There's some weird causality here, seemingly suggesting that Prozac caused an increase in depression.<p>>"Prozac was introduced in 1988, and we all know what happened then. Depression went from a relatively rare condition (affecting well under 100,000 people in the 1950s) to an epidemic disease affecting 27 million Americans. "<p>I'm pretty sure more than 100,000 people suffered from depression in the US in 1950. They might have just gone undiagnosed and self-medicated with alcohol rather than (non-existent) pharmaceuticals. Given that the mental health state of the art in 1950 was an icepick to the frontal lobe, I can hardly blame them for not seeking treatment.<p>I would imagine that the increase in _diagnosed_ depressed patients occurred because of an increase in both awareness and viable treatment options.