The Prozac Era. What Next? (opens in new tab)

I feel like I’m a thousand words into this and can’t tell if he’s a crank, getting to a decent point, or some synthesis of the two. Life’s too short to read under-edited blog posts on medications from folks with unclear credentials.

Compared to the newer SSRIs, Prozac is better understood, safer, and generally more effective while having fewer side effects. But the whole genre of drug is so challenging to assess - maybe one in 6 SSRI will fit a patient, and it takes about 3-4 months to understand if it’s helping more than the side effects are hurting. There’s some early genetic screening that can help pick which drug to try first for a patient. However overall the positive outcome for a good SSRI fit for a depression/anxiety patient are life-changing.

Did I get it right? The essence of article is that pharma companies start selling the drug, sponsor the "research" and publications which show the miracle it is, and then it goes generic start campaign s about how bad the same thing but under the generic name.

And profit wildly from anxiety medications

the opium trade was cleaner