Running Head: Prozac Nation and Major Depression Disorder

Prozac Nation and Major Depression Disorder
Raquel H. Sasyn
University of Houston
Ms. Chastity Farr
Clinical Psychology
Section - 25673
April 23, 2010

Introduction

“Prozac Nation,” is a best-selling memoir written by Elizabeth Wurtzel in 1994. Based on Wurtzel’s stormy childhood and adolescence, Prozac Nation explores many topics such as major depression, family relations, and drug abuse. The story narrates Wurtzel’s life from age 11 to her senior year at Harvard University. Throughout this time, she continuously battles major depressive episodes, suicide ideations, and maladaptive human relations (New York University, 2010). Overall, the book provides an …show more content…

Her depression has a complex origin, and it must be examined through different angles in order to gain a fuller understanding of its complexity.

III. Treatments Major depression has many options for treatments. In the movie, Wurtzel goes through many years of psychological counseling. Furthermore, she starts a pharmacotherapy with Prozac in college (Prozac Nation, 2001). Psychological counseling can take many forms, such as cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, and psychotherapy. In a research study, cognitive behavioral therapy was more effective in adolescents compared to other types of therapies (Wagner, 2003). Cognitive behavioral therapy concentrates on the patient’s maladaptive behaviors and tries to correct the behavior as well as the underlying thoughts relating to the behavior in question. In the last several decades, pharmacotherapy for depression has gained much attention. Now there are many classes of drugs for treating depression, and each medication has slightly different chemical and biological effects and these effects vary from person to person. Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRI), are considered first-line agents for treating depression in adolescents and young adults. Drugs like Citalopram (trade name: Celexa), Fluoxetine (trade name: Prozac), Paroxetine (trade name: Paxil), and Sertraline (trade name: Zoloft) belong to this class. SSRI’s help to restore the balance of serotonin, a chemical messenger, by