Word: prozac
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...their study, published in Archives of General Psychiatry, one group of patients was treated by scientists with the drug Prozac while those in the second group met regularly with a therapist who worked on helping them acquire control over their senseless fears and urges through deconditioning exercises. In 10 weeks, about two-thirds of the patients in both groups had improved. Brain scans of responsive patients showed a decrease in metabolic activity in the brain's right caudate nucleus...
...National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) in Bethesda, Md. With computerized scanners, researchers are peering at the chemistry of the working mind. Meanwhile, molecular biologists are beginning to map abnormal behavior to specific strands of dna. And by tracing the action of drugs like clozapine for schizophrenia and Prozac (fluoxetine) for depression, scientists can link moods and feelings to the action of certain chemicals in the brain. The result is a burst of new ideas about how the mind works -- and what is going on when it does not -- unequaled since the days of Freud and Jung...
...time. A second category of antidepressants, the tricyclics (so named for their triple-carbon-ring structure), raises the level of these neurotransmitters in the brain by slowing the rate at which they are reabsorbed by nerve cells. The third and newest category of medications, represented by the popular Prozac and a number of other drugs, inhibits the uptake of zero serotonin alone. As a result of this specificity, these newest drugs reverse depressive symptoms without the severe side effects of other antidepressants, which can cause low blood pressure, dizziness and blurred vision if not monitored. (Some people allege, however, that...
...effectiveness of Prozac, which is the world's top-selling antidepressant, has led some researchers to speculate that serotonin is the key regulator of mood, and that depression is essentially a shortfall of serotonin. But the theory has some serious flaws. If serotonin is so important, why do the tricyclics (which affect both norepinephrine and serotonin) work slightly better than the drugs that act on serotonin alone? And why, since these drugs act quickly to change the serotonin levels in the brain, does it take up to a month for their effects to be felt? Finally, some scientists wonder...
...PROZAC...