Antidepressants (History of Drugs) Hardcover – October 29, 2004

This book provides a strategy for approaching the confusing information on antidepressants. As a non-professional with curiosity about chemical relief, I am grateful for this accessible and comprehensible guide. An excellent forward and introduction overviews the historical use of drugs for both medicinal and recreational purposes. Mood-altering experimentation is old indeed. The diversity of articles made me comfortable with varying ways to approach the subject. The selection was excellent. I was particularly interested in the methods of long-term psychiatric counseling versus instant results of drug therapy, Prozac by name. Ms. Elias cautions that HMOs might restrict access to specialists but pay for pills. Yet as Mr. Cobb's anecdotes indicate, it is often the patients themselves who are forcing doctors to become dispensers of drugs rather than diagnosticians. Ms. Magowan's analysis of marketing strategies gives us an idea of why those pressures exist. Although I came upon this study because of a specific interest in antidepressants, I am going to order other books in the series.