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Welcome to my blog, a place to explore and learn about the experience of running a psychiatric practice. I post about things that I find useful to know or think about. So, enjoy, and let me know what you think.


Monday, September 22, 2014

Prozac "News"

This article was in the NYTimes.

It includes a retro report video which describes, in essence, Prozac's celebrity. The video leaves me kind of unsatisfied. It alludes to the unproven suspicion that Prozac increases suicidality, but drops the subject. It focuses more on the marketing of Prozac: "PRO" as in professional. "AC" as in action. And "Z" that sounds powerful, or techy, according to the article. They have quick videos of Elizabeth Wurtzel (author of Prozac Nation, also see this ghastly piece by her in yesterday's Times), and Peter Kramer (author of Listening to Prozac-check out the "before and after" of him with brown hair and with grey hair, and of the computers he uses). And it references the controversy of what Prozac is treating-is it "cosmetic"?, what is illness?, etc. All in 9 minutes.

I guess I expect a media video to be more interested in the controversies. There's a lot that could be said about the suppression of data. And the marketing guy they interviewed is satisfyingly slimy, so I can't really complain. Basically, it's a small capsule.