![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Not Lilly white
Jan. 8th, 2002 08:26 amEli Lilly is getting ready to release a product that relieves all those unpleasant emotional things associated with PMS. Now to get an understanding of the product you have to realize they've simply painted their winning SSRI antidepressant product, Prozac, pink. It's fortunate for we the people that Lilly has been working so hard on this product. So fortunate that this will be released to the market just as the patent protection for best selling Prozac expires. They were going to release a once a week version of Prozac too, but that may have been scuttled by lawsuits (see below), so only women will get the added benefits of this great product.
But before we begin the dancing in the streets, let's peruse some stats. I'm sorry about the sketchy nature of these, but it can be hard to find comparative stats for different years. Also let me express here - depression is a serious disorder, deadly serious. I wouldn't write about it if I didn't think so.
*****
18.8 million American adults have a depressive disorder each year (this includes bipolar, chronic mild depression and major depression)(NIMH stat) There around 281 million people in the US as of 2000.(US Census Bureau) That puts about 7% of the population of the US in a notably unenviable place each year.
The best data I've been able to find so far is that in 1994, 21 million prescriptions for anti-depressants were written. In 1998, 65 million prescriptions were written for anti-depressants. In 2000, 73.3 million prescriptions were written for just the top 3 SSRI antidepressants, worth 6.5 billion dollars. (Kaiser Family Foundation Prescription Drug Chartbook) Again, the data aren't similar, the 2000 data are only for the 3 most popular, the other two years are total but not from well documented sources. Even discounting the data a bit, that trend is amazing. Compare that to the number of people suffering depression each year.
In 1994, 3,000 prescriptions for Prozac were written for children younger than one year old. Wow, just think of a one year old with chronic depression or maybe the reason for the prescription was severe depression. Somehow the child managed to express there recurrent suicidal thoughts and the fact that their depression was affecting their job performance. Maybe crib death is really just suicide in disguise.
Early studies suggested sexual disfunction was a side effect in <10% of patients. Those studies didn't ask the patients if they had sexual disfunction, they only recorded it if the patient complained (nice trick Eli). Later studies which actually asked the question found between 50 and 70% of patients had some degree of sexual disfunction ranging from decreased libido to delayed or non-existent orgasm. Oh and twice as many women take these things as men. A little self centered of me I'll admit but what the hell are they trying to do to my chances at bars!
In 1994, there were l,908,000 patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals in the United States. Of that number 8% were admitted with a diagnosis of SSRI induced psychosis.(Clinical Psychiatry News) Okay so that last one may be a little inflamatory. Afterall, if they were out of control, went on meds, swung back the other way out of control, then got admitted it would show up as SSRI induced psychosis. But we're talking about anti-depressants, anti-psychotics are the next aisle over. In the depressed/anti-depressed world you'd expect a bit of mania for your swing, psychosis is an altogether different bird.
Oh, the last side effect we'll cover today is being debated in court. Lilly denies in one place (court) and admits in another (the patent for the new Prozac) that Prozac causes... well, suicidal tendencies and some other nastiness. Now it's debatable whether it really causes the suicidal tendencies or just gives people, who were too depressed to act, the energy to actually do something unfortunate. But Lilly was dumb enough to say it did in a patent, so I guess it does.
*****
Enough of the random things, if you want to go crazy sometime, try to find clear consistent meaningful data on how many citizens of the United States are currently taking anti-depressants. That's the question I started with and still haven't gotten an answer.
Why do I care? Well, maybe I wouldn't care if I knew anyone who had been on anti-depressants and actually come off of them. That's the catch isn't it, when do you stop? Do you personally know anyone who used to be on SSRIs and isn't now? The recommendations are to keep taking it after you feel better (4-6 months). Although there is no clinical addiction, withdrawl symptoms include nausea, dizziness, and other minor physical ailments. As for the mental effects of withdrawl, again, no clinical addiction there, but put people who have suffered major depressions before into just a little bit of a spiral as they come off... they'll be back.
William S. Burroughs talked about the perfect drug in his book "Naked Lunch". I'm sure he was psychotic, but maybe he was psychic too. His perfect drug was a drug that has the ability to remove your troubles, easy to dispense, without obvious side effects and what makes it perfect from the dealer's persepective is a good solid addictive quality. Mr. Burroughs understood from experience that most of the addictive street drugs weren't very physically addictive, but were psychologically addictive. Mental Note: check estate of WSB for ownership of stock in ELI.
Now, for major depression (as defined by NIMH and others) or chronic depression (ditto) I think we should use whatever means possible to return the sufferers to the land of the okay. As I said, this is a serious problem and needs to be dealt with seriously. It is a physician's responsibility *not* to give everyone a lifetime supply like the Easter Bunny giving out jelly beans.
But before we begin the dancing in the streets, let's peruse some stats. I'm sorry about the sketchy nature of these, but it can be hard to find comparative stats for different years. Also let me express here - depression is a serious disorder, deadly serious. I wouldn't write about it if I didn't think so.
*****
18.8 million American adults have a depressive disorder each year (this includes bipolar, chronic mild depression and major depression)(NIMH stat) There around 281 million people in the US as of 2000.(US Census Bureau) That puts about 7% of the population of the US in a notably unenviable place each year.
The best data I've been able to find so far is that in 1994, 21 million prescriptions for anti-depressants were written. In 1998, 65 million prescriptions were written for anti-depressants. In 2000, 73.3 million prescriptions were written for just the top 3 SSRI antidepressants, worth 6.5 billion dollars. (Kaiser Family Foundation Prescription Drug Chartbook) Again, the data aren't similar, the 2000 data are only for the 3 most popular, the other two years are total but not from well documented sources. Even discounting the data a bit, that trend is amazing. Compare that to the number of people suffering depression each year.
In 1994, 3,000 prescriptions for Prozac were written for children younger than one year old. Wow, just think of a one year old with chronic depression or maybe the reason for the prescription was severe depression. Somehow the child managed to express there recurrent suicidal thoughts and the fact that their depression was affecting their job performance. Maybe crib death is really just suicide in disguise.
Early studies suggested sexual disfunction was a side effect in <10% of patients. Those studies didn't ask the patients if they had sexual disfunction, they only recorded it if the patient complained (nice trick Eli). Later studies which actually asked the question found between 50 and 70% of patients had some degree of sexual disfunction ranging from decreased libido to delayed or non-existent orgasm. Oh and twice as many women take these things as men. A little self centered of me I'll admit but what the hell are they trying to do to my chances at bars!
In 1994, there were l,908,000 patients admitted to psychiatric hospitals in the United States. Of that number 8% were admitted with a diagnosis of SSRI induced psychosis.(Clinical Psychiatry News) Okay so that last one may be a little inflamatory. Afterall, if they were out of control, went on meds, swung back the other way out of control, then got admitted it would show up as SSRI induced psychosis. But we're talking about anti-depressants, anti-psychotics are the next aisle over. In the depressed/anti-depressed world you'd expect a bit of mania for your swing, psychosis is an altogether different bird.
Oh, the last side effect we'll cover today is being debated in court. Lilly denies in one place (court) and admits in another (the patent for the new Prozac) that Prozac causes... well, suicidal tendencies and some other nastiness. Now it's debatable whether it really causes the suicidal tendencies or just gives people, who were too depressed to act, the energy to actually do something unfortunate. But Lilly was dumb enough to say it did in a patent, so I guess it does.
*****
Enough of the random things, if you want to go crazy sometime, try to find clear consistent meaningful data on how many citizens of the United States are currently taking anti-depressants. That's the question I started with and still haven't gotten an answer.
Why do I care? Well, maybe I wouldn't care if I knew anyone who had been on anti-depressants and actually come off of them. That's the catch isn't it, when do you stop? Do you personally know anyone who used to be on SSRIs and isn't now? The recommendations are to keep taking it after you feel better (4-6 months). Although there is no clinical addiction, withdrawl symptoms include nausea, dizziness, and other minor physical ailments. As for the mental effects of withdrawl, again, no clinical addiction there, but put people who have suffered major depressions before into just a little bit of a spiral as they come off... they'll be back.
William S. Burroughs talked about the perfect drug in his book "Naked Lunch". I'm sure he was psychotic, but maybe he was psychic too. His perfect drug was a drug that has the ability to remove your troubles, easy to dispense, without obvious side effects and what makes it perfect from the dealer's persepective is a good solid addictive quality. Mr. Burroughs understood from experience that most of the addictive street drugs weren't very physically addictive, but were psychologically addictive. Mental Note: check estate of WSB for ownership of stock in ELI.
Now, for major depression (as defined by NIMH and others) or chronic depression (ditto) I think we should use whatever means possible to return the sufferers to the land of the okay. As I said, this is a serious problem and needs to be dealt with seriously. It is a physician's responsibility *not* to give everyone a lifetime supply like the Easter Bunny giving out jelly beans.
