Health News. Lots of resources and information

Yes. But the many people who have heard remarkable stories about Prozac’s effects on mood, personality, and behavior have requested Prozac—and not just from their psychiatrists. They have asked their general physicians, their surgeons, even their dermatologists and dentists to give them Prozac, and many times these doctors have wrongly complied, giving it to patients for whom it is not justified. Nevertheless, even while Prozac is incorrectly and even overprescribed for some people, it is a documented fact that 50% of all depressed people go totally undiagnosed

and untreated. This figure amounts to millions. Many of these could benefit from Prozac and other antidepressant drugs.

Patients who do not suffer from one of the depressive disorder spectrum diagnoses (these include major depression, dysthymia, and subclinical depression as well as many of the personality disorders with at least one or two of the required symptoms of major depression—the so-called formes fruste type) or obsessive-compulsive disorder, should be treated with Prozac only with great caution, because scientific evidence has not been sufficient to gain FDA approval. If Prozac is being prescribed for any illness other than major depression and OCD, it should be considered experimental by the patient and physician, and the patient should be so informed. Caution should be observed.

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