Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression (Medicine, Culture, and History)

by David Healy

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Editorial Reviews
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"A compelling story about mystery, deception, death, disappointment, vindication, and uncertainty."
—The American Psychological Association

"Healy confirms his status as one longtime thorn in the side of big drug companies, recounting how he was initially enthusiastic about SSRIs but eventually grew concerned about their side effects."
—Psychology Today

"Physicians should be aware of Let Them Eat Prozac."
—JAMA

"Let Them Eat Prozac is a double-pronged exploration, first of the SSRI drugs used to treat depression, and second of the drug industry."
—Publishers Weekly

"Ultimately, the book is about science, society and the power and misuse of commercial promotion. . . . His investigation is impressive."
—Nature

"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."
—John Le Carré

"Healy presents technical matters clearly. This book could not be more timely."
—Foreword

"Let Them Eat Prozac is an interesting history. It asks some stimulating and challenging questions, which are still in need of better and more constructive answers."
—Journal of the American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry

"In a flood of academic publications and talks, David Healy has issued harsh criticisms of both the pharmaceutical industry in general and the nearly $20-billion-dollar-a-year antidepressant industry in particular."
—Boston Globe

"Healy does raise some timely issues."
—Psychiatric Services

"Dr. Healy's tenacity in fighting for what he believes in is admirable."
—E-Streams

"[Healy is] the leading authority on the history of psychopharmacology."
—Times Literary Supplement

"An alarming book. . . . The most disturbing part of the story Healy tells is not merely about the risks of SSRIs but about the efforts of the pharmaceutical industry to make sure those risks were not uncovered."
—Dissent

"In his timely new book, Healy draws on his extensive experience in antidepressant studies and involvement in legal actions against drug manufacturers. . . . Healy has the advantage of access to internal pharmaceutical industry documents and makes a strong case."
—Library Journal

"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."
—Jonathan Cole, Harvard Medical School

"Healy exposes the massive fraud and deception in the production and marketing of antidepressant drugs, the selevtive serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs)."
—Choice

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. 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. 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 side-effect of a particular drug. 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.

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All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

a burden of proof. , 2007-09-26
A book to read if somebody in your family is considering taking SSRI. Not so much to go agaisnt medical advice but to recognize subsequent side effect that would alert the family member to an untoward reaction from taking the medication. A good book to read also for physicians who are prescribing or seeing patients who take SSRIs. This book goes into many details , from case studies to marketing and legal issues concerning the pharmaceutical companies 's handling of SSRIs. It is a compelling case for a cover up for serious side effects. Even if it only looks at one side of the story, it is a pretty large burden of proof. Not an easy read.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4 out of 5 stars

Get Ready To Get Mad, 2006-07-22
Healy is the world's foremost authority on psychopharmacology. The first part of this book (Introduction) is 39 pages and gives a most useful overview of depression's "history," the history of tranquilizers, the discovery of serotonin and chemical imbalances (which he calls a silly myth), SSRIs, etc. The book is also excellent on the marketing of antidepressants. This is where you might get upset as it becomes clear the marketing strategy involves very purposeful distortions of the truth and outright lies. His information about "ghostwriting" (when the drug company actually writes the journal article, not the drug researcher whose name appears on the article) is astonishing. I had read my medical journals for many years without ever even being aware this ever occurred. Healy describes his own experiences where the drug companies have tried to pay him for allowing his name to go on their "research" studies. He believes this is a much greater problem with antidepressants than with other classes of drugs. If all the book were as strong as the Introduction or the ghostwriting and marketing material I would give it five stars. However, he gives a lot of detail about his own experiences which is "why is this in the book?" kind of material. A more general book that is the best thing I have read yet on the antidepressant/antipsychotic topic is America Fooled. It is easy to understand but referenced as well as Healy's books (and I didn't think anyone could match Healy). We are fortunate to have Healy write this and his other books as he speaks from personal experiences and is a giant in the field.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5 out of 5 stars

A Disturbing Peek Inside the Machinations of the Pharmaceutical Industry and the Complacency of the Psychiatric Community, 2006-06-30
Dr. David Healy's Let Them Eat Prozac is packed with painstakingly referenced information. The book is deceptively panoramic in scope, ranging from ghost written article/adverts in medical journals masquerading as science, to how the line between the psychiatric community and the pharmaceutical industry has become increasingly blurred. Healy diligently documents how society has been inundated with information regarding the newest and `most proficient' pharmaceuticals, and how it has been increasingly difficult of late to separate legitimate scientific observations from the highly evolved marketing the industry has used to engage the public.

Dr. Healy tackles many key issues and demonstrates admirably how one should handle some of the more sensitive of these without sounding sensationalistic. There is much in this book that would otherwise not be public knowledge, and as Healy explains how the billions of dollars that these companies spend on public relations are used, one comes to appreciate/abhor the tact with which the pharmaceutical industry has promoted their products. However, David Healy is a man who refuses to play their game:

"A string of colleagues from Japan through Europe to the US called me or emailed me to tell me that they had been told to have no contact with me - that I was trouble, and about to be in trouble." (pg 248)

The quote refers to the difficulties Dr. Healy faced in bringing the life-threatening side effects of these drugs (namely akathisia and psychoses) to the attention of the public and the psychiatric community. These difficulties would reach their apex when his job contract with the University of Toronto was rescinded after he presented his concerns that some of these more dangerous side effects were being overlooked, concerns that would later prove true and result in a black box suicide warning being placed on all SSRIs and SNRIs.

Easily the best and most important non-fiction book I have ever read. I'll end with a couple quotes to give you a better idea of the content:

Memo from chief executive in the German branch of Lilly: "Hans [Weber] had medical problems with these directions and I have great concerns about it. I do not think I could explain to the BGA, to a judge, to a reporter or even to my family why we do this especially on the sensitive issue of suicide and suicidal ideation." (Healy 248) Followed by another memo: "I personally wonder whether we are really helping the credibility of an excellent ADE system by calling overdose what a physician reports as suicide attempt and by calling depression what a physician is reporting as suicide ideation."

Based on this it is safe to say that by the turn of the century, around 50% of the "scientific" literature in pharmacotherapeutics was ghost-written, originated within companies, or was published in non-peer-reviewed supplements to journals. (Healy 187)

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

3 out of 5 stars

Disturbing, somewhat useful, murky, 2006-05-07
This important book undermines its effectiveness by jumbling together several distinct story lines:
1. The influence of pharmaceutical money on science and the practice of medicine.
2. The value of antidepressants versus their troubling side effects, most notably suicidality.
3. The legal battles over (a) the "Prozac defense" and (b) product liability of Lilly for adverse drug reactions.
4. Dr. Healy's personal travails as a result of his concerns about the safety of SSRI's.

Jumbling these related-but-different issues together results in a murky book, in which none of the four stories emerges clearly.

In general, Dr. Healy's views on these issues seem to be
1. Pharmaceutical money has badly corrupted both science and clinical practice.
2. Antidepressants and other psychotropics are important tools, but because the science and clinical practice have been skewed by pharmaceutical companies, they are over-prescribed, mis-prescribed, and generally used injudiciously.
3. The only reason his side has lost the legal battles that it has lost is the corrupt influence of pharma, and
4. He got screwed by the Evil powers.

I found the cases he made for points 1 and 2 (if I teased them out of the murk correctly) fairly persuasive, the case for point 3 provocative but not entirely compelling, and the case for point 4 hard to judge.

If you have a fair amount of patience and a serious interest in the different story lines Dr. Healy addresses, and if you know enough about the methodological issues involved in different ways of doing research to evaluate his criticisms of the preferred methodologies of pharmaceutical-funded research, the book is certainly worth reading. Otherwise, I suspect you will find the book more confusing and (probably) misleading than enlightening.

2 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

2 out of 5 stars

very disappointing, 2006-04-27
An interesting book and there will be much discussion as to whether David Healy is ultimately correct.
However, what does concern me about David Healys work, is that it is basically negative. If he believes that S.S.R.I.sare in many cases worse than placebo, what is he advocating in their place? It is well understood that anti-depressants along with the various counselling therapies, can prove very effective.

In Doctor Healys local authority however, there is a 9 month waiting list to see a psychologist. Is David Healy advocating and campaigning for more psychologists in his work-place?

In the future, new drugs will have less and less relevance. It is becoming far too expensive to continue to develop and test them. There has to be an alternative.

2 of the most beneficial are: MEDITATION and HEALING With the right tools anyone can practice both with amazing results and nil side-effects.

IT IS TIME RIGHT NOW FOR EVERYONE TO WAKE UP AND SMELL THE COFFEE1111

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