the wider-scale use of SSRIs.
there are few long-term studies.
In 1988, the first SSRI, fluoxetine, was introduced in the United States... SSRIs were initially considered almost free of side effects. Unlike the TCAs, they could be used safely in many patient populations, including the elderly and children...
However, questions about the safety and tolerability of SSRIs have emerged with their continued use. For example, in the original placebo-controlled clinical trials of fluoxetine in depressed patients, sexual dysfunction was reported in 1.9% of trial participants... However, postmarketing clinical trials have reported rates of sexual dysfunction as high as 75%.
Although severe SSRI-induced hyponatremia was not reported in the original clinical trials, it is now known to occur in 1 in 200 elderly patients per year...
Why have the frequency and type of side effects with SSRIs increased with time?
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC181155/
What is not washed out are the side effects, which include the potential for brain damage. A few years ago one of Glenmullens patients who was taking Prozac developed a ticthe tongue darting in and out of the mouththat persisted for months after the drug was discontinued. That sent Glenmullen to Countway Library. He found reports of tics and other neurological side effects, like drug-induced Parkinsonism, associated with SSRIs. The tics include lip smacking, lip puckering, fishlike kissing motions, and pelvic thrusting, Glenmullen says. They are involuntary, disfiguring, and can be very noticeableand may persist long after the drug is stopped. This is the dread side effect in psychiatry, and it can indicate brain damage. Such reactions are not rare. Neurologic agitation is estimated to occur in 10 to 25 percent of patients, and muscle spasms in 10 percent.
The FDA mandates clinical trials for antidepressants that typically last only six weeks and primarily test the drugs efficacy and short-term safety. We lack systematic monitoring of long-term side effects, Glenmullen says, noting that a former FDA head estimated that only 1 percent of long-term side effects comes to the agencys attention. Glenmullen adds that such side effects of psychiatric drugs typically take three decades to gain a critical level of attention, as with the restlessness and involuntary twitchingtardive dyskinesiaassociated with Thorazine and other major tranquilizers. Those drugs were prescribed the way Prozac is now, Glenmullen states. (To date, an estimated 30 million people have ingested SSRIs.)
http://harvardmagazine.com/2000/05/the-downsides-of-prozac.html