<a href="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/minimorphine.jpg"><img class="alignleft alignnone size-full wp-image-892" style="border: 0; float: left; margin: 8px;" title="minimorphine" src="http://strangeattractor.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2008/08/minimorphine.jpg" alt="" width="260" height="400" /></a>SAJ3 contributor Catherine Eisner's new novel <a href="http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smf/9781844712991.htm" target="_blank">Sister Morphine</a> has just been published. Catherine has this to say about it:

<em>The number of prescriptions for anti-depressants hit a record high of more than 31 million in England in the last recorded national estimate - even though official guidance stresses they should not be a first line treatment for mild depression. </em>

<em>There were 16.2m prescriptions for Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors alone. Researchers focused on drugs which work by increasing levels of the mood controlling chemical serotonin in the brain. These included fluoxetine (Prozac) and paroxetine (Seroxat), from the class known as Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs).</em>

<em>Drug dependency is no respecter of age. The baby boomer generation who were young in the Summer of Love will be of pensionable age in 2010 when it is estimated that a significant proportion of an ageing population will be addicted to drugs (2.2 percent). Like the 4,500 NHS patients suffering from 'flashbacks' due to LSD (Lysergic Acid Diethylamide) clinically administered (treatment of alcoholism, etc.) in the 1950s and 1960s, many of the future elderly 'acidheads' will continue to experience psychotic responses resulting from self-administration of hallucinatory agents in their youth. The experiences of Marianne E. in Sister Morphine are not untypical.
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More, <a href="http://www.saltpublishing.com/books/smf/9781844712991.htm" target="_blank">here</a>