Further Reading
Hahn, Alex.Possessed: The Rise and Fall of Prince. New
York: Billboard Books, 2003. This expose looks
into how and why Prince went from his highly ac-
claimed 1980’s success to his subsequent loss of
popularity.
Jones, Liz.Purple Reign: The Artist Formerly Known as
Prince. Secaucus, N.J.: Carol, 1998. This biogra-
phy features a rare interview with Prince. Also of
note are reviews of every Prince album to that
point from newspapers and music magazines.
Nilsen, Per.Dancemusicsexromance: Prince, the First De-
cade. London: Firefly, 1999. This biography was
written by the editor of the long-running Prince
fan magazineUptown.
Michael Pelusi
See also Academy Awards; African Americans;
Film in the United States; Hip-hop and rap; MTV;
Music; Music videos; New Wave music; Parental advi-
sory stickers; Pop music; Synthesizers.
Prozac
Definition Psychiatric drug
Manufacturer Eli Lilly Corporation
Date Approved by the Food and Drug
Administration on December 29, 1987
Prozac was the first of a new class of drugs to be used to treat
depression in the United States. By affecting the rate at
which the neurotransmitter serotonin is reabsorbed from
synapses, or gaps between nerve cells, the drug could be used
to reestablish a desirable chemical balance in the brain.
As a new class of drug known as a selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitor (SSRI), Prozac (fluoxetine) was
introduced as a healthier alternative to existing anti-
depressants on the market in the late 1980’s. These
other drugs, including monoamine oxidase inhibi-
tors (MAO inhibitors) and tricyclics, were known to
have more serious side effects and were thus consid-
ered more dangerous than was Prozac. Prozac was
created for the Eli Lilly Corporation, one of the
world’s largest pharmaceutical companies, by a team
led by Ray Fuller. Originally called Lilly 110140,
Prozac was renamed by a marketing team once it was
ready for sale. The brand name was a simple conno-
tation of the positive-sounding prefix “pro” and a
neutral suffix.
Prozac was marketed as a green and yellow cap-
sule (later available as a pill as well) with a normal in-
troductory dosage of ten milligrams. The dosage was
often increased over time, as it could take up to four
weeks for the drug to provide full effect and the
effectivity of a given dosage to be evaluated for a
given patient. Prozac was recognized as having mi-
nor physical side effects, but it also had psychologi-
cal side effects that made it controversial.
The drug was extremely popular upon its initial
release, not only because of its effectiveness in treat-
ing depression, but also because of an extensive mar-
keting campaign launched by Eli Lilly. Indeed, the
advertising blitz accompanying the drug’s launch
was the most extensive pharmaceutical campaign of
the decade. During the first week of production,
over 400,000 prescriptions were filled for Prozac,
which the media and some researchers referred to as
a “wonder drug.” The media, however, also began to
consider the demand for such a drug and the conse-
quences of its availability. As a result, it began to em-
ploy the term “Prozac Generation” to describe the
combination of stress, depression, self-awareness,
and open discussion of mental illness that character-
ized the late 1980’s and early 1990’s.
Eli Lilly’s advertising campaigns and studies re-
garding Prozac were later subject to criticism. An in-
ternal 1984 study by Eli Lilly indicated that at least
1 percent of Prozac users reported increased sui-
cidal thoughts, and studies in 1985 concluded that
patients who tested the drug experienced an in-
crease in violent behavior. As these findings were
later addressed and brought to the attention of the
public and the civil courts, Eli Lilly denied any links
between Prozac and suicide.
Notwithstanding later revelations and controversy,
Prozac’s initial arrival in the late 1980’s was consid-
ered a breakthrough for treatment in depression, as
well as many other mental disorders. As a result, it
became one of the most successful psychiatric drugs
in history. Moreover, the advertising campaign asso-
ciated with Prozac had the side effect of reducing
the shame associated with mental illness. The drug
and its media representations combined to change
the way society addressed depression, and they al-
tered individuals’ assessments of personal feelings
and emotional restrictions.Impact As the first of the SSRIs, Prozac became a
product and a term that bridged psychiatry and the780 Prozac The Eighties in America