APA
Press Release
October 15, 2006
Contact: Public
Affairs
ADOLESCENT BUT NOT ADULT HAMSTERS ARE MORE AGGRESSIVE ON LOW DOSE OF FLUOXETINE, HINTING AT REASONS FOR TROUBLING TEENAGE RESPONSES TO COMMON ANTI-DEPRESSANT DRUG
Article: "Differential Responsiveness to Fluoxetine During Puberty;" Kereshmeh Taravosh-Lahn, BA, Christel Bastida, BA, and Yvon Delville, PhD, University of Texas at Austin; Behavioral Neuroscience,Vol 120, No. 5
New researchers offer clues as to why some teenagers taking anti-depressant seem to take their own lives, which is published by American Psychological Association (APA).
Neuroscientists found that juvenile hamsters, given low doses of fluoxetine hydrochloride, sold in the United States as Prozac, became
more aggressive on low doses of the drug. Juveniles on high doses where less aggressive.
They also found that juvenile and adult brains are different. It is unacceptable to expect the drug to work on the juvenile brain as it would on an adult.
Fluoxetine a selective reuptake inhibitor (SSRI) and is the only medication approved to treat children and adolescents.
This medication has been black boxed by FDA since 2004 due to increased risk of suicidal behavior in children and adolescents on
the drug.
My personal intake on the use of the drug is that I've had my on experience with a family member who was on the drug of flexetine and I think it did more harm than help him; it was as if he sunk into a deeper depression after his father's death.
This article was very enlightening when it talked about the drug's affects.
Fluoxetine affect's the regulation of serotonim, a naturally occurring neurotransmitter thought to be involved in depression, which we learned in our class.