Dr David Healy -Psychopharmacologist - Expert Witness

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[sSRI-Research] Dr David Healy -Psychopharmacologist - Expert

Witness

 

 

 

Dr David Healy -Psychopharmacologist - Expert Witness

health.Zoloft/messages?expand=1

 

David Healy is a psychiatrist who is currently Reader in Psychological

Medicine at Cardiff University College of Medicine.

 

He is the author of a number of books and is particularly noted for his

books detailing the history of the development of psychopharmacology

and his

criticisms of the pharmaceutical industry.

 

Healy became the centre of controversy concerning the influence of the

pharmaceutical industry on medicine and academia.

 

He was offered a professorship in psychiatry at the University of Toronto,

which he accepted to start in 2000. Before he had started the job, he

gave a

talk at a psychiatric conference in Toronto in which he highlighted

the lack

of research investigating whether Prozac increased the chance of

suicide in

some patients, despite there being much controversy about this matter

in the

medical community. He further argued that drug companies were failing to

carry out and suppressing studies which had shown SSRIs could induce

suicide

in some people, therefore potentially reducing their profits, despite

causing negative health effects for patients.

 

Healy was contacted shortly after his presentation by the University of

Toronto, who informed him his contract had been terminated because of his

lecture.

 

Eli Lilly, the manufacturers of Prozac, provided a significant amount of

funding for mental health research at the University, and it has been

alleged that they put pressure on the University to break their

agreement to

employ David Healy. The University of Toronto has denied this, but the

issue

has sparked debate about academic freedom and the gagging of staff who

express views unfavourable to vested interests, in violation of the

traditions and regulations of most academic establishments.

 

Healy sued the University but settled out of court for an undisclosed

amount.

 

This issue has also highlighted controversy about the influence of the

pharmaceutical industry over academic medicine, a discipline which has

traditionally prided itself on being independent and unbiased in

researching

and assessing medical treatments.

 

Selected bibliography

The Psychopharmacologists Vol I (1996) ISBN 1860360084

The Antidepressant Era (1998) ISBN 0674039580

Psychiatric Drugs Explained (2001) ISBN 0443070180

The Creation of Psychopharmacology (2002) ISBN 0674006194

Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical

Industry and Depression (2004) ISBN 0814736696

External links

 

David Healy's homepage

(http://www.uwcm.ac.uk/study/medicine/psychological_medicine/stafflist/personal_\

web_pages/david_healy.htm)

 

The David Healy Affair archive (http://www.pharmapolitics.com/)

 

Healy settles lawsuit with University of Toronto

(http://www.namiscc.org/News/2002/DavidHealy.htm)

 

Is Academic Psychiatry for Sale ?

(http://bjp.rcpsych.org/cgi/content/full/182/5/388) - debate between David

Healy and Michael Thase published in the British Journal of Psychiatry

 

Let Them Eat Prozac (http://www.healyprozac.com) Details about Healy's

case

and material on the link between SSRIs and suicide.

 

Retrieved from " http://www.mywiseowl.com/articles/David_Healy "

 

 

 

 

 

Drug-Free School Zone? Just Say NO to Prozac for Children.