Can you recall how much of a controversy the drug Prozac caused in the late 1990s when various lawsuits were leveled against the drug’s manufacturers, Eli Lilly and Company, alleging that the drug made users feel suicidal and caused other side effects?

Well, Prozac is back in the news again, and this time, it looks like someone has found a rather unique use for the hugely-popular anti-depressant. According to news reports last June 25, the British government will be using Prozac on jailed pedophiles and other sex offenders to help them avoid committing more of the same crimes.

The plan takes effect beginning this fall with Prozac to be administered to 100 prisoners in nine separate jails. The thinking behind this is that, among other things, Prozac can suppress obsessive sexual urges.

If the initial stages of the plan are successful, plans are a-foot to treat an estimated 10 percent of all offenders with the anti-depressant drug, reports said. The bottom-line here is that all means must be exhausted to ensure that children are protected from sex offenders.

The plan seems sound, according to keen observers, especially those who are familiar with the qualities of the antidepressant drug, which is used medically in the treatment of depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia nervosa, premenstrual dysphoric disorder and panic disorders. It goes by the scientific name fluoxetine hydrochloride. But owing to the drug’s rich history of controversy, no one will be surprised if this latest move will meet its share of controversy as well somewhere along the way.

When Prozac was first introduced in the United States in 1988, it was a smash success. Its popularity was so huge that millions around the world started taking the medication. Clearly, part of the credit for Prozac’s tremendous sales growth is due to Lilly’s extensive marketing campaign for the drug, considered as one of the most successful in the history of American pharmaceuticals. However, there is no denying that Prozac filled a need in the market. Eli Lilly and Company earned billions from the drug's success.

The bad rap posed against Prozac really began in 1990 when Martin Teicher from Harvard published an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry that outlined six individual cases of people who had become preoccupied with thoughts of suicide after going on Prozac.

Eli Lilly moved swiftly to protect their milking cow. A contradictory article by Charles Beasley soon came out narrating a study that covered 3,065 patients of which 1,700 had been put on Prozac. The article concluded that there was no evidence that the individuals who were treated with Prozac had a higher rate of suicide than those taking placebo.

Later, in a book entitled “Let Them Eat Prozac,” Irish scientist David Healy pointed out several flaws in Beasley’s experiment and again raised the possibility that Prozac could indeed cause suicide. His comments became the center of controversy concerning the influence of the pharmaceutical industry on medicine and academia.

Numerous lawsuits were filed against Eli Lilly and Company amounting to millions of dollars and alleging that Prozac made users feel suicidal and other side effects. However, the lawsuits and accusations failed to stem the widespread prescription of the drug and its use as a medication worldwide, and neither did any of Lilly’s accusers make any money from their lawsuits.

In January 2005, the British Medical Journal released official documents from Eli Lilly dating back to the 1980s that suggested there was a link between fluoxetine and suicide as well as psychosis. The British Medical Journal claimed that these documents had never been previously disclosed and subsequently the documents were provided to the FDA for further investigation. However, Eli Lilly claimed later that said documents had surfaced and had been released in earlier litigation. Ultimately, the British Medical Journal retracted its claim that the documents had not been previously disclosed. In addition, the British Medical Journal also apologized to Eli Lilly.