The History of the Antidepressant Prozac

The History of the Antidepressant Prozac Prozac is the registered trademarked name for fluoxetine hydrochloride, one of the worlds most widely prescribed antidepressants. It was the first product in a major class of drugs for depression called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors- or SSRIs. The drugs history dates to the early 1970s when the role of serotonin in depression began to emerge, according to David T. Wong, K.W. Perry, and F.P. Bymaster, in their September 2005 article, The Discovery of Fluoxetine Hydrochloride (Prozac), published in the journal Nature Reviews: Drug Discovery. They add: These studies led to the discovery and development of the selective serotonin-reuptake inhibitor fluoxetine hydrochloride (Prozac; Eli Lilly), which was approved for the treatment of depression by the U.S. FDA in 1987. Prozac was first introduced to the U.S. market in January 1988 and  gained its most prescribed status within two years. The Invention of Prozac The story of Prozac began when biochemist Ray W. Fuller came to work at Eli Lilly in 1963, according to the Science History Institute: In his research Fuller had used rats treated with chloroamphetamine, which inhibited the production of serotonin, to measure the effects of other drugs on serotonin levels. Fuller believed that this method would forward research on brain chemistry. Two other scientists, Bryan Molloy and Wong- who coauthored the article previously mentioned in the introduction- joined Fuller in his work at Eli Lilly. In 1971 both Molloy and Wong attended a lecture on neurotransmission given by Solomon Snyder, a researcher from Johns Hopkins University, the institute notes. Snyder had ground up rat brains, separated out the nerve endings, and created an extract of nerve endings that worked in the same way as living nerve cells. Wong then used this technique to test the effects of various compounds, one of which was found to block the reuptake of serotonin with no side effects. The compound, fluoxetine, became the drug that was eventually named Prozac. Interestingly, Eli Lilly first tested Prozac as a treatment for high blood  pressure and then as an anti-obesity agent, noted Anna Moore in a 2007 article in The Guardian, a British newspaper. Eventually, after further studies by Fuller, Malloy, and Wong, Eli Lilly sought and received FDA approval (in December 1987) and the next month began to market Prozac as happiness in a blister pack, Moore noted. Skyrocketing Sales Sales of the drug took off: By the end of 1988, 2.5 million prescriptions for it were dispensed in America, according to Siddhartha Mukherjee in his article, Post-Prozac Nation: The Science and History of Treating Depression, published in The New York Times Magazine in April 2002, a year when the number of Prozac prescriptions had risen to more than 33 million annually. Though other antidepressants have taken over the top spots, Prozac was still the sixth-most popular such drug in the U.S. with 24.5 million annual prescriptions in 2015, according to Tim Hrenchir in his article, 10 Most-Prescribed Antidepressant Medications, published in July 2018 on NewsMax Health. How It Works Prozac works by increasing brain levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter that is thought to influence sleep, appetite, aggression, and mood. Neurotransmitters are chemicals that carry messages between nerve cells. They’re secreted by one cell and picked up by receptor proteins on the surface of another. A neurotransmitter is either destroyed or retrieved into the cell that made it after the message has been delivered. This process is known as reuptake.   The effect of serotonin is amplified when reuptake is inhibited. Although its  not entirely known why increasing neurotransmitter levels reduces the severity of a depression, it may be that increased levels of serotonin cause changes in the brains concentration of neurotransmitter-binding receptors. This might make the brain physically more capable of feeling good. Since its introduction in the U.S., Prozac has met with mixed reviews by scientists, patients, and doctors, and has provoked its share of debate. Controversy and Clinical Trials In her 1994 book  Ã¢â‚¬Å"Prozac Nation,†Ã‚  Elizabeth Wurtzel wrote of a nearly transcendental experience after she started taking the drug, moving from an absence of affect, absence of feeling, absence of response, absence of interest and a â€Å"suicidal reverie† to a generally blissful state. Indeed, Wurtzels book helped the antidepressant gain even greater popularity. Peter Kramer in his 1993 book, Listening to Prozac coined the term better than well in describing how patients felt after taking the drug. But others began to question the effectiveness of Prozac, such as psychologist Irving Kirsch who wrote an article in 1998 in the journal Prevention Treatment titled, â€Å"Listening to Prozac but Hearing Placebo,† where he argued that antidepressants, including Prozac, were much less effective than was generally believed. In 2010, he published a book with the same argument called â€Å"The Emperor’s New Drugs: Exploding the Antidepressant Myth.† Clinical trials were conducted that both supported and questioned the efficacy of Prozac. For example, Jay C. Fournier, et al., in a 2010 article published in the JAMA, called Antidepressant Drug Effects and Depression Severity: A Patient-Level Meta-analysis, evaluated patient data from six trials and found that all antidepressants, including fluoxetine hydrochloride, exhibited minimal efficacy in mild to moderate depression. Conversely, in a 2009  systematic review of the literature, the National Institute of Care and Clinical Excellence found that strong evidence existed for the efficacy of SSRIs, including Prozac. Backlash and Continued Use PBS on the People and Discoveries section of its website notes that reports also emerged that some patients felt more suicidal when they were on Prozac. Other negative references to Prozac also began to emerge in society, PBS notes: Lawyers began to defend murder suspects by saying that whatever they did, it was under the influence of a drug Prozac. In all, there were backlashes against Prozac, and later backlashes against the backlashes. The drug eventually settled into the middle of the pack of antidepressants. As noted, Prozac is no longer the most prescribed antidepressant, but it continues to hold a place in the pharmacists formulary, as PBS describes it: It is today one of the dozen or so drugs in the U.S. that continue to be prescribed to millions for antidepression.

Present Participle as Adjective

Present Participle as Adjective Present Participle as Adjective Present Participle as Adjective By Maeve Maddox As one of our readers tells her students, writers should rejoice in the present participle because it is one of the rarities of English â€Å"rules†: one thing they can count on. Unlike its sibling the past participle, the present participle always has the same ending. Reminder: English verbs have five principal parts: Infinitive, Simple Present, Simple Past, Past Participle, and Present Participle. Past participles take different forms, but the present participle always ends in -ing. Used with helping verbs, the present participle forms the continuous tenses: We were living in Taiwan at the time. (past continuous) Tom Selleck has been playing law enforcement characters for thirty-four years. (present perfect continuous) Used without a helping verb, the present participle functions as an adjective. (The -ing verb form has another use, but this post is about its function as an adjective.) Here are some specific uses of the present participle: in front of a noun Poirot solved the puzzling mystery. (modifies â€Å"mystery†) The smell of burning leaves stirs memories of my childhood. (modifies â€Å"leaves†) after a verb of perception They heard someone screaming. (modifies â€Å"someone†) The woman watched the cat creeping toward the bird. (modifies â€Å"cat†) with the verbs spend and waste Don’t waste your time trying to convince him he’s mistaken. (modifies understood subject â€Å"You.†) The inefficient blogger spent her entire afternoon researching and writing one post. (modify the subject â€Å"blogger†) to introduce a participial phrase Weeping bitterly over her loss, Gwendolyn lay on the bed for several hours. The archaeologist, sweeping the shards into a neat pile, cursed his clumsiness. It is this last use of the participle that often leads to the error known as a â€Å"dangling participle.† For example: Stubbing his toe on the step, the heavy chair fell from his grasp. Leaning affectionately toward him, her head rested against his shoulder. The participle phrases in these two examples are â€Å"dangling† because there’s no appropriate noun for them to describe. Dangling participles can be corrected in more than one way: 1. Provide an appropriate noun or pronoun for the phrase to describe: Stubbing his toe on the step, the mover dropped the heavy chair. Leaning affectionately toward him, she rested her head against his shoulder. 2. Rewrite the phrase as a clause: When the mover stubbed his toe against the step, the heavy chair fell from his grasp. She leaned affectionately toward him and rested her head against his shoulder. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Grammar category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:12 Types of LanguageDoes "Mr" Take a Period?Grammatical Case in English