Health Sciences 3624A/B Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Antidepressant, Chlorpromazine, British National Formulary

• School: Western University
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: Health Sciences 3624A/B
• Professor: Marnie Wedlake

Document Summary

Chapter 8 - the construction of the antidepressant . The concept of antidepressants came about in the 1950s and were developed with the assumption that they could improve symptoms of and reverse the effects of depression caused by a deficiency of specific neurotransmitters. Prescribing of antidepressants remained steady between the 1960s and 1980s, but the development of ssris led to increased prescribing to the wider population as opposed to just those with severe depression. There was a 62% increase in the number of people taking antidepressants in the us between. 1997 and 2004, while taking pills for the normal ups and downs of life is not considered to be normal - with a popularisation of the biological view of depression. Antidepressants are increasingly being used to treat other disorders, with the implied justification being rooted in the disease-centred model - because no drug explanation is given, it is implied that they reverse a disease process.