Every one of us most likely knows at least one person who suffers from some sort of mental illness. Maybe it is OCD, or anxiety, or bipolar disorder. Maybe it is one mental disorder that seems very common lately, depression. Most people have experienced depression at least once in their lives, but some people have to suffer through that feeling of hopelessness and self hatred most hours of the day. For those people, antidepressants were created. At first, many antidepressants had extreme physical and mental side effects that were anything but desirable. Prozac was the first of a new class of drugs to treat depression in America. Prozac is an SSRI, or a selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor. SSRI’s did not cause as intense of symptoms. Prozac
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Before Fluoxetine, or Prozac, there was a drug called imipramine or Tofranil. Because of the extreme possible side effects of this drug, scientists fully immersed themselves into discovering a better, less life altering antidepressant. Prozac was approved by the FDA on December 29th of 1987. In it’s first week of production, over 400,000 prescriptions were filled. Shortly after the invention of Prozac came many more antidepressant of the same category (SSRIs). This included Zoloft in 1991, Paxil in 1992, Lexapro in 2002 and Citalopram in 2004. (http://content.time.com) Even with all the new drugs being approved, Prozac remained one of the most successful psychiatric drugs in …show more content…
Eli Lilly created a brochure, called “Depression: What you need to know”, and funded over 8 million of them. Eli Lilly created over 200,000 posters on the topic of depression. Prozac has undoubtedly saved millions of lives. Books have been written about those suffering from clinical depression, and are saved by Prozac. Prozac crushed the idea that everyone who was depressed or has anxiety was crazy. More and more people became aware of the growing problem that was depression, and realized it was not something to be ashamed of. Those with depression no longer had to hide in the corner of their room, afraid of what society would think of them if they found out their mental instability. Prozac is still used today, although it is not as popular. In 2001, Prozac lost it’s patent. Prozac sales dropped severely. Eli Lilly then created a new, very similar antidepressant to Prozac called Cymbalta. There were differences, but the idea was the same. Without Prozac, depression would most likely be a much bigger problem than it is today. Depression would still be seen as a disease, instead of just a mental instability. Suicide rates are not as high as they were before Prozac, and those who are depressed are not as afraid to get help as they were before 1987.
Before Fluoxetine, or Prozac, there was a drug called imipramine or Tofranil. Because of the extreme possible side effects of this drug, scientists fully immersed themselves into discovering a better, less life altering antidepressant. Prozac was approved by the FDA on December 29th of 1987. In it’s first week of production, over 400,000 prescriptions were filled. Shortly after the invention of Prozac came many more antidepressant of the same category (SSRIs). This included Zoloft in 1991, Paxil in 1992, Lexapro in 2002 and Citalopram in 2004. (http://content.time.com) Even with all the new drugs being approved, Prozac remained one of the most successful psychiatric drugs in …show more content…
Eli Lilly created a brochure, called “Depression: What you need to know”, and funded over 8 million of them. Eli Lilly created over 200,000 posters on the topic of depression. Prozac has undoubtedly saved millions of lives. Books have been written about those suffering from clinical depression, and are saved by Prozac. Prozac crushed the idea that everyone who was depressed or has anxiety was crazy. More and more people became aware of the growing problem that was depression, and realized it was not something to be ashamed of. Those with depression no longer had to hide in the corner of their room, afraid of what society would think of them if they found out their mental instability. Prozac is still used today, although it is not as popular. In 2001, Prozac lost it’s patent. Prozac sales dropped severely. Eli Lilly then created a new, very similar antidepressant to Prozac called Cymbalta. There were differences, but the idea was the same. Without Prozac, depression would most likely be a much bigger problem than it is today. Depression would still be seen as a disease, instead of just a mental instability. Suicide rates are not as high as they were before Prozac, and those who are depressed are not as afraid to get help as they were before 1987.