Customer Reviews

The Antidepressant Era

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

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. However this may not be the case for the drug companies.

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. Healy as a professor than as a doctor.

Squiggles