A Review Of Prozac For Bipolar Disorder, Bulimia, And Anxiety

2008-09-30 Word Count: 542 Category: Depression

Prozac is preferred for treatment of diseases like bipolar disorder, bulimia, and anxiety disorders. The medication is highly effective because it acts as a serotonin inhibitor, which means that it helps balance serotonin levels in the brain. Mood Serotonin levels are responsible for mood stability, depressive states, and control of anxiety, fears, or phobias.

Bipolar disorder or manic depression, is a mental illness that is caused by a combination of biological, neurological, emotional, and situational factors. The real causes of bipolar disorder have still not been discovered. However, one thing is sure that imbalances in the neurotransmitters of the brain, such as serotonin, are at fault for the predisposition of bipolar disorder in quite a few cases.

Bulimia is an eating disorder in which the patient eats excessively then purges themselves of the food they have eaten through either vomiting or induced bowel movements. Psychological and emotional reasons are responsible for this malady. The emotional factors relating to bulimia are very similar if not identical to factors involved with depression and low self worth issues, which are connected to serotonin levels in the brain.

Medical research suggests that wild variation in brain chemistry is the main cause of Anxiety disorder. Anxiety can be described as the intense somewhat debilitating feeling that something horrible is going to happen. Almost each one of us gets anxious at some time or the other, but a big difference is that the normal person has a logical reason to feel anxious. With anxiety disorders, the reason for the anxiety may not be known, or it may not be logical if it is known.

As mentioned earlier,Prozac is an effective treatment for bipolar disorder, bulimia, and anxiety because it works on the serotonin levels in the brain. In bipolar patients, it is often prescribed in conjunction with other medications. Prozac is an effective treatment for depression, but may cause manic episodes to worsen. For this reason, Prozac is generally prescribed along with an anti-psychotic drug that helps tone down manic episodes. Therapy sessions or counseling is also generally a part of treatment.

In bulimia patients, Prozac is often the only prescription given. However, it is combined with treatment of symptoms via counseling and therapy. The idea behind this counseling is to identify why the patient has developed a sense of self-worth, and to allow the patient to learn that what they perceive is not necessarily reality. This is very helpful in bulimia patients who binge and purge as a result of how they perceive their bodies.

Prozac successfully works on those suffering from anxiety. However,you may still need to offer counselling. Counsellors teach the patient certain techniques to control their anxiety by way of logical understanding of situations that may not at first appear rational. To give an example, if a patient feels anxiety over a cigarette burning in an ashtray, they can learn techniques to allow their mind to rationalize the event and accept that the danger from fire is illusionary, and so no reason for the anxiety. .

In short, Prozac is an effective treatment for various mental disorders. When used with Lithium, it it is found to be a wonder remedy, helping all those suffering people gain stability and normal lives.

This free Depression article is brought to you by http://www.articlevista.com