Yeah, I have to agree. He was no doubt looney before he took the Prozac, as are a lot of people who take Prozac. The causation is reversed. He’s taking Prozac because he’s looney, not the other way around. All you can say is that the Prozac did not help.
You can’t even say that...maybe he stopped taking the meds.
Health care providers should carefully monitor patients receiving antidepressants for possible worsening of depression or suicidality, especially at the beginning of therapy or when the dose either increases or decreases. Although FDA has not concluded that these drugs cause worsening depression or suicidality, health care providers should be aware that worsening of symptoms could be due to the underlying disease or might be a result of drug therapy.
Heath care providers should carefully evaluate patients in whom depression persistently worsens, or emergent suicidality is severe, abrupt in onset, or was not part of the presenting symptoms, to determine what intervention, including discontinuing or modifying the current drug therapy, is indicated.
Anxiety, agitation, panic attacks, insomnia, irritability, hostility, impulsivity, akathisia (severe restlessness), hypomania, and mania have been reported in adult and pediatric patients being treated with antidepressants for major depressive disorder as well as for other indications, both psychiatric and nonpsychiatric. Although FDA has not concluded that these symptoms are a precursor to either worsening of depression or the emergence of suicidal impulses, there is concern that patients who experience one or more of these symptoms may be at increased risk for worsening depression or suicidality. Therefore, therapy should be evaluated, and medications may need to be discontinued, when symptoms are severe, abrupt in onset, or were not part of the patient’s presenting symptoms.
In 2007 the FDA updated the above to include suicidality in young adults -
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today proposed that makers of all antidepressant medications update the existing black box warning on their products' labeling to include warnings about increased risks of suicidal thinking and behavior, known as suicidality, in young adults ages 18 to 24 during initial treatment (generally the first one to two months).
Despite warnings against potential serious side effects including suicidality, the US FDA has not gone so far as to ban Prozac use for treatment of depression in children. Great Britain, however, has - the article states that Prozac use for adolescent depression was banned there in 2003 and the prescribing dr is now under medical review.
Do people suffer from serious mental illness? Certainly. Do SSRIs suck for a whole bunch of people in that they produce severe side effects - both emotional and physical - that were never present before? Absolutely.