As part of its documentary series called Retro Report, which looks back at major stories that “shaped” the world, the New York Times (9/22, Haberman, Subscription Publication) explores, along with a video, “the enormous influence, both chemical and cultural,” that antidepressant Prozac (Fluoxetine HCl) “and its brethren have had in treating depression.” The concern gained “new resonance with the recent suicide of the comedian Robin Williams,” the piece notes.
The piece examines how Eli Lilly’s medication in the late 1980s and the 90s “was widely viewed as a miracle pill,” but over the years “backlash” developed due to concerns of potentially increased suicide risk in some, although no “definite” link was established. The Times wonders “whether the medical establishment, and perhaps society in general, has gone too far in turning normal conditions, like sadness, into pathologies.”
Related Links:
— “Selling Prozac as the Life-Enhancing Cure for Mental Woes,” Clyde Haberman, New York Times, September 21, 2014.