There is a continuous quest in all areas of medicine to develop new drugs with more specific mechanisms that those that are currently available. Psychotropic drugs presently available for treatment of mood disorders, although safe and effective, pose certain problems to many individuals in the form of adverse effects or poor response. Scientists make it their goal to improve upon medication by developing and testing new compounds with the hope of producing a marketable compound far superior to those that have been available to the general public. Prozac which was not marketed for a full fifteen years after it was developed in 1972, is a successful example of this lengthy process.
How can yon justify the gigantic costs of developing a new antidepressant drug? Depression is epidemic, affecting more people than virtually any other illness and costing the nation $43.7 billion annually. Only one third of depressed patients seek treatment, yet the reality is that not all of these people are .finding the treatment they need—in part because some patients are unresponsive to available medications. The right treatments for them do not exist and are awaiting development. Every time a new drug is developed, hundreds of thousands of people can be successfully treated. Their lives improve. They work more efficiently. (A depressed patient who has received adequate treatment loses half as much time from work as a depressed patient who has not been treated.) A new antidepressant drug can benefit the individual (and the nation) in ways that can be incalculable. As an example, look at Prozac.
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