They're also over-prescribed by a health care system that's in bed with big pharma. Eli Lilly, the makers of Prozac, were accused earlier this year of suppressing a third of the drug trials they performed in order to win FDA approval. From the New York Times report, it sounds like some of Lilly's original trials had results similar to the University of Hull: "In published trials, about 60 percent of people taking the drugs report significant relief from depression, compared with roughly 40 percent of those on placebo pills. But when the less positive, unpublished trials are included, the advantage shrinks: the drugs outperform placebos, but by a modest margin."

According to Dr. Paul Keedwell, of the Institute of Psychiatry in London, the fact that Prozac might not work is a good thing, because depression only makes you stronger. "In its severe form [depression] is terrible and life-threatening, but for many it is a short-term painful episode that can take you out of a stressful situation for a while, according to Keedwell. "It can help people to find a new way of coping with events or your situation, and give you a new perspective, as well as making you more realistic about your aims."

Again, a resounding No shit. Being happy all the time is not only impossible, but dreadfully boring and creatively stifling. There is a range of human emotions that we're all meant to feel. Dealing with post-modern malaise will, for most of us, be a life-long struggle, and severe depression (as anyone who has ever experienced it knows) is a different animal entirely. So to conclude, Prozac doesn't work for everyone, it's normal to be depressed sometimes, and big pharmaceutical companies are filled with crooks and liars. Call me when they discover that Prozac makes you grow a second vagina.

[Image via AdBusters.]

Anti-Depressants 'Of Little Use' [BBC News]
Depression Makes Sufferers Stronger' [Telegraph]
Researchers Find A Bias Toward Upbeat Findings On Antidepressants [New York Times]

Earlier: What's The Difference Between A "Real" Depressive And A "Lazy" Pill Freak?
In Defense Of Depression

Then, there's the problem, as Salon succinctly puts it, of the "Serotonin Empire." "The Serotonin Empire continues to expand for a simple reason: Try getting your company's health insurance to cover the expense of counseling. Odds are, it won't. But it'll pay for pills," writes Jerome Weeks, in a roundup of several books about antidepressants. (No wonder that Eli Lilly, the company that makes Prozac, had its fourth-quarter net income rise six-fold last year!) The people are medicated, the drug companies are happy, and physicians — many of whom are not psychiatrists — are prescribing anti-depressant meds after consultations of as little as 3 minutes, says Salon.

Which is not to say that I am anti anti-depressants: I've been on Paxil, Prozac, Lexapro and Wellbutrin at some point or another over the past seven years, and I think I can safely say that at the time my initial SSRI was prescribed, I was far past the point of "bummed." I cried pretty much incessantly for over a month, could barely get out of bed, and was essentially unable to function. I have a vivid memory of struggling to make myself a bagel, and then breaking down into tears when the charred smell of burnt yeast started coming from the kitchen — toasting a baked good was a task both tiny and totally impossible.

Honestly, I don't know what would have happened had I not taken anti-depressants; I suppose I would have struggled through it, and hopefully not become Bell Jar refugee with my wrists slit or my head in the oven. Maybe I would have been fine, as I am now, and continued to live out my life contentedly. At least until middle-age (according to a new study, those in mid-life are most likely to be depressed). But of course, by the time I hit 50, Eli Lilly will probably have something for mid-life crises too.

[Image via Brandspankin']

Don't Be Happy, Worry [Salon]
Yale Lecturer Advises: Flush The Prozac And Hack Your Own Happiness [Wired]
Happiness Is Being Young Or Old, But Middle Age Is Misery [Guardian]