Depression is the most common form of mental health problem. Most estimates are that twenty percent of people in the US are depressed, with the majority not getting any sort of treatment. Those people with depression who do get treatment usually do so in the forms of psychotherapy, some type of pharmaceutical prescription, or a combination of both. The pharmaceutical types most often prescribed for depression are, naturally enough, in the antidepressant class.

Antidepressants have been in use since the 1950s. The method for antidepressants is to alter the brain chemistry in some specific way, often to maintain levels of a particular chemical. The SSRI antidepressants for example are designed to keep levels of the brain chemical serotonin at certain levels, the thought being that reduced levels of serotonin lead to depression among other dysfunctions. SSRI is shorthand for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor. The most well known of the SSRIs without question is Prozac.
Prozac became commercially available in Europe starting 1986 but work on the drug actually started in the 1970s. Contrary to what may be popular opinion, Prozac was not the first SSRI antidepressant, but it was the most commercially successful of the initial SSRIs. This was certainly helped by the fact that the first SSRI antidepressant, Zimelidine, was banned because it presented serious side effects. Prozac was marketed as a completely new type of drug, one that was specifically in contrast to tricyclic antidepressants, which prior to Prozac were the most commonly prescribed pharmaceuticals for depression.

Specifically, Prozac was said to be more precise in the way it worked and to present fewer side effects than the tricyclic antidepressants. Tricyclic antidepressants were known for having particular side effects, including increased heart rate, constipation, and sexual dysfunction. Though Prozac may have had fewer side effects than the tricyclics, Prozac was not an entirely clean drug when it came to carryover side effects: sexual dysfunction was also an effect seen during Prozac usage. The side effects from Prozac use however were generally thought to subside over time.

Whether Prozac was a miracle drug or not is certainly up for debate, but it did prove to be enormously profitable. There were literally millions of prescriptions written for Prozac, and the drug grossed billions of dollars before its patent expired. There are now other SSRI drugs similar to Prozac that are commercially available, and these drugs, like Prozac, have proven to be exceptionally popular. This gives credibility to the notion that the SSRIs may be the most effective type of antidepressant currently available.

About the author: Zinn Jeremiah is a freelance author. For help with depression, visit www.hubonline.biz/get-better-now.htm.