Although … in 1998, were people who had no experience with SSRIs (I'm seriously assuming here) even aware that could happen? It's 2009, and most of the never-medicated people I run into have no idea.

Fair point, but that's why we have research- especially given that the rest of the series feels so real and detailed. Then again, I often have to remind myself that back in the day of XF fic you couldn't just look things up on Wikipedia...