Let them eat Prozac
Subtitle: the unhealthy relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and depression
By: David Healy.
Series: Medicine, culture, and history
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: 2004
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 351
Subjects: Serotonin uptake inhibitors; Fluoxetine; Depression, Mental -- Chemotherapy; Psychotropic drugs industry
Other titles: Unhealthy relationship between the pharmaceutical industry and depression  
Description: "Let Them Eat Prozac explores the history of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (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."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 289-340) and index.
Table of contents: title: Take one --; title: Events in Kentucky --; title: Down the barrel of a lawyer --; title: Market force --; title: Pacific fault line --; title: Kafka's Castle --; title: Experiment at the end of the millennium --; title: Plots thicken --; title: Tort wars --; title: Let them eat Prozac -- -- Epilogue:; title: Anecdotal deaths.