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"  Intuitive and investigative, personal and historical, narrative-rich and fact-packed, Katherine Sharpe&amp;#039;s memoir, Coming of Age on Zoloft (Harper Perennial), examines how a generation of Americans\u2014she included\u2014has been treated for the age-old malady of depression in an era of biomedical predominance that defines the syndrome first and foremost as a chemical imbalance. Sharpe was prescribed Zoloft, one of the SSRI class of antidepressants, as a college freshman fol- lowing a panic attack; her diagnosis came after a 20-minute conversation with a campus mental-health counselor. Looking back, she reveals that her father had been on medication for depression since Sharpe, who was born in 1979, was a pre-teen, pointing to a possible genetic predisposition. During the summer before college, she writes, nostalgia for high school gave way to anxiety and fear\u2014feelings that, combined with being dumped by her boyfriend, &amp;quot;created a space that seemed to attract all kinds of negativity into itself.&amp;quot; Part of what makes this book riveting is the way Sharpe sets her own story within the larger context of cultural, social, and psychiatric changes that moved depression (along with other mental illnesses) into the medical spotlight. She traces the origins of the SSRIs from obscure Swiss lab trials to their rise as Big Pharma&amp;#039;s darlings in the early 1990s, much as tranquilizers had reigned in previous decades. Underscoring all of Sharpe&amp;#039;s impressive research, trenchant interviews, and intrepid delving into her subject is a single anecdote that gives the book its raison d&amp;#039;\u00EAtre: Seated on a porch during her sophomore year with a group of young women who were housemates, Sharpe confided that she was taking Zoloft. The six other women all said they were on or had taken an antidepressant. None of them was yet 21 years old. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/books/reviews/a14236/coming-of-age-on-zoloft-a-young-america-on-antidepressants-656586/?src=global_footer>