健康择药:百忧解带来的未解之忧

"The ensuing research," he continued, "has mostly yielded more evidence that the brain, which has more neurons than the Milky Way has stars and is perhaps one of the most complex objects in the universe, is an elusive target for drugs."
“人的大脑中包含的神经元数量比银河系中的恒星还要多，”他继续写道，“而后续的研究得到的证据大多表明，大脑是药物很难作用到的靶标。”

More broadly, this retrospective on Prozac introduces a discussion of whether the medical establishment, and perhaps society in general, has gone too far in turning normal conditions, like sadness, into pathologies. And have we paved a path — shades of soma — toward wanton reliance on drugs to enhance life, not to conquer true illness?
广而言之，这个关于百忧解的回顾性纪录片提出了这样一个论题：医疗机构，或者更宽泛一点来说，整个社会是否走得太过，以至于将普通的情感，如悲伤，也纳入了病态的范畴。我们是否正一步步地放任自己依赖药物，以增添生活乐趣——就像小说中的人们依赖“苏麻”一样——而放弃了征服真正的疾病？

This is what a prominent psychiatrist, Dr. Peter Kramer, has called "cosmetic psychopharmacology," a Botox approach, if you will, to matters of the mind: Why not take Prozac and its S.S.R.I. mates even if you are not clinically depressed but believe that they can boost your confidence, or maybe help you make a stronger pitch at the sales meeting?
著名精神病学家彼得·克雷默(Peter Kramer)博士将这种现象称为“美容式精神药理学”，就像是自愿给情绪问题打上一支肉毒杆菌毒素一样：即使你并非临床抑郁症患者，只要你相信服用百忧解及其SSRI同类可以提升你的自信心，或者能帮助你在推销会上语惊四座，那又何乐而不为呢？

A response from others in Dr. Kramer's field is that we are taking traits that are normal parts of human nature and casting them as diseases simply because remedies now exist. For instance, shyness is now regarded by some as a condition in need of treatment. In its more severe form, it is placed under the heading of social anxiety disorder. Then there are those much-heralded life enhancers, Viagra and its erection-aiding cousins. They are marketed not only to men with sexual dysfunction but also to those whose aging bodies are enduring normal wear and tear.
克莱默博士的同行中有人回应道，我们之所以将人性的正常组成部分当成疾病来对待，就是因为现在有了药。举例来说，今天有些人甚至将羞怯也归入了需要治疗的疾病，将其较为严重的形式纳入了社交焦虑症的范畴。此外，伟哥等促勃起药物也被当作能提升生活品质的东西而得到大肆炒作。在市场营销中，它们不仅被推销给需要治疗性功能障碍的男性，还被推荐给身体只是出现了正常衰老的普通人。

One area of shyness that the S.S.R.I. class has helped overcome is discussion of depression. Decades ago, Hollywood stars and other celebrities dared not touch the subject. Now they routinely go public with their anguish. Robin Williams was an example.
如果说SSRI类药物确实帮助人们克服了某些问题，那么，使人们不再羞于讨论抑郁便是其中之一。几十年前，好莱坞明星和其他名人都对这个话题讳莫如深。现在，他们已经可以很习惯地公开谈论自己的苦恼了。罗宾·威廉姆斯就是一个例子。

Of course, there are those in other realms of society for whom the topic remains taboo. Take one man who confesses to his wife that he is on Prozac but cautions her to tell no one. "I'm serious," he says. "The wrong person finds out about this and I get a steel-jacketed antidepressant right in the back of the head." This is Tony Soprano talking to his wife, Carmela. An extreme example from a work of fiction? Sure. But in all likelihood many Americans have similar fears about what others might think, and keep depression to themselves.
当然，在其他社会领域中，有些人仍然十分忌讳这个话题。例如，有一个人在向自己的妻子承认他在服用百忧解时，警告她不要告诉任何人。“我是说真的，”他说。“要是给不该知道的人听到点风声，我就得脑袋后面吃颗钢制的抗抑郁药。”这是《黑道家族》中的托尼·索普拉诺(Tony Soprano)对他的妻子卡尔梅拉(Carmela)说的话。这自然只是虚构作品中的一个极端的例子。但是，在美国人里，恐怕很多都会对别人的看法抱有类似的担忧，所以他们宁愿对自己的抑郁问题守口如瓶。