WHY HAS PROZAC BEEN FEATURED ON THE COVERS OF NEWSWEEK AND NEW YORK MAGAZINE, DISCUSSED ON MAJOR TELEVISION AND RADIO STATIONS, AND WRITTEN ABOUT IN MOST OF THE DAILY NEWSPAPERS?
The sensational press coverage that Prozac has received is due partly to the growing public awareness of depression over the past two decades. Educational programs sponsored by groups such as the American Psychiatric Association, the National Depressive and Manic-Depressive Association, and my own Foundation for Depression and Manic Depression in New York City, have helped broadcast the message locally and nationally that depression is a physical illness that can be treated quickly and effectively with antidepressants. Powerful memoirs such as the actress Patty Duke’s A Brilliant Madness: Living with Manic-Depressive illness and the author William Styron’s Darkness Visible have shed light on an emotion that Winston Churchill described as a “black cloud” and that one of my own patients called a “black hole” And a flurry of interest in depression always rises up in the wake of events such as the 1993 suicide of President Bill Clinton’s boyhood friend and White House legal adviser Vincent Foster.
This increased public awareness has improved the climate for talking about and dealing with major depression. When imipramine, the first antidepressant, was discovered 1958 no one talked about depression. By the time Prozac was introduced in 1987, that taboo had largely evaporated.
In addition to its promised ability to alleviate depression. Prozac’s “mood enhancing” or “mood brightening” properties caught the attention of the public and the media. Its effects were presented as dramatic and miraculous—and let’s face it, a lot of people in our culture continue to look for a quick fix. Unfortunately, the newspaper and magazine articles and talk shows failed to delineate the myth from the reality and did not make the point that major transformations, when they did occur, took place in perhaps 10% of Prozac responders. The media instead implied that most everyone, depressed or not who even has a few personality quirks might take Prozac and have complete relief of all unpleasant symptoms as well as a personality change. It was heralded that slower going, somewhat introspective, chronically unhappy people, upon taking Prozac, could become upbeat, highly confident, energetic, extroverted people. They would essentially be able to change their personalities to what the American culture considers most desirable – the highly energised and charismatic personality with the competitive edge. Then, in the middle of all this media attention, came an all-out attack orchestrated by the Church of Scientology. It focused on a very small group of people, among the millions who have taken Prozac, who had suicidal or violent thoughts or in a few instances actually committed suicide or homicide. These rare cases led the press and the media to produce more coverage on the possibly negative effects of the drug, charges of which Prozac was later exonerated. All in all, Prozac has received more than its share of publicity, both good and bad.
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