For years, Prozac has been one of the best-selling anti-depressant drugs, available in India under brand names Prodep and Fludax. All over the world more than 40 million people rely on it to cure depression. It’s often described as the “happy pill” but now an international team of doctors has found that Prozac doesn’t work and it could be a waste of time and money.

The team has also found that other antidepressants like Seroxat and Efexor are equally ineffective. They are like dummy pills and in most cases work like placebos. They work only for most severely depressed patients.

The study, led by Irving Kirsch of the University of Hull who was assisted by colleagues from the US and Canada, and published in Public Library of Science Medicine, suggests that millions of people around the world are needlessly taking the powerful anti-depressants, which have harmful and dangerous side effects, including suicide, suicidal thoughts, insomnia and nausea.

Seroxat alone has been linked to at least 50 suicides in the UK since 1990. In 2006, doctors in the UK wrote more than 31 million prescriptions costing the National Health Service almost £300 million.

Kirsch reached his conclusion after studying results of 35 clinical trials involving more than 5,000 patients with depression. He said, “Given these results, there seems little reason to prescribe anti-depressant medication to any but the most severely depressed patients, unless alternative treatments have failed...This study raises serious issues that need to be addressed surrounding drug licensing and how drug trial data is reported.”

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