The ‘Gut Feminism’ of Elizabeth A. Wilson (or, oh, divine lipophilia!)
I found this a therapeutic read for my own full-body walk through the drowsing and dyspeptic valley of paroxetine:
“… there is particular significance in the oral administration of antidepressants: there is an intimate connection between the gut and depression, making intervention via the gut an especially felicitous means of treatment for depressed mood (Wilson, 2004a). (…). In most cases, the gut itself is not the target of therapeutic action; the drug is being released into the body some distance from its intended site of action (Katzung, 2001). The pathways from the gut to that target site are often circuitous, and it is these pathways that have arrested my critical interest … the physiological itinerary of an antidepressant takes in every organ of the body. (more…)