As a history, it is brilliant and brilliantly written, tracing the
introduction of antidepressants, which, along with the first
antibiotics and antihypertensives, created a therapeutic revolution
just after World War II. These developments brought health to the
center of global politics and created the possibility of a common
language that crossed ethnic, race, and class barriers. The paths
traced begin in antiquity. Healy discusses concepts of disease and
illness beginning with Hippocrates; the isolation of the "tubercle
bacillus" by Robert Koch; the beginning of the pharmaceutical
companies; (In 1804, there were 90 patent medicines listed. By
1857, the list had grown to 1,500); the discovery of the power of
marketing with aspirin; the 1951 bill which gave the FDA power to
decide which medicines should be made available by prescription;
and the 1962 Kefauver-Harris amendment which charged the FDA with
establishing the efficacy of over-the-counter as well as
prescription drugs. The role of NIMH in testing the new
psychotropic drugs, the discovery and testing of the
antidepressants and the science developed to facilitate testing are
well described. Since many of the scientists who participated in
the antidepressant revolution were still around for interviewing,
the material is vivid and personal. -- Myrna M. Weissman "New
England Journal of Medicine"
David Healey's book focuses on the discovery and development of
antidepressants and provides a fascinating insight into the history
of this field. He skillfully interweaves the account of the roles
played by the key scientists and clinicians with the powerful
influence of pharmaceutical companies...The antidepressant era
represents one of the seminal events in the social and cultural
history of the latter half of the twentieth century. This book is
written in an individual and engaging style and the author reveals
a deep knowledge of his subject; he has his own firm views but does
not force them upon the reader. I found it a compelling read and
hope that it will reach a wide audience. -- Leslie Iversen
"Nature"
David Healy is one of the most remarkable figures in contemporary
psychiatry. He combines the skills of an historian with a training
in laboratory psychopharmacology, a research interest in
psychopathology, and an encyclopedic knowledge of the
psychotherapies. Throughout the past decade he has published books
and papers on subjects as diverse as phenomenology, nosology,
hysteria, and psychopharmacology...Healy's trilogy Ý"The
Psychopharmacologists," "The Psychopharmacologists II," and "The
Antidepressant Era"¨ is a major achievement: its importance goes
beyond psychiatry and psychopharmacology to embrace the whole of
medicine. These books represent a quantum leap in understanding the
processes that shape therapeutic innovation in clinical practice.
Work of this revolutionary scope comes along infrequently--perhaps
once in a decade. -- Bruce G.Charlton "Journal of Medicine of the
Royal Society"
In the past five years ÝDavid Healy¨ has emerged as the leading
international authority on the history of
psychopharmacology...Healy's modest endnotes reveal that he has
participated in numerous key events, and that he knows personally
many of the main actors in the story...The body of Healy's book is
a clear, detailed and highly informative reconstruction of the
major lines of clinical and laboratory research that have produced
modern psychiatric pharmacotherapy...Healy is
well-informed...Without slighting the science, he manages to
describe Ýmajor developments¨ in an admirably readable
narrative...The best remedies of all, however, may be a
historically informed medical profession and a biomedically
enlightened public. David Healy's impressive and fascinating book
is a means to these ends. -- Mark S. Micale "Times Literary
Supplement"
The story Healy brilliantly recounts is one of increasing
regulation of psychopharmaceuticals by governments...Healy's
proposal will strike some as unscientific and others as humane, for
he calls for the deregulation of psychoactive drugs, thereby
putting control of mental illness back in the people's hands and
forcing physicians to refocus their efforts on cultivating an
empathic clinical encounter. In doing so, as Healy rightly claims,
patients are better served and mental illness is better understood.
-- Robert A. Crouch "Religious Studies Reviews"
Well-written and thoroughly researched, the book provides an
excellent overview of the history of psychotropic medicine from
Hippocrates to the age of Prozac, using depression as a paradigm of
the ways in which the popularity of such drugs may have been
influenced more by pharmaceutical marketing than by medical
necessity. -- Catherine Calloway "Journal of American Culture"
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