Since its introduction, over 11 million patients worldwide and 6 million in the United States have taken Prozac. These people cover the gamut from children to adolescents to the elderly, from lifelong depressives who, with the help of Prozac, are beginning for the first time to structure their lives in responsible ways, to many highly successful, productive people who have had from one to numerous bouts of depression in their lifetime. Name any randomly chosen group of successful people in society, business, politics, or the arts, and it is likely that 20% to 30% of them are either taking Prozac or have been given Prozac at some point over the last several years. Actors, politicians, housewives, business people, and artists have flooded
i talk shows, newspapers, magazines, and books with stones of how Prozac has helped them. People of all classes, races, and religions have benefited from and talked about the miraculous effects of Prozac in reversing their despair, chronic lack of pleasure, poor functioning, and persistent low-level depression and in raising them to a level of functioning so much better than their previous state that patients have sometimes used the term “new self.”
In the past, lithium and other antidepressants have also unleashed a torrent of dramatic claims and testimony in books, articles, and talk shows. But after media reports about the possibility of transforming the self and developing a new personality, Prozac has caused a deluge like no other.
*53\22\4*
