Sally Satel

About the author: Sally Satel, a practicing psychiatrist, is a lecturer at Yale University School of Medicine. She is also the W.H. Brady Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative public policy research organization.

The benefits of Prozac and other antidepressants far outweigh the risks of some of their side effects. Although some people have claimed that these medications have caused people to kill themselves or others, such serious side effects are extremely rare. A few people do develop suicidal tendencies after taking antidepressants due to a side effect called akathisia, a profound restlessness that can be so distressing that it can drive a patient to suicide. However, only a tiny percentage of patients on antidepressants develop this condition. In addition, the agitation develops relatively slowly, over the course of days or weeks. Therefore...