Fluoxetine
hydrochloride had been approved for use in Belgium the year before. But
the imprimatur of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration heralded a whole
new era. At first, just scientists were excited, because Prozac, as the
Eli Lilly company christened it for the market, was the first in a new
class of medications that would treat depression by exquisitely
controlling the levels of serotonin, a brain chemical involved in mood.
But the FDA's approval letter became the founding charter for a Prozac
nation, as vast numbers of American consumers were seduced by a
prescription to lift one's mood. Today they spend more than $1 billion
on Prozac each year, to treat not just depression but also
obsessive-compulsive disorder and premenstrual syndrome. The cultural
revolution has escalated with the arrival of new antidepressants without
Prozac's occasional side effects—nightmares, violence, loss of
libido. And in the tradition of imitation as the ultimate form of
flattery, by 2001 cheaper generic fluoxetine hit the market.
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