Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
SSRIs
One obvious factor behind the increase in question is the introduction of
new sorts of antidepressive drugs on the market, which have been prescribed
more readily by physicians than the old ones, possibly because of better
effi cacy, defi nitely because of less disturbing side effects. These drugs are
marketed and promoted quite intensively by pharmaceutical companies, and
the information campaigns, targeted at doctors, have been shown to have a
quite signifi cant effect on the prescription rate of individuals. 3
Antidepressants can be divided into different subgroups. The two
subgroups of antidepressive drugs which were used before 1990 in Sweden,
were the MAOIs (monoamine oxidase inhibitors) and the tricyclics (named
after the central three-ring structure of the molecule). 4 These drugs often
showed good effects on depression, but they had severe side effects, such
as food restrictions, dry mouth, sweating, nausea, dizziness, constipation
and sleeping problems. 5 In the 1990s (end of the 1980s in the USA) a new
type of antidepressants was introduced - the SSRIs (selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors) - which were made famous by the brand name of
Prozac (the chemical name of Prozac is fl uoxetine). Fluoxetine was not
introduced in Sweden until 1995 (as Fontex), but another SSRI, citalopram
(Cipramil, Celexa), was introduced in 1992, and soon gained popularity
among doctors and patients in a way similar to what happened to Prozac a
couple of years earlier in other countries. Other widely prescribed SSRIs in
Sweden are paroxetin (Seroxat, Paxil) and sertralin (Zoloft). Another type
of similar antidepressants, affecting the reuptake not only of serotonin but
also of noradrenaline in the synapse, is the SNSRIs (selective noradrenaline
and serotonin reuptake inhibitors). The most prescribed SNSRI in Sweden,
venlafaxin (Efexor), was introduced on the market in 1995, and it has gained
steadily in sales since then. Nevertheless, SSRIs account for more than 75
per cent of the prescriptions of antidepressants in Sweden today and the
situation appears to be similar in most other countries. 6
Phenomenology
So how should we understand this - as we might truly call it - SSRI
revolution? How should we listen to Prozac? 7 In this chapter I will try
to show how phenomenology - the philosophy and research tradition
inaugurated by Edmund Husserl roughly 100 years ago - can pave the way
for a better understanding of the issues involved in both the development in
question and the pro-contra debates surrounding it. By way of introduction,
phenomenology might be described as the attempt to found a conceptual
apparatus that, in contrast to the disembodied theories and investigations
of natural science, is based on lived experience (Spiegelberg 1982, Zahavi
2003). The starting point is everyday life, viewed and investigated from a
certain perspective: the phenomenological attitude. What is focused upon
Search WWH ::




Custom Search