David Healy, The Great Historian Of Psychiatry

David Healy is part of that group of physicians and psychiatrists committed to pointing out the fissures that are present in medicine and psychiatry. In particular, he joined the voices pointing to the abuses of pharmaceutical companies and the significant changes they have introduced into medical practice.

David Healy is currently Professor of Psychiatry at Bangor University, UK. He is trained as a physician , psychiatrist, psychopharmacologist and researcher. He is the author of more than 150 articles reviewed by the scientific community and another 200 published in specialized journals. He is also the author of a number of books on medical topics.

One of his  most controversial and successful works is called Pharmageddon. In it, he provides a detailed analysis of the history of psychiatry and presents disturbing evidence about the errors of the pharmaceutical industry in this field. In short, a large part of his work is dedicated to proving that medicine has gone from being a science at the service of humanity to becoming a millionaire business from which many profit.

The issue of patents in psychiatry, according to David Healy

One of the issues  David Healy criticizes heavily is medical patents. During the 19th century and much of the 20th century, the medical community was against the existence of patents, as they took medicine into the field of economic interests. A patent is a right to exploit an asset. When medicines are patented, they automatically become objects that enter into the logic of supply and demand, precisely because they would be “assets to be exploited”.

In 1922, for example, Lilly  tried to patent insulin. However, the medical community expressed strong rejection to this action and, therefore, patenting did not take place. Something similar happened to Jonas Salk, who withdrew his intention to patent the polio vaccine for similar reasons.

From the 60’s, in several countries around the world ,  drug patents became the order of the day. Pharmaceutical companies with patented products now have a monopoly on certain drugs. They started to control its price, its distribution and, of course, its production. Although this has undergone some modifications since then, the scheme remains the same.

The point is that this made the pharmaceutical and drug companies fall into the logic of the market : sell more, make more profit and make the business as profitable as possible. The consequences were disastrous, especially with regard to psychiatric medications.

David Healy and his research

David Healy a significant number of published articles indicating that the  antidepressants, particularly the SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors), contributing to depressed patients with suicidal ideation.  To this group of drugs belong some very famous ones like Prozac, Paxil and Zoloft. Healy insisted that their labels should warn of this.

On the other hand, David Healy showed in detail how  thalidomide, a sleeping pill, caused a disaster in 1962. More than 10,000 children were born with malformations due to its ingestion. This has led to some changes, but Healy believes these do not solve the problem that led to that tragedy.

For David Healy, many psychiatric drugs cause serious harm. Patients do not know this because there is no way to warn them of true adverse effects. This concealment is deliberate and is supplemented by false research and publications.

unethical practices

One of the most worrisome aspects of David Healy’s denunciations in psychiatry is the existence of “ghost publications”. These are publications of dubious origin, apparently signed by experts. Healy himself was a victim of this practice.

At a meeting to promote the antidepressant Effexor, the researcher received a draft article to sign. Healy read it and made two notes against what the text said: one, that there was no evidence that the drug was any better than others of its kind. The other is that its ingestion could generate suicidal tendencies. Despite this,  the Wyeth company, which owns the drug, published the article as if its author were David Healy and omitted his notes.

In addition, there is ample evidence that the authors of the DSM conduct studies funded by pharmaceutical companies. The same applies to some sectors of WHO. This constitutes an undeclared conflict of interest. David Healy has, of course, many enemies. Still, no one has scientifically challenged their conclusions, as is the case with other similar researchers. He has also not been sued by any pharmaceutical company.