David Healy
Non-Fiction
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Praise for Pharmageddon:
“This meticulously documented book makes extraordinary claims with far-reaching intellectual and practical ramifications. It is the most powerful critique of the contemporary medical-industrial complex that I know.” “This book shines a bright light on the pharmaceutical industry (and American health care) in the same way that Silent Spring called out the chemical industry and Unsafe at Any Speed called out the automobile industry. Pharmageddon is Healy’s most important book to date. It will make a real contribution towards healing our sick system of pharmaceutical-driven medicine and helping doctors provide better care for their patients.” “In this startling book, David Healy argues that ‘evidence-based’ medicine - and a healthy dose of corrupt science - has led modern medicine off a cliff. His book is provocative, challenging, and informative, and ultimately it serves as a powerful manifesto for rethinking modern medicine.” “Like a good detective story, Pharmageddon weaves together the history of modern medicine, the evolution of clinical trials and statistical analyses, changes in international patent laws, privatization of clinical research, blurring of the line between academics and industry, and the enabling role of medical journals. If you want to learn how to protect yourself (or your patients) from medical commercialism and how medical practice can be redirected back towards its true mission, this book is a must read.”
David Healy, who studied at University College Dublin, and the University of Cambridge, England, is currently a Professor of Psychological Medicine in Cardiff University, Wales, and a Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto. He is the author of 15 books, including The Antidepressant Era, and The Creation of Psychopharmacology from Harvard University Press, The Psychopharmacologists Volumes 1-3, and Let Them Eat Prozac from New York University Press. University of California Press
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PharmageddonPharmageddon has arrived. The large pharmaceutical companies have hijacked healthcare and the results are threatening. David Healy, an internationally respected psychiatrist, scientist, and author, whom the New York Times portrayed as “a self-effacing scholar” and “gadfly,” presents this riveting and terrifying story that affects us all. 1. Despite a growing elderly population, life expectancy in the US has already dropped compared to other advanced countries. 2. The global market for pharmaceuticals is $667 billion US but apart from cancer drugs, only a small percentage targets disease. The bestselling drugs are “lifestyle” or “risk management” drugs: antidepressants and other psychotropic drugs ($60 billion); cholesterol lowering statins ($34 billion), blood sugar lowering hypoglycemics ($24 billion), acid reflux drugs ($26 billion), and treatments for osteoporosis and sexual dysfunction. 3. The consequences are severe. Side effects range from discomfort to death. Newer generations of drugs under patent often are less effective than earlier versions. Diseases that once responded to these older drugs are now misdiagnosed, often leading to grave consequences. 4. The financial burden is enormous. “This is where any ideas of universal health care will founder,” says Healy. How did the drug companies capture our doctors and medical care? David Healy draws back the curtain to expose the secrets behind supposed protections such as Randomized Controlled Trials and Evidence Based Medicine. He also reveals the role of medical ghostwriters, and implicates US agencies like the FDA in allowing new drugs to be tested against a placebo rather than compared with existing similar drugs. And he demonstrates how statistics can be manipulated to hide unpleasant truths and inconvenient corpses.
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