Let Them Eat Prozac

Healy D (2004), Let Them Eat Prozac: The unhealthy relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and depression, NYU Press, NY.

Healy D (2003), Conspiracy of consensus: How drug companies get round the absence of hard evidence. Mental Health Today, November, p. 27-30.

This is an especially important book that details some of the distortions and deceptions of the drug industry. I have described this in brief in my book The Truth about Mental Illness, in chapter 20 “The Drugs Don't Work Well.” David Healy has also described it briefly in his fine article “Conspiracy of Consensus”. For those who want even more detail, please see his new book Let Them Eat Prozac.

From the book jacket:

"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. Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft -- we all know their names, 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 the latest marketing campaigns -- and the controversies that surround them. Initially, they seemed like wonder drugs for mild to moderate depression. One pill a day to a new you, and unlike the tranquilizers that were popular from the 1960s to the 1980s, SSRIs supposedly could not lead to addiction.

When Prozac was released in the late 1980s, David Healy was among the psychiatrists who prescribed them. But he soon observed that some patients became agitated and even attempted suicide. Confirmatory 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 problem goes much deeper than a disturbing side effect of a particular drug. Current FDA regulations encourage drug companies to pursue projects that will allow them to patent a specific compound and market it effectively to a large population on the basis of minimal effectiveness in a handful of trials, with no guarantees of safety.

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 Anti-depressant Era and The Creation of Psychopharmacology.