Word: prozac
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TODAY'S TREATMENTS Most antidepressants work by tweaking levels of various neurotransmitters, the chemicals that carry signals from one neuron to another. Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft and the other SSRIs slow the absorption of serotonin. Effective antidepressants that act on both serotonin and norepinephrine include Effexor and Remeron. Drugs like Wellbutrin work in a similar way but probably on the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and dopamine. The tricyclic antidepressants (such as Elavil and Tofranil) also blocked the absorption of neurotransmitters, especially norepinephrine, but the drugs had significant side effects. Another class of first-generation drugs, the monoamine oxidase inhibitors (MAOIs) such as Nardil...
...clues. When serotonin circulates in the bloodstream, for example, it appears to make platelets less sticky and thus less likely to clump together in artery-blocking blood clots. For years, heart-attack survivors have been advised to take a children's aspirin daily for clot prevention; such drugs as Prozac, which keep serotonin in circulation, seem to have a similar effect...
Then in the 1970s, neuropharmacologists realized that they could minimize side effects by focusing just on serotonin. Antidepressant drugs like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft, known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, or SSRIs, were developed to keep serotonin from being reabsorbed quickly into nerve cells when it is produced...
...kind of the opposite in cognitive therapy." Cognitive therapists tend to follow the same basic script for each session, so the treatment is remarkably standardized. It's also remarkably effective; research shows that when it comes to treating depression, cognitive therapy works as well as drugs like Prozac. And though it's not quite as quick as antidepressants, the results last longer after treatment stops. One study published in the New England Journal of Medicine found that, used together, cognitive therapy and antidepressants can help 85% of patients suffering from chronic major depression...
...twice that amount. Few insurance companies will pay for a treatment that costs $30,000 a year and has hardly any clinical outcome studies to back it up. Insurers would rather pay for a cognitive therapist--or for that matter, a psychopharmacologist, especially since the introduction of Prozac in 1987. Prozac and the other selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are widely used to treat disorders like depression and anxiety, which were once the bread and butter of psychoanalysis. Of the 14 million patients treated for depression in the U.S. every year, around 80% take some form of antidepressant medication...