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百忧解带来的未解之忧
When it
came to pharmacological solutions to
life'sdespairs, Aldous Huxley was ahead of the
curv
e. InHuxley's 1932 novel about a
dystopian future, theAlphas, Betas and others
populating his
ave
NewWorld
—
Huxley
was English, remember, spelling included
—
说到以药
物手段来医治生活中的绝望,
奥尔德斯
·
赫胥黎
(Aldous Huxley)
可谓走在了时代的前
面。在赫胥黎
1932
年的小说《美丽
新世界》
(Brave New World)
中,生活在那个
反乌托邦未
来世界中的阿尔法、
贝塔和其他种姓的人类手头常备
一种名叫
“
苏麻
”
的万能灵药,
只要一点
点就可以驱散生活中的阴霾。
“
服药胜过受煎熬。
”
只要吞下药丸,
负面情绪也随之烟消云散。
Prozac, the subject of this week's
video documentary from Retro Report, is hardly
soma. Butits gu
iding spirit is not
dissimilar: A few milligrams of this drug are
preferable to the manydamns that li
e at
the core of some people's lives. Looking back at
Prozac's introduction by EliLilly and
Compan
y in 1988, and hopscotching to
today, the documentary explores theenormous
influence, both che
mical and cultural,
that Prozac and its brethren have had intreating
depression, a concern that gain
ed new
resonance with the recent suicide of thecomedian
Robin Williams.
本周(指
9
月
22
日那周)的
(以重新审视历史上的重大事件为主题的系列纪
录片)的主题百忧解
(Prozac)
和
“
苏麻
”
当然不是一码事,但其宗旨却并无不同:对某些人而<
/p>
言,服用几毫克这种药物总比应付生活中的大堆烦恼合算多了。继回顾了
< br>1988
年美国礼来
制药
(El
i Lilly and Company)
推出百忧解的经过之后,
< br>这部纪录片又将视角转回当下,
从化学
和文化的双重角度
探讨了百忧解及其同类产品在抑郁症的治疗领域造成的巨大影响。
由于喜
剧演员罗宾
·
威廉姆斯
(Ro
bin Williams)
不久前自杀,抑郁症又成为当今人们关注的热点。
In the late 1980s
and the 90s, Prozac was widely viewed as a miracle
pill, a life preserverthrown to
those
who felt themselves drowning in the high waters of
mental anguish. It wasthe star in a class
of new pharmaceuticals known as
S.S.R.I.s
—
selective
serotonin reuptakeinhibitors. Underlying
t
heir use is a belief that depression
is caused by a shortage of theneurotransmitter
serotonin. Pump
up the levels of this
brain chemical and, voilà
, the mood ,
millions have embraced Proz
ac, and
swear by it. Depression left them
emotionallyparalyzed, they say. Now, for the first
time in
years, they think clearly and
can embrace life.
在
20
世纪
80
年代末和
90
年代,人们普遍将百忧解看作是一种
“
神奇药
丸
”
,是那些觉得自
己快要没顶于精神
痛苦中的人们眼里的救生圈。
百忧解是一类名为选择性血清素再摄取抑制
剂
(SSRI)
的新型药物中的明星产品。
其作用基于的观念为,抑郁症是由一种名叫血清素的神
经递质不足引起的。
只要能提高这种脑化学物质的浓度,好啦,精神一下子就振奋起来了。
事实上,
已经有成百上千万人接受了百忧解,
并对它的作用深信不疑。
抑郁症导致他们情感
麻痹,
他们说。
而今,
他们终于可以清楚地思考并热情地拥抱生活了
——
多年来,这样的感
觉还是第一次。
Pharmacological merits aside, the
green-and-cream pill was also a marvel of
commercialbranding,
down to its market-
tested name. Its chemical name is fluoxetine
hydrochloride, notthe most felicit
ous
of terms. A company called Interbrand went to work
for Eli Lilly and cameup with Prozac.
h-techy quality.
除去其药理学价值,
这种半截绿色半截奶油色的胶囊丸也堪称商
业品牌推广中的奇迹,
而这
尤其要感谢它经过市场考验的商品名
。它的化学名称为盐酸氟西汀,这显然不够朗朗上口。
一家名为
Interbrand
的公司为礼来出谋划策,想出了
Proz
ac
这个名字。
听起来就给人
胸有成竹、十分专业
(professional)
的感觉。
呢,可以认为它表示
“<
/p>
行动
”(action)
。至于
Z
,
这个字母代表了某种力量,可能还有一点点
高科技的感觉。
(X is a
pharmacological cousin to Z. Both letters are
somewhat unusual, worth many points
inScra
bble. It is surely not a
coincidence that a striking number of modern
medications containeither Z o
r X, or
both, in their names, like Luvox, Paxil, Celexa,
Effexor, Zantac, Xanax, Zoloft,Lexapro
an
d Zocor, to name but a few. Not
surprisingly, confusion can set in. Zantac or
Xanax
—
remind me
which one is for heartburn and which
for panic disorder?)
(在制药领域,
X
与
Z
的地位近似。这两个字母在取名
这种拼字游戏中享有异乎寻常的地
位和价值。绝大多数现代药物的商品名都包含
Z
或
X
,或两者兼而有
之。随便举几个例子,
Luvox[
兰释,亦称无郁宁
]
、
Paxil[
百可
舒
]
、
Celexa[
喜普妙
]
、
Effexor[
郁复伸
]
、
Z
antac[
善胃
得
]
、
Xanax[
赞安诺
]
p>
、
Zoloft[
左洛复
< br>]
、
Lexapro[
来士普<
/p>
]
和
Zocor[
舒降之
]
等等。这肯定不是
用巧合可
以解释的。由此产生困扰也就不足为奇了。
Zantac
和
p>
Xanax
,哪个能治胃灼热,哪
个又是用
以治疗惊恐障碍的?看名字可真分不清。
)
Pendulums, by definition, swing, and
the one on which Prozac rides is no exception.
After theearly
talk about it as a
wonder pill
—
a rather chic
one at that
—
a backlash
developed, perhapsunsurpri
singly. Grave
questions arose among some psychiatrists about
whether the ased chan
ces that some
people, notably teenagers, would commit suicide or
at leastcontemplate it. No defini
te
link was confirmed, but that did not end the
concern of someprominent skeptics, like a British
p
sychiatrist, Dr. David Healy. He has
dismissed the notion ofS.S.R.I.s as saviors as
但凡事都是三十年河东三十年河西,
百忧解也不例外。
起初它被尊为灵丹妙药,
还是种十分
时髦的灵丹妙药,
后来人们却又开始强烈地抵制它(或许这种反应不足为奇)
。关于
SSRI
是否会增加某些人,特别是青少年的自杀事件或自杀倾向,精神科医生提出了
严厉的质问。
目前尚无研究证实两者之间存在必然的关联,但是这并没有打消某些著名的
怀疑论者的疑
虑,英国的精神病学家戴维
·
希利博士
(David Healy)
正是其中之一。他将
那些把
SSRI
类药物
当成救世主的说
法贬斥为
“
生物噪音
”
。
If some users deem
Prozac lifesaving, others consider it sensory-
depriving. A loss of libido is aco
mmon
side effect. Some writers and artists, while often
relieved to be liberated fromdepression's
ti
ghtest grip, also say that Prozac
leaves them mentally hazy. In his 2012 book,
?spleen,'
Edgar Allan Poe's moods, the poetry
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