[lbo-talk] Let them eat Prozac (was: let's argue about the causeofmental illness

shag carpet bomb shag at cleandraws.com
Mon Sep 28 18:12:37 PDT 2009


At 11:05 PM 9/27/2009, Carrol Cox wrote:
>You've got t be joking. You can take it for granted that I probably
>haven't read a good deal even of the post I'm responding to. Read my
>posts with that in mind, take them for what they're worth or ignore
>them, but don't make bad jokes about my reading the source of any quotes
>in them.
>
>Carrol

is there a reason you feel the need to respond to the thread when you haven't read it? it's one thing to do so, like andie, who just uses it as a platform to discuss personal experience and opinions on medical research. it's quite another thing when you use this as a platform to make suggestions about an author's capacity to speak to the topic. in other words, ride your hobby horse. but don't sit around and malign an author you haven't read. it's wrong. to paraphrase you, it's an unethical species of argument that has been recognized as such for over 2000 years. (paraphrase you in a discussion of red baiting, Katha Pollit, on Fem Econ years ago).

For the record, I think that you and Bob misread what I and Healey wrote. The quote from Brian was about people hospitalized for major, immobilizing depression. They are so depressed, they can't function and must be hospitalized. it is on these folks, Healey notes, that SSRIs didn't work.

he was writing about the history of the development of SSRIs, with which he was intimately involved as a researcher and clinician. The history was such that, in the 80s, most antidepressant research was aimed at major depression -- generally people hospitalized for it. Drug companies didn't seen a future for what would become Prozac because it and other SSRIs didn't work on major depression. they couldn't make money, the population was too small. But when a breakthrough changed the landscape, when psychiatrists started realizing they could treat "mild" depression and other related mental illnesses (anxiety, etc.) and expand the market, they did so.

So, the story brian's sister's neighbor told makes little sense with regard to rather non-controversial research findings that Healey points to.

As to the other more commonly told story, that the reason people feel suicidal and sometimes commit suicide when on SSRIs, is that they are starting to get well and can't handle these feelings and/or find themselves capable of acting on these feelings, part of Healey's argument is that we know that it can't be only that because the rates of suicidal ideation and suicide are experienced among patients who weren't diagnosed with depression. Some were given Prozac for weight loss, for example. Additionally, there were about 35 studies done on "healthy volunteers". SSRIs, Healey argues, causes a condition

http://www.healyprozac.com/EditorsDilemma/Psychotherapy_Psychosomatics.pdf

Lines of Evidence on the Risks of Suicide with Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors David Healy North Wales Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales College of Medicine, Bangor, UK



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list