Dec. 29, 1987

By Alice Park

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. --By Alice Park