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The Antidepressant Era
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Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 616
EAN: 9780674039582
ISBN: 0674039580
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 336
Publication Date: November 15, 1999
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Editorial Review: 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? The first complete account of the phenomenon of antidepressants, this authoritative, highly readable 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. The Antidepressant Era 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.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - History and Hysteria
I wish I had done better in Symbolic Logic
before drawing conclusions from this book.
Fortunately, my experience and that of my
friends', has been an adequate
guide in the midst of political, socioeonomic, and
ideological wars that his work inspires.
I am a pragmatist at heart. Dr. Healy is a good historian
of psychiatry. This is a very well-researched
book on the evolution of antidepressant
treatment. But I think I would rather have
Dr. ... Read More
Rating: - Good book
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.
Rating: - Packed with information, but difficult to read
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.
Rating: - ignorance may be bliss but it does not solve the problem
Being a researcher of SSRIs and depression from a psychologiacl standpoint I was impressed by the line took by Healy- my own research is begining to show that even when people take SSRIs their self-esteem (which is formed by childhood and environment) is not affected or changed. I agree with Healy that we should take far more account of the fundamnetal social implications of depression within society and treat this as well as the individual- doing this is a far more efective way of tackling depression. ... Read More
Rating:  - Review of the Antidepressant Era by David Healy
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 ... Read More
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