Prozac Nation needs to get its head together

I CONGRATULATE the Irish Examiner for highlighting the fact that we are indeed a Prozac Nation (March 28).

It is no coincidence that Prozac and Zyprexa, both manufactured by Eli Lilly, are billion-dollar drugs worldwide.

Former US President George H Bush was once a member of the Eli Lilly board and his son George W’s former director of management and budget, Mitch Daniels, is a former Eli Lilly vice-president.

Much of the scientific community now acknowledges that the advantages of Prozac and similar drugs over a sugar pill placebo is slight. &

When Prozac is compared to an active plecebo (one with side effects), then it is shown in scientific terms to have no real value, but many unintended effects.

Harvard psychiatrist Joseph Glenmullen’s book, Prozac Backlash, published in 2000, documented neurological disorders, including disfiguring facial and whole body tics indicating potential brain damage, agitation, muscle spasms and Parkinson’s disease.

Glenmullen stated that debilitating withdrawal occurs in 50% of patients who abruptly come off Prozac and similar drugs. We Irish have to stop medicalising our human problems because if we continue to do this, we will remain a Prozac Nation.

Mary Maddock

16 Manor Close

Thornbury Heights

Rochestown

Cork.