Notes from the Prozac Nation, Vol. 1, No. 4

• Doping testing in sports hurts honest athletes. So claimed Julian Savulescu, the Uehiro Chair in Practical Ethics at the University of Oxford in his lecture at the University of Sydney.
• Antidepressants needed to deal with modern life. A humorist, Lynne Tolep, penned this essay in the wake of the report from the CDC that antidepressants are the most prescribed drug in the U.S. The essay reminded me of this hilarious 'newstory' from The Onion a few years back, 'Zoloft for Everything Ad Campaign.'
• A new study by Spanish researchers suggest the future of tailor-made Antidepressants. Science Daily reports: "in a foreseeable future, scientists will be able to produce measures to predict response to antidepressants taking into account each individual's genotype, i. e. they will be able to design tailor-made drugs according to each person's genetic configuration and their exposure to environmental factors."
• Too much girl talk makes teenage girls more depressed.
• 1.5 million Saudis are depressed because of a breakdown in family values. Or so claims Dr. Parisa Saed Al-Hashem, a clinical psychologist. Refreshingly, what Dr. Parisa Saed Al-Hashem means by family values is not the same as our backward Republicans. She is concerned about domestic violence and other social abuse of women.
• Who gave Insurance folks their M.D.s? Rosalie Greenberg has an interesting piece up at Huffington Post about how Insurance companies reject the prescriptions that doctors request for their patients.