DRUG EXPERTS SAY PROZAC IS NOT ADDICTIVE

A claim that the antidepressant drug, Prozac, could be addictive was
rejected yesterday by the Government body that licenses drugs in Britain.

The Medicines Commission dismissed as "flawed" a report by Charles Medawar,
director of Social Audit, claiming "overwhelming evidence" that Prozac and
similar antidepressants known as SSRIs (selective serotonin uptake
inhibitors) caused problems of dependence as great as tranquillisers such
as Valium.

Mr Medawar says doctors have been led to believe that withdrawal reactions
are very rare and that they may be mistaking the psychic distress caused by
drug withdrawal for relapse, in the same way that they did with
benzodiazepines like Valium 25 years ago.

The commission said withdrawal reactions had been noted with the SSRIs but
they were rare and not associated with other symptoms of dependence.