- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: Harvard University Press (27 Feb 1998)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0674039572
- ISBN-13: 978-0674039575
- Product Dimensions: 24.2 x 16.3 x 2.9 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 540,849 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- See Complete Table of Contents
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Product Description
Review
As a history, it is brilliant and brilliantly written, tracing the introduction of antidepressants, which, along with the first antibiotics and antihypertensives, created a therapeutic revolution just after World War II. These developments brought health to the center of global politics and created the possibility of a common language that crossed ethnic, race, and class barriers. The paths traced begin in antiquity. Healy discusses concepts of disease and illness beginning with Hippocrates; the isolation of the "tubercle bacillus" by Robert Koch; the beginning of the pharmaceutical companies; (In 1804, there were 90 patent medicines listed. By 1857, the list had grown to 1,500); the discovery of the power of marketing with aspirin; the 1951 bill which gave the FDA power to decide which medicines should be made available by prescription; and the 1962 Kefauver-Harris amendment which charged the FDA with establishing the efficacy of over-the-counter as well as prescription drugs. The role of NIMH in testing the new psychotropic drugs, the discovery and testing of the antidepressants and the science developed to facilitate testing are well described. Since many of the scientists who participated in the antidepressant revolution were still around for interviewing, the material is vivid and personal. -- Myrna M. Weissman "New England Journal of Medicine"
Product Description
When we stop at the pharmacy to pick up our Prozac, are we simply buying a drug? Or are we buying into a disease as well? An account of the phenomenon of antidepressants, this book relates how depression, a disease only recently deemed too rare to merit study, has become one of the most common disorders of our day and a booming business to boot. This book chronicles the history of psychopharmacology from its inception with the discovery of chlorpromazine in 1951 to current battles over whether these powerful chemical compounds should replace psychotherapy. An expert in both the history and the science of neurochemistry and psychopharmacology, David Healy offers a close-up perspective on early research and clinical trials, the stumbling and successes that have made Prozac and Zoloft household names. The complex story he tells, against a backdrop of changing ideas about medicine, details the origins of the pharmaceutical industry, the pressures for regulation of drug companies, and the emergence of the idea of a depressive disease. This historical and neurochemical analysis leads to a clear look at what antidepressants reveal about both the workings of the brain and the sociology of drug marketing. Most arresting is Healy's insight into the marketing of antidepressants and the medicalization of the neuroses. Demonstrating that pharmaceutical companies are as much in the business of selling psychiatric diagnoses as of selling psychotropic drugs, he raises disturbing questions about how much of medical science is governed by financial interest.
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First Sentence
Antidepressants were introduced along with the first antibiotics, the first antihypertensives, and a range of other drugs in a therapeutic revolution that took place in the years just after World War II. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Antidepressants were introduced along with the first antibiotics, the first antihypertensives, and a range of other drugs in a therapeutic revolution that took place in the years just after World War II. Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The theme of this book is that the modern era in Psychiatry, and specifically in Psychopharmacology, the 'Anti-Depressant Era,' has brought with with it not just a raft of new drugs - anti-depressant, anti-psychotic, anxiolytic etc - but also a raft of new industrial practices also.
Key to understanding this book is the line 'Is the standardisation that is appearing in Psychiatry the result of scientific progress or a consequence of an industrial progress?' It is a very good question, one that Healy leaves the reader to answer for his or herself.
In a similiar fashion to the way some complain about the 'military-industrial complex,' the proposition that the growth of the military in America and the massive amounts of money pumped into it necessitates the need for war likewise does Healy seem to be proposing that the growth of the Pharmaceutical industry and the massive growth in their profits necessitates the need for new 'illness's.' The best example of same being at the start of the era when, in order to to market Amitriptryline, Merck marketed the concept of depression by buying and distributing copies of Frank Ayd's 'Recognising the Depressed Patient,' which concentrated on recognizing and treating depression in general medical settings.
The ever-increasing 'specificity' (its ability to work on specific chemicals in the brain) of the new drugs being brought into the marketplace, is questioned likewise the expansion in the number of categories of mental illness to match the ever increasing specificity of the new therapeutic compounds.
David Healy is by far and away the best historian of Psychopharmacology and because, in the modern era, the history of Psychopharmacology IS the history of Psychiatry, he is the best historian of Psychiatry in the modern era too. Anyone interested in Psychiatry should read this and then read all his other books.
Key to understanding this book is the line 'Is the standardisation that is appearing in Psychiatry the result of scientific progress or a consequence of an industrial progress?' It is a very good question, one that Healy leaves the reader to answer for his or herself.
In a similiar fashion to the way some complain about the 'military-industrial complex,' the proposition that the growth of the military in America and the massive amounts of money pumped into it necessitates the need for war likewise does Healy seem to be proposing that the growth of the Pharmaceutical industry and the massive growth in their profits necessitates the need for new 'illness's.' The best example of same being at the start of the era when, in order to to market Amitriptryline, Merck marketed the concept of depression by buying and distributing copies of Frank Ayd's 'Recognising the Depressed Patient,' which concentrated on recognizing and treating depression in general medical settings.
The ever-increasing 'specificity' (its ability to work on specific chemicals in the brain) of the new drugs being brought into the marketplace, is questioned likewise the expansion in the number of categories of mental illness to match the ever increasing specificity of the new therapeutic compounds.
David Healy is by far and away the best historian of Psychopharmacology and because, in the modern era, the history of Psychopharmacology IS the history of Psychiatry, he is the best historian of Psychiatry in the modern era too. Anyone interested in Psychiatry should read this and then read all his other books.
0 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Another interesting book by Mr Healy about psychiatric medication and its history. Seems he is a bit of a lone voice in questioning the pharmacy business.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Review of the Antidepressant Era by David Healy
13 May 2000
Format:Paperback
Having worked for so long with the less desirable effects of mind altering medication it is extremely useful to read a book which so clearly presents, alongside much of the history of medicine and through to the present day day and the Prozac era. David Healy presents many views very similiar to my own with great great clarity and honesty. Indeed, this a book I would love to have written if I had his knowledge and word power. David Healy depth of research is awe inspiring and he has the ability to put an idea in such a way that is capivates much of the reader. The whole concept of marketing depression as a disease and then designing drugs to fit is one that few on us have considered. The idea of the designed drug rather than the discovered drug is also an useful comparsion. This book is certainly different in its approach and intregity and the knowledge it contains is very needed. I hope it is widely read.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Packed with information, but difficult to read
3 Jun 2002
Format:Hardcover
David Healy obviously knows a lot about antidepressants (and about psychopharmacology in general). However, he apparently doesn't know a lot about using clear, straightforward, unpretentious language.
This book badly needs an editor. Healy's writing is far more difficult and opaque than it needs to be.
Nevertheless, I'm giving the book four stars because of the excellent content.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Good book
4 Oct 2005
Format:Paperback
Good review of the negative aspects of SSRIs (and there are many). Would have given it five stars, but he leaves out the very important fact that SSRIs can sometimes cause permanent sexual dysfunction after the drugs are stopped. This has long been overlooked by the medical community and should be included here. Do a goolge search for details.
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