Parskip doesn't work

Question

In the following code, the comment parksip doesn't increase the spacing between paragraph and I don't understand why. How can I make a bigger spacing between my paragraph than the default one ?
documentclass[aps, pra, reprint, superscriptaddress, nofootinbib]{revtex4-1}
bibliographystyle{apsrev4-1} 
usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
usepackage[english]{babel}

setlength{parskip}{1em}

begin{document}

title{TITLE}

begin{abstract}
Abstract
end{abstract}

maketitle
%pacs{}

section{Introduction}

testsdqsdsqdqsdqsdqsd qsdqsd qsd qsd qsd qsd qsdqzzadazqsx azqd qswd ZEQSDFQZ SWFUKJHQS WD QSP DKJCSDKLFG JHERJKSDFH NSLFDFJHKQSN WDFNCJKSQLDHFDNC

test DS< FSDJKHL<NF LKJSQDKFBJLKSD FNJSKD NF KJSDQ<N FQSHFKLSJDFDKQSDHFQSKJDFHSKJDFHQSD FJ

test

end{document}

Some illustrations: as you can see the spacing (around red colors) is small (and doesn't vary when I change setlength{parskip}{1em} to setlength{parskip}{10em} for instance)

campa · Accepted Answer

As daleif said in his comment redefining parskip is a dangerous endeavour, as this vertical space might pop out when you don't expect it. (Plus, journals can be cranky when you change their templates...)
This being said, I'd like to explain why your code does not work with revtex4-1 but it does with revtex4-2.
Most differences between the two files are cosmetic, but revtex4-2 has one important addition: at the end of the class it issues normalsize. This means that in the preamble the font is set and 1em has its particular value.
With revtex4-1 the normalsize is called only at begin{document}. The current font in the preamble is still nullfont, and 1em of nullfont is the same as zero.
If you want to redefine parskip with revtex4-1, you have to do it after begin{document}. In the preamble you can still set parskip by using "hard" lengths (pt, mm, ...) instead of font-related ones (em, ex) (but I wouldn't recommend it).

Parskip doesn't work

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