Let Them Eat Prozac or Lessons from Joan

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

Author: David Healy

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 Carrй
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.

Read also e Commerce Law or Organizations in America

Lessons from Joan: Living and Loving with Cancer, a Husband's Story

Author: Eric Kingson

In the thirty-two months following Joan's cancer diagnosis she and her family experienced a journey that changed their lives immeasurably. With unflinching honesty, Eric R. Kingson recounts the ensuing medical treatments, their hopes and fears, their advocacy, and everyday struggles. But at the heart of the book is Joan's warmth and courage. Her observations on life and death, more philosophical than clinical, are honest and abundant. Drawing on her wisdom, Kingson has written a powerful and enriching book. Unexpectedly, it proves to be not so much a memoir as a love story. Lessons from Joan is not intended as a "how-to" book, but within its pages readers will find lessons about how to deal with unexpected life-threatening illnesses, how to identify and assess treatment options, and how to communicate with health care providers and deal with managed care.

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW

"[O]ffers far more than the usual memoir, however: its most valuable contribution lies in its lessons on how to navigate the medical system, how to obtain results in the face of obstacles, and how families can endure both diagnosis and treatment. This powerful story holds many lessons and much advice for any facing similar struggles, and is a high recommended pick."

for the the COLON CANCER ALLIANCE - SUZANNE LINDLEY

"For those living with or touched by a diagnosis of cancer, "Lessons from Joan" will be a comfort and a help. For anyone seeking understanding in the presence of the mystery of disease, this book will be a flowing river of perception. It will provide laughter, thought, tears, and above all hope. I recommend it wholeheartedly."

CEO, Hospice & Palliative Care Associates of Central New York - DALE JOHNSON

This "book is, by turns, a valentine to Joan, a thank-you note to friends and family, and a how-to manual for families encountering a bewildering health care system in the face of terminal disease. Kingson manages a deft balancing act, crafting a work that is philosophical at times but never dense, inspirational without being overly sentimental, and instructive while much more than merely technical. Lessons from Joan presents a set of thoughtful reflections about struggle, loss and grief in a family turned upside down by the unanticipated illness of a youthful and vibrant wife and mother."

What People Are Saying

Newsletter Of The Rosalynn Carter Institute Caregiver Program
"This courageous look into the day to day triumphs and tragedies of dealing with a life-threatening illness is a thought-provoking, helpful and hopeful book for caregivers, family members, professional caregivers, and students."
—RECOMENDED BOOK IN CARGIVING TIMES (January 2006)

Karen Davis
From the Foreword by Karen Davis, President and CEO of the Commonwealth Fund:
Joan's experience with the health care system has lessons for all of us. . . . It illustrates the importance of "the heart" in our health care system -- for our patients, family members, health care providers, and our culture.

Robert L. Kane
Robert L. Kane, M.D., University of Minnesota Chair in Long-term Care and Aging and author of It Shouldn't Be This Way: The Failure of Long-term Care:
Provides both inspiration and insight. . . . [Kingson offers] many useful ideas on how to deal with terminal cancer.

Niki Tsongas
Niki Tsongas, wife of the late Senator Paul Tsongas:
In the end, it is the dignity, and ultimately the great humanity with which Joan and her family faced her illness that comes through in this remarkable book and [which] enriches us all.

Sidney Winawer
Sidney Winawer, M.D., Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, author of Healing Lessons:
Many of us will find ourselves in an unexpected crisis of illness. . . . Lessons from Joan will be extraordinarily helpful. [This book] is not only engaging and tender but also informative.