When forty million people across the world rely on a pill to make them “happy”, it’s obviously time to redefine that pithy little word. Or ask why. Now an international team of researchers has just done that.

I refer, of course, to the famous pick-me-up Prozac, that could, as it turns out, be no more effective than a sugar cube. This week, a study of 5000 depressed patients led by Irving Kirsch of the University of Hull and published in the Public Library of Science Medicine journal, has found that millions of people may be needlessly taking this powerful drug with “harmful and dangerous” side effects, including nausea, insomnia and suicidal behaviour.

But while the study has kicked up the predictable storm in shrinkdom, it is certainly not seminal. As far back as May 1998, a research paper in the American Clinical Psychiatry News claimed that Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac — Prodep or Fludac in India — were implicated in serious sleep and sexual dysfunctions, weight gain and aggression. In fact, the report went so far as to suggest that Prozac could ironically end up making depressed people feel suicidal. Plagued by bad press, the manufacturers, Eli Lily, finally set up a psychiatric panel to study the side effects and found evidence of “suicidal ideation”, “violent behaviour”, fatigue, visual and sensory disturbances, decreased concentration, lowered mood and memory, and “dramatic” crying spells.

Incidentally, the other class of drugs that spell trouble are benzodiazepines, found in tranquillisers like Trika, Restyl, Alprax, and sleeping pills like Calmpose. Used to control anxiety by suppressing brain activity, benzodiazepines have a laundry-list of well-documented side-effects similar to those of alcohol abuse. These include slowed thinking, slurred speech, lack of coordination, impaired walking (ataxia), drowsiness, and poor judgment that makes users prone to accidents. In higher doses, they can also cause memory loss, confusion, paranoia, and paradoxical reactions such as rage and aggression. According to a Task Force Report of the American Psychiatric Association (1990), when withdrawn suddenly, benzodiazepines can double or triple anxiety levels, trigger panic attacks and cause nausea, the “shakes”, severe headaches, insomnia, sensitivity to light, even hallucinations and delirium.

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