Seroxat… they decided to name it “Symbyax” instead, and it’s been approved!  It’s the combination of Prozac and Olanzapine (strongest atypical antipsychotic) in one pill, and is being marketed as an “antidpressant” for those who have “treatment resistant depression”.

I’ve been ranting about this for some time, but I will continue to do so!

Prozac is an SSRI, a “selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor” – i.e. it is supposed to (according to doctors and shown as a little cartoon on many a psychopharmaceutical website) increase serotonin levels in the brain, the neurotransmitter they guessed was associated with happiness/euphoria.  Depression begone!  Or, in many cases not, apparently…

Olanzapine is an atypical antipsychotic.  Unlike typical antipsychotics, usually only used for severe psychosis now, which block dopamine (“memory, cognition, motivation, mood, sleep, attention, ability to learn” neurotransmitter), like the old ones did, but also…

Serotonin!

So they are selling “depressed people” a pill that will ???

- Get serotonin levels back to “normal” by using something that increases them and decreases them, resetting the original “happiness” hypothesis, and

- Decrease dopamine (again, responsible for memory, cognition, motivation, mood, sleep, attention, ability to learn), claiming this will get rid of “depression”

Atypical antipsychotics were a product of… The Vietnam War!  The drug was tested on tens of thousands of soldiers to see if their experience of war was decreased (memory), but it ended up decreasing other things as well (cognition, motivation, mood, sleep, attention, ability to learn), so it didn’t have much potential for use in the military.  Leftover evidence is disguised in journal articles like this one, from 2003 http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/cgi/content/abstract/160/10/1817

But it must be useful for something.  Try giving it to crazy people.

So for all those (as many as one out of two) who have depression, according to the APA, the unknown number whose antidepressant isn’t making them happier…they are going to be turned into drones?

This is absolutely sick.  Nauseating.  Blaauuuuggghhh.

No commercial yet…

Official website up: www.seroxat.com  (fun quiz – see how many times sudden death is mentioned, explicitly or implicitly, under “side-effects” once you scan past the “happy people and families!” animation on the front page)

This guy is kind of funny…but I’m holding out for the commercial.

They are telling people that they are being given an antidepressant for treatment resistant depression but they are actually giving them an antipsychotic…I’m starting to sound like a conspiracy theorist, so I’ll stop ranting and let this guy rant for a bit, but the announcement of the pending release of this combination has had my head spinning since I heard about it last April, at the same time Abilify was released.  Another fun quiz: substitute the “f” for a “t” in Abilify and what word do you get?

What should the pharmaceutical companies be diagnosed with?!?!  Since a corporation is considered an “individual” under the law and all…