Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-19T06:09:55.517Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The 25th anniversary of the launch of Prozac gives pause for thought: where did we go wrong?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Edward Shorter*
Affiliation:
History of Medicine Program, University of Toronto, 207-88 College Street, Toronto M5G 1L7, Canada. Email: [email protected]
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Summary

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

The creation, in DSM-III, of the category ‘major depression’ can be linked to the launch, and success, of Prozac. The consequences of creating this broad diagnostic category are of concern in relation to the treatment of individuals with a diverse variety of depressive disorders.

Type
Editorials
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2014 

References

1 American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (3rd edn) (DSM-III). APA, 1980.Google Scholar
2 Shorter, E. Before Prozac: The Troubled History of Mood Disorders in Psychiatry. Oxford University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
3 Anon.Prozac advertisement. JAMA 1988; 259: 3092a-c.Google Scholar
4 Anon. Desyrel advertisement. Am J Psychiatry 1982; 139: A518 (April).Google Scholar
5 Anon. Prozac advertisement, Am J Psychiatry 1996; 153: advertisement pages (September).Google Scholar
6 Egan, T. Washington City full of Prozac. New York Times 1994; 30 Jan: A10.Google Scholar
7 Scrip. SmithKline Beecham stresses product growth. Scrip 1993; 2 Mar: 7.Google Scholar
8 Wall Street Journal. National Institute for Health Care Management data see drug spending jumps 17%. Wall Street J 2002; 29 Mar: A3.Google Scholar
9 Shorter, E. How Everyone became Depressed: The Rise and Fall of the Nervous Breakdown. Oxford University Press, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
10 Baldessarini, R. Interview. In Oral History of Neuropsychopharmacology, The First Fifty Years: Peer Interviews (Vol 5) (ed. Ban, T): 1336. ACNP, 2011.Google Scholar
11 American Psychiatric Association. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorder (5th edn) (DSM-5). APA, 2013.Google Scholar
12 Parker, G, Hadzi-Pavlovic, D. Melancholia: A Disorder of Movement and Mood. Cambridge University Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Submit a response

eLetters

No eLetters have been published for this article.