Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression by David Healy

From the Publisher

Prozac. Paxil. Zoloft. Turn on your television and you are likely to see a commercial for one of the many selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) on the market. We hear a lot about them, but do we really understand how these drugs work and what risks are involved for anyone who uses them?

Let Them Eat Prozac explores the history of SSRIs—from their early development to their latest marketing campaigns—and the controversies that surround them. Initially, they seemed like wonder drugs for those with mild to moderate depression—patients take just one daily dose, and unlike the tranquilizers that were popular in the 1960s, they supposedly did not lead to addiction. When Prozac was released in the late 1980s, David Healy was among the psychiatrists who prescribed it. But he soon observed that some of these patients became agitated and even attempted suicide. Studies were soon published, citing numerous cases in which patients became anxious and reported increased suicidal thoughts while taking Prozac. Could the new wonder drug actually be making patients worse?

Healy draws on his own research and expertise to demonstrate the potential hazards associated with these drugs. He intersperses case histories with insider accounts of the research leading to the development and approval of SSRIs as a treatment for depression. Let Them Eat Prozac clearly demonstrates that the problems go much deeper than a disturbing side-effect of a particular drug. Current FDA regulations encourage drug companies to patent a specific compound and market it effectively to a large population on the basis of minimal effectiveness in a handful of trials.

The pharmaceutical industry would like us to believe that SSRIs can safely treat depression, anxiety, and a host of other mental problems. But as Let Them Eat Prozac reveals, this "cure" may be worse than the disease.

David Healy is a former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and author of over 120 articles and 12 books, including The Antidepressant Era and The Creation of Psychopharmacology.

Library Journal

Recent Food & Drug Administration hearings have explored links between antidepressant use and suicide. Expert testimony on the safety of these drugs conflicts, and pharmaceutical companies have been accused of covering up evidence of serious side effects. In his timely new book, psychiatrist Healy (Univ. of Wales Coll. of Medicine, U.K.; The Antidepressant Era) chronicles these very issues at length, drawing on his extensive experience in antidepressant studies and involvement in legal actions against drug manufacturers. (He was fired from a position at the University of Toronto for his outspokenness.) In effect, Healy is continuing the conversation started by Peter D. Kramer (Listening to Prozac) and Peter Breggin (Talking Back to Prozac; The Anti-Depressant Fact Book), both of whom are psychiatrists concerned with the way antidepressants are being marketed and what the current love affair with mood-altering drugs means in our culture. Healy has the advantage of access to internal pharmaceutical industry documents and makes a strong case. Somewhat academic in tone, his book includes extensive notes to relevant case law as well as medical literature. Recommended for larger public libraries and special collections in public policy, medicine, and public health.-Eris Weaver, Redwood Health Lib., Petaluma, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

What People Are Saying

Jonathan Cole
The author is an excellent historian who offers a gripping interpretation of the role of the pharmaco-industrial complex in the introduction of SSRIs. His recommendation for a funded agency that would carefully evaluate the benefits and harms of marketed drugs is a superb idea and much needed.
—Harvard Medical School

John Le Carré
This very important book will demonstrate beyond your worst dreams that the commercial needs of Big Pharma are the natural-born enemy of independent scientific research.

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