This is a re-post from something I wrote in March 2007 – on reflection, perhaps it should be more accurately entitled A History of SSRIs and the Damage they do to Patients.
I think there may well be a lot of discussion in the coming months about Seroxat dependency and the terrible withdrawal symptoms that many people have to endure as they try to stop taking Seroxat and so I think that the download – A History of SSRIs is more relevant today than ever.
Looking at my original post, I was remiss as I didn’t credit the author of the download – so belated apologies to Prof David Healy (I think it’s his piece).
Now read on:
Over the years I have collected a few interesting documents and I think it’s just plain selfish to keep them to myself so I’m starting to share them with you.
The one for download here – A History of SSRIs is exactly what it says it is… a history of SSRIs.
You can read about the first SSRI – Zelmid – which was patented in 1972 and made it to market in 1982 before any of the others. I suppose not many of you remember Zelmid though as it was discovered in rare cases to cause a serious neurological disorder called Guillain-Barré Syndrome. This potentially fatal disorder led to the immediate removal of the drug from the market.
But Astra had already begun the development of a derivative of Zelmid, called alaproclate, when Zelmid ran into trouble. Alaproclate was being investigated for both depression and Alzheimer’s disease. But it caused liver problems in one strain of laboratory mice and this was enough to lead Astra to drop it. Shortly after this, Astra introduced an innovative antipsychotic, remoxipride, which looked like it would have significantly fewer side effects than older agents. Several months after its launch, however, remoxipride was reported to cause aplastic anemia in a small number of people and it too was withdrawn.
Notice a pattern here?
And did you know this about Prozac? As Eli Lilly were trying to launch Prozac in Germany they came up against a slight problem with the view of the German regulators on fluoxetine (Prozac) as of May 1984: “Considering the benefit and the risk, we think this preparation totally unsuitable for the treatment of depression”.
A History of SSRIs is an enlightening document – with a large section on Seroxat…
seroxat secrets... 