Opinion - Fluvoxamine

C Lindsay DeVane

Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston SC, USA

The experience of anxiety at a level that results in dysfunction appears to be an historical phenomenon accompanying cultural development. Homer’s fictional histories describe the streets of Athens as filled with soldiers bearing the mental, as well as physical, wounds of war. Obsessions and hand-washing rituals were immortalized by Shakespeare in the character of Lady Macbeth. Modern epidemiology has characterized a staggering burden of anxiety disorders. Fortunately, the last several decades of psychopharmacology have been a time of major treatment breakthroughs. The development of the selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has had a profound effect on the treatment of both depression and anxiety disorders. These are safe and effective medications with evidencebased support from randomized controlled trials for their use across the life span from adolescence to late life.