C. Carrol,
I took Prozac and a tricyclic as a volunteer for a study and it was obvious to me within three days whether I was taking the drug or the placebo, and according to the doctors doing the study it was obvious to most people. Insofar as Prozac alters the amount of a very powerful brain chemical it's entirely reasonable that it should have noticeable effects and it does. I think the reason people feel uncomfortable about this is because of the bogus notion that if Prozac makes them "feel" something, they are "taking drugs" and not taking medicine. Of course there is no distinction between the two. Except for psychedilics and methamphetamines, all other common "drugs" that I can think of have medical uses. There are those who would say that psychedilics have a philosophical/religious use. If you found a trauma victim with strong respiration who was going into shock and an irregular heartbeat, heroin (if that's all you had) might save that person's life. The morphine it metabolizes into would reduce the severity of the shock and smooth out his heartbeat. Morphine is one of the commonest and most important drugs there is and there is no way to separate the euphoric effects of morphine from the medical effects. Why try?
If Prozac makes people who are miserable feel better for long periods of time with few unpleasant effects why worry about it? Even if Prozac was a euphoric, which it isn't (it made me feel miserbly nervous and ill at ease), had that side-effect of euphoria, who cares so long as it does no long-term damage? People don't get addicted to Prozac, it creates no destructive cravings, so what's the problem? Psychactive drugs are phsyochoactive drugs and it does no good to get into a ridiculous categorization game between "drugs" and "medicine". Morphine, cocaine Prozac and any other prescription medicine are all controlled substances. They have good and potentially destructive effects.
peace
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>Paxil is chemically almost identical with Prozac, as is Zoloft. I am
allergic
>to Prozac and Zoloft, but not Paxil, and never once in the years I took
>Paxil did I notice *any* effect in direct connection with the medication.
>Neither have all the other scores of takers of Paxil, Prozac, Serzone,
>Amitripylene, Effexor, Celexa, etc. etc. etc who I have known. They
>affect (leaving aside the possiblity of placebo effect) the reuptake of
>Serotonin in the synapses, but only after they build up a certain level
>in the bloodstream over several weeks. This is the first post by you I
>have read in a couple years. Clearly I haven't been missing anything.
>
>Carrol
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