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History of Zoloft and Prozac
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get over our fight. It wasn’t that big, I mean I hardly remember what
happened, and I told her I was sorry that I lost it. We finally went out
to our favorite sub shop for lunch today, and I treated. I’m excited
about our Homecoming Dance next month. We’re both going, Sarah
with Cory and me with Mark. Mark and Cory are best friends just like
Sarah and me, so it should be fun. And this weekend we go shopping
for our dresses. I can’t wait.
Emily’s having a great week. She’s in
her second week of her cycle, her men-
ses are over, and things are looking
fine—but unfortunately, she hasn’t fig-
ured out yet that her good feelings will
only last for another week or so.
Even though it will take her time to
figure out exactly how her body is re-
acting to hormones and other changes
that happen during her monthly cycle,
Emily and others like her have the benefit of today’s research. Sci-
entists who look to affect changes in imbalances in the body have
led the way to the development of drugs that help normalize the
extreme symptoms of PMS and PMDD.
As long ago as 450 bc, Hippocrates may have been one of the
first researchers to notice the effects of premenstrual symptoms.
But from then until very recently, the cyclical effects on women each
month did not receive the effort needed to cause any major changes
in treatment or recognition of PMS as a real
syndrome
.
As recently as 1931, R. T. Frank described the symptoms women
experience monthly as premenstrual tension. Finally, in 1953, Dr.
Katharina Dalton studied the symptoms and the way they affect
women each month. She believed there was a real link between the
monthly cycle and the physical and psychological symptoms. Dr. Dal-
ton began looking for ways to treat this disorder. She was the first
to use the term premenstrual syndrome to describe the pattern of
symptoms. And she began an almost one-woman campaign to not
syndrome
: A group of
signs and symptoms
that occur together
and characterize a par-
ticular abnormality.