Collegiate Times

An on-going debate in the health and medical fields is centered on whether or not the growing number of prescriptions being issued for antidepressants, such as Prozac, is cause for concern.  

The Choices and Challenges Project of Virginia Tech hosted the forum ?On Prozac: Debating the New Technologies of the Mind? in order to allow for an open public discussion of the ethical, social, philosophical and medical dimensions of antidepressant use.

The forum consisted of an all-day series of seminars and panel discussions Thursday in the Graduate Life Center. Background sessions and follow-up sessions were offered in reference to the moderated main panel discussion consisting of distinguished guests from around the country who specialized in a broad area of fields.

?We wanted to represent a wide spectrum of positions. We wanted our panel members to offer polarity on the issue but not be too extreme in their positions,? said Eileen Crist, co-organizer of Choices and Challenges. ?Our aim in deciding on what forum to host is to offer a topic that is deeply integrated in terms of the interface it has with society. Our goal is to allow for thoughtful dialogue and to get people thinking. There needs to be increased public awareness if we are to be informed consumers when it comes to antidepressants.? 

Brandiff Caron, co-coordinator of the forum, said its main purpose is to make science and technology issues that directly affect the social fabric of people?s lives something the public can actively participate in.

?Antidepressants literally affect lives ? who you are as a person. Issues of identity are at play along with interpersonal relationships and the structure of self-image. These issues feed off of social aspects of society such as sanity, normalcy, wellness and happiness,? Caron said. ?We do not want to devaluate the genuine need for people to use antidepressants, but we want to bring out the complexities of the issue by looking at it from the two classic combating ways.?

Caron said society is looking for a technological fix for its problems, which he said is a troubling one because it is a social and cultural problem as well.

?There is something about our generation that revolves around ideas of negative thinking and we want to explore the overlap between the technical and social realms to help understand this.?

Dr. Jonathan Metzl, an associate professor of psychiatry and women?s studies at the University of Michigan, presented the kick-off lecture for Thursday?s forum by discussing ?Gender, Culture, and Medicalization: The Lessons of Prozac.? Metzl?s seminar looked at the rise of gender stereotypes and the ways in which Prozac may have shifted gender roles through the advertisements of major pharmaceutical companies.

?When new pharmaceuticals come out, diagnostic boundaries expand outward, which we can see by looking at the rhetoric of Prozac,? Metzl said.

The background sessions offered covered the terrain of clinical trials, biological psychiatry and depression, antidepressants in historical context and mind-body identity and psycho-pharmaceuticals.

During the panel discussion, Samuel Barondes, Jeanne and Sanford Robertson professor and director of the Center for Neurobiology and Psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, said, ?There has been a moral erosion in individual?s physicians. They are becoming less dedicated and devoted to doing the right thing, which is happening to all of us in society, and doctors aren?t exempt.?

Professionals have a responsibility to educate the public to understand what they can and cannot control in terms of depression, said Valerie Hardcastle, professor of philosophy and Chair of the department of science and technology in society at Virginia Tech.

?Lately there has been a power dynamic given to doctors and anything that can help shift the power and efficacy back to the patient is needed,? said Joseph Glenmullen, clinical instructor in psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School. ?There is no such thing as a quick fix.?
Following the main panel, follow-up sessions were offered on topics including classroom cures, cultural representations of antidepressants, the value of depression and shifting worlds, changing minds.

A play entitled, ?Life on the Pharm,? written and conceptualized by Caron and Ann Kilkelly, interdisciplinary studies professor at Tech, is being put on in conjunction with the forum. 

According to Choices and Challenges, the aim of the performance piece is not to provide answers but to pose questions concerning social representations of depression and the growth of pharmaceuticals.

?A number of us involved in the play contributed a piece of writing, a lot of which is true. We wanted to figure out how to blend stimulating conversation across the lines of the arts and sciences,? Kilkelly said.

Caron concurred and said the play is a sharper expression of the forum in order to engage the public in science through art.

The play involves the audience in an interactive exploration of issues around depression and its treatment with pharmaceuticals. The final performance of ?Life on the Pharm? can be viewed tonight at 8 p.m. in Pamplin 30.
More information on the Choices and Challenges Project can be found at www.choicesandchallenges.sts.vt.edu.