Fluoxetine (Prozac): The Happiness Drug

  When fluoxetine arrived on the market in the 1980s, people lost their fear of antidepressants. In fact, the active ingredient in Prozac became, for many, a success story in modern pharmacology. The reason? Scientists had, at last, discovered an effective antidepressant molecule with more tolerable side effects. Fluoxetine has been with us for thirty years. To say that the arrival of this new pharmacological resource was a milestone is an understatement. As a matter of fact, it rapidly become the best-selling drug, a position it maintained until fairly recently. Indeed, with the development of fluoxetine, Eli Lilly laboratories achieved…