Word: serotonin
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Most treatments for depression aim to restore the electrochemical imbalance that leads a depressed brain into warped thinking. The so-called tricyclic antidepressant drugs popular in the 1960s, for example, boosted the activity of the neurotransmitters serotonin and norepinephrine, and two other neurotransmitters, active throughout the body. That often relieved depression but caused side effects, including overwhelming sleepiness, blurred vision and dizziness. The drugs also proved potentially lethal when taken in overdose...
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...
...dysphoric disorder (PMDD), a severe form of PMS, are often debilitated by feelings of sadness and changes in their sleeping and eating habits. Now there's help. The FDA has approved a popular antidepressant, Zoloft, for treatment of PMDD. It works by keeping brain nerves bathed in the chemical serotonin. And unlike other PMDD treatments, such as hormones or psychotherapy, it has been studied in depth in clinical trials...
...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...
Prozac and the other so-called SSRIs have been a breakthrough on several levels. Compared with first-generation antidepressants, they are remarkably effective and relatively free of serious side effects. They work by slowing the brain's absorption of the mood-enhancing neurotransmitter serotonin (thus the term selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor...