Is Prozac Driving Wall Street?

Highlights from The Fray:

Read my original report. The Web moves fast, and some ideas and caveats in my essay seem to have been torn off in the breeze. In the original version (available at www.edge.org), I emphasized the tentative nature of the suggestion that anti-depressant use could change investor behavior, and I also emphasized that substantial genuine economic benefits could arise because Prozac and similar medications have made millions of people both happier and more productive. I concluded:

The social effects of psychotropic medications is the unreported story of our time. These effects may be small, but they may be large, with the potential for social catastrophe or positive transformation. I make no claim to know which position is correct, but I do know that the question is important, unstudied, and in need of careful research.

--Randolph Nesse

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I think LSD has been instrumental in increasing creativity among technologists and encouraging people to think outside the box. We all know Wall Street is riding on the technological revolution. I say acid fuels technological development.

--Paul

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I hope the author is wrong about the "Prozac Bubble" theory being on CNBC within a week. Theories like this one are healthy outgrowths of educated, intelligent thought and serve best as the impetus for real scientific pursuit. When the science of it is ignored and we move straight to the promulgation phase via sensationalized reporting we have done a disservice to the public and the theory. We must substantiate such claims or risk the embarrassment or worse ill-effects of misinformation.

--Thatcher Cardon

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My 20 years experience since so-called antidepressants have been clinically available and widely used, including Prozac, has not borne witness to the phenomenon this article proposes. Firstly, depressed mood is one symptom which may or may not be present in this syndrome of neurophysiological exhaustion. Mood will become euthymic (within normal range) during treatment only if the mood was depressed to begin with. Re: "throwing caution to the wind", this is patently incorrect from a clinical vantage point. Ebullience, hypomania, poor judgment would be observed only in cases where there is another neurophysiological disorder, Bipolar Disorder, which would become unmasked by treatment with the antidepressant, and not a benefit of it.

Secondly, as an ethicist, this confusion regarding the mechanism of action and clinical results of these medications is a tragedy for those everyday citizens, who include everyone's neighbors, colleagues, and often relatives, who for the very prejudice implicit in this article are not likely to share their use of this medication, remaining alone with their exhaustion prior to response to treatment, and allowing the stigma and misinformation to flourish.

--S. Mullany, MD, MAR

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Viagra makes the market rise, Prozac levels out its ups and downs.

--Fred

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Is it possible that the general economic expansion in the US since '93 or so is directly related to the growing use of anti-depressants? Consider the symptoms of depression: lack of energy, motivation, general apathy etc. Then consider the demographics of a large percentage of anti-depressant users: professional, intelligent, in general much more competent than they believe themselves to be while suffering from depression. What would be the effect of removing said symptoms from such a population? Greatly increased productivity and entrepreneurism. An artificially inflated stock market would of course be an unfortunate side-effect.

--Lauren Lundblad

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After devoting the last ten-plus years to researching and writing about these serotonergic agents, working with those who have had adverse reactions to the drugs, and testifying as an expert witness in criminal cases involving these drugs, I can state without hesitation that I have seen similar reactions in patients on these antidepressants for years. I have even mentioned that these drugs really keep the economy moving - unfortunately the overspending keeps the bankruptcy courts busy as well. (Note how bankruptcy has sky-rocketed since the introduction of these drugs.)

It is way past time for the world to wake up the most devastating drug problem the world has ever seen which is the result of the use of these so-called antidepressants. The very fiber of our society is almost gone as a result. They have created many new terms and situations that we have never witnessed prior to the introduction of SSRI antidepressants--such as: "Murder-Suicide", "Suicide by Cop", "Road Rage", "False Memory Syndrome", "Workplace Violence", "School Shootings", mothers killing their children (approximately 90% of these mothers are on these drugs), women committing violent crimes, out of the blue one family member kills their entire family, etc. And those are only the psychiatric side effects. The physical side effects are just as destructive: diabetes, heart damage, MS, fybromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, to list only a few of so many reported to the FDA.

--Dr. Ann Blake Tracy

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Prozac does not make you fearless. I was fearless before I started taking it four years ago.
Fearless, anxious, angry and depressed.
Now I am a girl without sharp edges.

--P.DRAGON

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(3/6)

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