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

Rating:
Summary: Ignorance is bliss
Review:
Healy does a marvelous job of unveiling the hidden workings of the pharmaceutical industry and the corruption of psychiatry and academia as they have acquiesced to the power of the giant. It is a detailed, accurate and methodical book. It is also very well written and is as suspenseful as a detective novel.

Though the focus of the book is SSRI's, and specifically akathisia and suicidality, hot topics of late, Healy touches on many fascinating subjects in which the pharmaceuticals have played a dominant role, such as the change in the relationship between doctor and patient which has occurred over the past thirty years or so.

Even if you consider yourself well versed in the ills of modern psychiatry, I think you will be stunned by the revelations in this book. I know I was. To give but one example, I had no idea that roughly 50% of articles in psychiatric publications are ghost written by medical writing companies, which are essentially outsourced PR companies for the pharmaceuticals. That is, not only is every moment of TV filled with advertisements promoting various 'diseases' and their 'cures', thus shaping the belief system of the entire culture; not only is every aspect of psychiatric treatment and education funded and controlled almost solely by drug companies; but the supposed 'academic' publications, those cornerstones of honesty and unbiased knowledge, are written to a large extent by those very same drug companies.

In this heavy fog of propaganda, it is difficult to see. Here are some questions for you to ponder:

Has Prozac been proven to be effective as an antidepressant?
An odd question, is it not?
Has the prevalence of depression decreased since these "effective treatments" have been discovered? It should have, shouldn't it?
Why is depression increasingly viewed as a chronic condition requiring life long treatment, when we now have "effective treatment" for it? What about the addictive qualities of SSRI's - how do they play into this? Addictive, you ask - huh?

Do these question strike you as bizarre?
Read this book, and you might think otherwise.

To those who earn their living by dispensing medications, I must caution that reading this book will not make your life better. It might make it much more difficult. Attempt to share these insights with others and you will be met with bafflement and disdain, if not outright hostility. There is only one game in town. If you do not want to play, be prepared for the consequences. You will be lonely, I can almost guarantee that. You might have to seek an alternative career.

Is it really worth it?

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Don't read it. You'll be better off this way.

Rating:
Summary: Sobering, informative, yet gripping
Review: Dr. Healy is a proponent of drug use for patients with depression or other disorders. When a drug calms a person down or energizes her - in a good way - he says "that's a good drug for that person". He has been a leading figure in psychopharmacology for many years, in part because of sponsorship by drug companies. He has a great deal of experience prescribing Prozac, Zoloft, and other antidepressants for a variety of conditions.

Healy is also a dedicated, conscientious doctor. So when he first read reports of persons who behaved unaccountably when on Prozac or another Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor (SSRI), he naturally wanted to know why. It wasn't long before he had embarked on a research trek that led him to the inescapable conclusion that Prozac increases a patient's risk for suicide and violence. He tells the story of his journey almost like he is writing a suspense novel, and its grip is hard to shake.

Healy noticed that the "suicidal ideation" related to the use of Prozac was different from the non-drug induced suicide. Normal suicidal behavior takes into account the effect of this action on others, while drug-induced suicide and violent actions show a complete disregard for anyone else. Normal suicidal behavior is repeated - that is, an actual suicide typically follows at least one attempt. The cases that Healy followed, by contrast, were of normal people who had usually never attempted suicide before. Their behavior shortly before the attempted or actual suicide was described as strange and unlike them, almost as if they were possessed.

Although the book delves deeply into the pharmaceutical industry's practices, the efforts made by these companies to prevent negative information about their drugs from reaching doctors or the public, I was particularly struck by the effect these special patients had on Healy himself. He doesn't seem to be able to shake the vision of what they became and how their behavior, influenced by drugs, affected their friends and families, how the drugs ruined so many lives in such a horrifying way. I think it was this sense that drove Healy to write this book. No stranger to attacks and veiled threats by his peers, Healy has to know that his work will not be received with unadulterated admiration. But it is a work he had to write and that we all should read.


Rating:
Summary: honesty at last
Review: Having been a pharmacist for 24 yrs I can say with depressing certainty that MDs have absolutely minimal understanding of the drugs they prescribe. They receive only the barest instruction in pharmacology in med school, and the majority of their ongoing drug education seems to come from pharmaceutical reps. This book just further validates observations I have already made about the side effects of Prozac and its cousins. The detail involved in the handling of the subject matter may be too technical for the casual reader but would be fascinating to healthcare professionals and attorneys. It underscores the penalties to be paid by honest researchers and healthcare professionals in this market-driven economy by those who dare to challenge the data put out by companies with huge profits to make and to protect--and who also have the financial resources to ruin anyone who tells the truth about their products. It reinforces what should be a guiding principal in most areas of life: before believing what you are told, ask who profits by your gullibility and need. And do not be too quick to distrust your own instincts and observations.

Rating:
Summary: honesty at last
Review: Having been a pharmacist for 24 yrs I can say with depressing certainty that MDs have absolutely minimal understanding of the drugs they prescribe. They receive only the barest instruction in pharmacology in med school, and the majority of their ongoing drug education seems to come from pharmaceutical reps. This book just further validates observations I have already made about the side effects of Prozac and its cousins. The detail involved in the handling of the subject matter may be too technical for the casual reader but would be fascinating to healthcare professionals and attorneys. It underscores the penalties to be paid by honest researchers and healthcare professionals in this market-driven economy by those who dare to challenge the data put out by companies with huge profits to make and to protect--and who also have the financial resources to ruin anyone who tells the truth about their products. It reinforces what should be a guiding principal in most areas of life: before believing what you are told, ask who profits by your gullibility and need. And do not be too quick to distrust your own instincts and observations.

Rating:
Summary: Do not read this book.
Review: Healy does a marvelous job of unveiling the hidden workings of the pharmaceutical industry and the corruption of psychiatry and academia as they have acquiesced to the power of the giant. It is a detailed, accurate and methodical book. It is also very well written and is as suspenseful as a detective novel.

Though the focus of the book is SSRI's, and specifically akathisia and suicidality, hot topics of late, Healy touches on many fascinating subjects in which the pharmaceuticals have played a dominant role, such as the change in the relationship between doctor and patient which has occurred over the past thirty years or so.

Even if you consider yourself well versed in the ills of modern psychiatry, I think you will be stunned by the revelations in this book. I know I was. To give but one example, I had no idea that roughly 50% of articles in psychiatric publications are ghost written by medical writing companies, which are essentially outsourced PR companies for the pharmaceuticals. That is, not only is every moment of TV filled with advertisements promoting various 'diseases' and their 'cures', thus shaping the belief system of the entire culture; not only is every aspect of psychiatric treatment and education funded and controlled almost solely by drug companies; but the supposed 'academic' publications, those cornerstones of honesty and unbiased knowledge, are written to a large extent by those very same drug companies.

In this heavy fog of propaganda, it is difficult to see. Here are some questions for you to ponder:

Has Prozac been proven to be effective as an antidepressant?
An odd question, is it not?

Has the prevalence of depression decreased since these "effective treatments" have been discovered? It should have, shouldn't it?

Why is depression increasingly viewed as a chronic condition requiring life long treatment, when we now have "effective treatment" for it? What about the addictive qualities of SSRI's - how do they play into this? Addictive, you ask - huh?

Do these question strike you as bizarre?
Read this book, and you might think otherwise.

To those who earn their living by dispensing medications, I must caution that reading this book will not make your life better. It might make it much more difficult. Attempt to share these insights with others and you will be met with bafflement and disdain, if not outright hostility. There is only one game in town. If you do not want to play, be prepared for the consequences. You will be lonely, I can almost guarantee that. You might have to seek an alternative career.

Is it really worth it?

Sometimes ignorance is bliss.

Do not read this book.

Rating:
Summary: Good information to know about SSRI drugs before treatment..
Review: Since I am acquainted with the issues of antidepressants as someone with dysthymia, I decided it might be interesting to read the "other" side of the story. To that end, I just finished Let Them Eat Prozac - The Unhealthy Relationship Between The Pharmaceutical Industry And Depression by David Healy. Interesting stuff here...

Healy is listed as a former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology and has written a number of articles and books on the subject. He's also been on the prescribing end of antidepressants, so I don't see (at least on the surface) any particular conflict of interest that might color his statements and conclusions. The book is part a personal story of his experience with the drug Prozac and its parent company Lilly, as well as an expose of how pharmaceutical companies are able to distort facts and studies to present misleading results on drug testing. The main thrust of this book is how Prozac and SSRI drugs in general show a strong increase in the rate of suicidal tendencies in users during the first few weeks of use. But looking at the information from the drug companies, you'd never know it. Based on creative manipulation of statistics, the suicide rates were presented as far less than they really were. And even now that Prozac has gone off patent and is now available in its generic form of fluoxetine, he still claims that little is known about the long-term effects of the drug, and who might be held responsible if issues arise down the road.

Coming into this book, I was ready to write him off as a conspiracy nut with an axe to grind. I was given fluoxetine nearly two years ago to help me deal with chronic low-level depression, and it's been a lifesaver. I've experienced very few side effects (very minor), and it has given me a new lease on life. But after reading the book, I realize that I am pretty lucky, in that the story could have been much worse. It's nearly impossible (from what I can tell) to predict how a specific person will react on an SSRI drug. My position has been that the doctor should be watching them extremely closely over the first two to four weeks. I'd now change that to the first two to four *days*. An adverse reaction to the drug could be deadly, and for more than just the person taking the drug.

Overall, very interesting material. I would hope that reading something like this wouldn't dissuade a person from seeking treatment and trying SSRI drugs, as they can and do work well for many people. But it's valuable to understand that they don't work for everyone, and it's possible that they could make the condition even worse. Just proceed with caution...

Rating:
Summary: He's only telling part of the story
Review: While this book presents itself as a "behind the scenes" accounting of the drug companies -- there are several factors that made me very skeptical while reading it. First off, I am not someone associated with the pharm companies and I've never received any money from them. However, being someone in the medical field, I was immediately concerned when Dr. Healy states on numerous occasions that SSRI's have conclusively been proven to *cause* suicidial thoughts. Anyone in science knows the danger of stating causation. The truth is, we don't know why SSRI's are *associated* with some increased suicidial ideation. Furthermore, Dr. Healy completely negelects recent finds that SSRI's are associated with increased BDNF levels, which strongly suggest that high 5HT levels result in neuronal growth. This one sided treatment of the issue becomes apparent in this book as the author slowly emerges as someone who has a personal axe to grind and, frankly, appears to be a hired-gun for the plantiff's bar. He essentially states that SSRI's are *worse* than placebo for treating depression and that patient's who take them are too stupid to know the difference between placebo and effective treatment. Unfortunately, these factors cast serious doubts on the entirelty of this work. Pass it by as polemics.