why wouldsomeone be on prozac for years?

Question

Could anyone tell me why a person would be on prozac for years without a break. The person I am talking about started these pills because of having a very quick temper and making her husbands life a misery. What do you the problem could be. I would be grateful for any ideas. thankyou

Answer 1

A few years ago doctors were advocating long term use of the older antidepressants to reduce relapse risk. Oddly with newer and safer drugs like Prozac the media has whipped up quite a negative response to this which has spilled over and to some extent influenced the medical profession.

I dislike medicating anyone I don't need to, but if a patient has high blood pressure, heart disease, diabetes or any other chronic condition we do not hesitate to put them on treatment and leave them on it.

Though many patients can tail down and stop their Prozac, some are never well without it. In this group, after discussion with the patient, I am happy to continue medication long term.

Answer 2

Well, there you go. Prozac and other medications do not cure. They are simply a way of making the person numb to their feelings. The only way that the person will change is to enter psychotherapy. I find it utterly shocking that doctors will just dish out drugs to dull someone's feelings without any thought for the long-term.

There is absolutely no way of knowing what the problem is with the person you're talking about. The real problem is the use of drugs as a long-term chemical control, rather than any treatment that will actually help the person.

Answer 3

If the person is seeing their doctor regularly and talking things over, then there is no medical reason why she shouldn't be taking prozac long term. Maybe whatever triggered the problem will have passed now and she could start to be weaned off of the medication. Only a doctor can supervise that though and she must not try to do it herself. Advise your friend to talk to her doctor and to find out what other help may now be available.

Answer 4

Some people need them to keep their "sanity" there are 2 issues- 1 is anxiety and the other depression, mix the 2 and it isn't pretty.
It is possible she may take them the rest of her life, she may be afraid to stop, she may be hooked on them as prozac are a narcotic- she could switch over to something like Lexapro but could have a withdraw from prozac regardless of it she were to stop or switch. Once your body adjusts to something and you abruptly change it, chances are there will be side effects- withdraw symptoms- just as if one is used to having coffee every morning and skip a morning, they become tense, get a headache, feel horrible and shakey.
Hope this helps some.

PS: ANY DRUG CAN BE ADDICTIVE if used long enough or improperly-

Answer 5

she could have OCD, she could have severe PMT problems. It could be depression. Chances are, if her temper was quick, it is related to hormones - PMT. I know a woman who is on Prozac for 2-3 weeks out of the month because otherwise she is incredibly unreasonable and angry. Her husband has told me he could not have stayed with her had it not been for these pills. It doesn't control her life - she has a week without them, but she does need to continue taking them otherwise her problems will return.

Answer 6

depends on the type of depression. Reactive depression( in response to something awful happening ) doesn't need rest of your life. Prozac can be used for some forms of PMT and so it's long term. Also some people need a boost to serotonin reuptake which is what prozac does.

Answer 7

The prozac is probably being used to treat a chemical imbalance this person has. If she were to stop taking it, the problem would start again. Therefore, she needs to be on the pills the rest of her life.

Answer 8

It is not uncommon for people with clinical depression to be on medications like Prozac for the rest of their lives.

Answer 9

SIDE EFFECTS
Multiple doses of Prozac had been administered to 10,782 patients with various diagnoses in US clinical trials as of May 8, 1995. In addition, there have been 425 patients administered Prozac in panic clinical trials. Adverse events were recorded by clinical investigators using descriptive terminology of their own choosing. Consequently, it is not possible to provide a meaningful estimate of the proportion of individuals experiencing adverse events without first grouping similar types of events into a limited (i.e., reduced) number of standardized event categories.

In the tables and tabulations that follow, COSTART Dictionary terminology has been used to classify reported adverse events. The stated frequencies represent the proportion of individuals who experienced, at least once, a treatment-emergent adverse event of the type listed. An event was considered treatment-emergent if it occurred for the first time or worsened while receiving therapy following baseline evaluation. It is important to emphasize that events reported during therapy were not necessarily caused by it.

The prescriber should be aware that the figures in the tables and tabulations cannot be used to predict the incidence of side effects in the course of usual medical practice where patient characteristics and other factors differ from those that prevailed in the clinical trials. Similarly, the cited frequencies cannot be compared with figures obtained from other clinical investigations involving different treatments, uses, and investigators. The cited figures, however, do provide the prescribing physician with some basis for estimating the relative contribution of drug and nondrug factors to the side effect incidence rate in the population studied.

Incidence in major depressive disorder, OCD, bulimia, and panic disorder placebo-controlled clinical trials (excluding data from extensions of trials) — Table 1 enumerates the most common treatment-emergent adverse events associated with the use of Prozac (incidence of at least 5% for Prozac and at least twice that for placebo within at least 1 of the indications) for the treatment of major depressive disorder, OCD, and bulimia in US controlled clinical trials and panic disorder in US plus non-US controlled trials. Table 2 enumerates treatment-emergent adverse events that occurred in 2% or more patients treated with Prozac and with incidence greater than placebo who participated in US major depressive disorder, OCD, and bulimia controlled clinical trials and US plus non-US panic disorder controlled clinical trials.

Answer 10

If this med is being taking to correct a chemical imbalance she may well be taking it for the rest of her life.


Prozac is NOT A NARCOTIC, it is a SSRI, Selective Seratonin reuptake inhibitor, which helps to increase the amount of seratonin available to the brain. It is NOT ADDICTIVE.