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

This world took a bad turn when Big Pharma decided to produce drugs for healthy people. Suddenly, all kinds of new complaints were invented, together with miraculous pills that were supposed to treat them. Not to cure them, but to treat them... for life... That's why those drugs are called "lifestyle drugs". The list is long, and gets longer every day. Now we have pills to treat cholesterol, the biggest business of pharmaceutical industries. But we have also pills to treat impotence, hyperactivity, and recently even "mild" depression can be "treated". Dr. David Healy says Big Pharma is better in marketing new drugs than in discovering useful formulas. The FDA approved Prozac when Eli Lilly finally succeeded to present two (!) studies that showed "some" improvement in "mildly depressive" patients. Healy comments on this : "... it has not been uncommon for new drugs to be presented to the FDA that are superior to placebo in perhaps only two out of six trials. Instead of saying that, on balance, the new drug is simply not more effective than a placebo or is of such minimal effectiveness that it is hardly worth permitting on the market, the FDA approach is to say that any trials comparing a new drug to an older antidepressant in which the older drug appeared no different to a placebo were failed trials. That is, the trial rather than the new drug failed." To make things worse for us, the general public, it results that the FDA hires its "experts" directly from Big Pharma to "help" evaluate new drugs. Dr. Healy says "it has become almost standard practice for advisers to the FDA to have a direct financial interest in the drug or topic they are asked to evaluate. The process of waiving conflicts of interest has become a mere formality. The FDA response to questions on this point is that the best experts for the FDA are often the best experts to consult with industry". This book offers some important facts : 1. Prozac doesn't cure clinical depression. 2. Prozac doesn't cure mild depressions either, when compared to placebo. 3. Prozac increases the risk of suicide of mildly depressed people tenfold, when compared to a control group taking no medication at all. 4. Prozac also stimulates aggressive behaviour. One of the children participating in the Columbine High School slaughter was under the influence of such a "medicine" (Luvox). 5.The FDA shouldn't be trusted. It is true that this world is sometimes a depressive place, but that has a lot to do with the way the big corporations are destroying our beautiful planet and poisoning our food chain. Therefore, we should certainly not rely on their drugs. We should act, together, as concerned citizens. We still outnumber the few CEO's messing up our planet.

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.

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)

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.

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.