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FOR WHAT KINDS OF DEPRESSION IS PROZAC MOST COMMONLY GIVEN? DOES PROZAC TREAT BOTH ANXIETY AND DEPRESSION?
23 March 2009
by
admin
Filed under
Anti Depressants-Sleeping Aid
Prozac is only approved in the United States for major depressive disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder. Nevertheless, psychiatrists have also commonly used it for a wide range of other diagnoses, including dysthymia, atypical bipolar depression, the depressive phase of bipolar manic depression, borderline personality disorder, substance abuse, several other personality disorders and subclinical forms of depression. In addition, Prozac appears to be effective for bulimia.
It is also used with some reported efficacy in instances where the depression is secondary to a primary medical or psychiatric illness such as panic disorder, phobic disorder, or even obesity.
Most of the scientific investigations of Prozac have focused on depression, with the result that Prozac has received FDA approval for use in major depression. It has not been approved for anxiety disorders because enough data haven’t been accumulated from scientifically conducted trials. Furthermore, from the data so far, the trend may not support using Prozac for primary anxiety disorders.
Nevertheless, when patients suffering from major depression and the milder form dysthymia are treated with Prozac, symptoms of anxiety typically lift along with the other symptoms of depression. To date, a limited number of studies indicate that Prozac does not seem to be useful for General Anxiety Disorder (GAD) but it is therapeutic for panic attacks and the secondary anxiety seen in major depressive disorders and dysthymia. Once the depression is relieved, the secondary disorder tends to disappear as well.
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