Book Reviews

Let Them Eat Prozac:
The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression
by David Healy, M.D,
(New York University Press)

This is a far different book that I am including in my “Healing List.” It is scholarly, scientific and professional. It is also well written, accessible to general readers and most importantly packed with provocative questions and crucial information.

David Healy is a distinguished research and practicing psychiatrist and former head of the British Association for Psychopharmacology. He is an expert on treating depression and has run clinical trials for major anti-depressant drugs. While Healy doesn’t deny the effectiveness of these medications (SSRI’s) and has prescribed them to his patients, he vehemently challenges the simplistic “biobabble myth” that depression is only the result of a deficiency of the neurotransmitter serotonin in the brain. Instead he demonstrates that no causation has been found, that there is no known depression center in the brain, but that 95% of our serotonin is found elsewhere in the body. Most concerning to me is that he has also found that raising this one “selective” neurotransmitter decreases others (dopamine and adrenaline) that are natural “feel-good” chemicals.

When depression is viewed from the vantage point of this myth then feelings of sadness, grief, loss or even shyness are often misdiagnosed as disorders rather than the results of painful but natural experiences in life. In the parlance of marketing by pharmaceutical companies this is known as “condition branding” where a need is developed for medication disbursement. Who among us has not heard of Zoloft, Prozac or Paxil? Even if we have not taken any of them, we all “know” they are treatments of choice for depression. “Big Pharma” says so, Healy notes.

These are not benign medications and withdrawal symptoms can be severe and include dizziness, anxiety, nightmares, nausea and agitation. Now Healy is not opposed to the judicious use of these drugs and neither am I (see my newsletter on medication) so long as they are properly prescribed for treating severe, chronic depression and patients are warned of potential side effects.

This is a first hand well researched and balanced account of the development, marketing and use/misuse of one of our most popular types of medications.