Pharmageddon [Paperback]

This searing indictment, David Healys most comprehensive and forceful argument against the pharmaceuticalization of medicine, tackles problems in health care that are leading to a growing number of deaths and disabilities. Healy, who was the first to draw attention to the now well-publicized suicide-inducing side effects of many anti-depressants, attributes our current state of affairs to three key factors: product rather than process patents on drugs, the classification of certain drugs as prescription-only, and industry-controlled drug trials. These developments have tied the survival of pharmaceutical companies to the development of blockbuster drugs, so that they must overhype benefits and deny real hazards. Healy further explains why these trends have basically ended the possibility of universal health care in the United States and elsewhere around the world. He concludes with suggestions for reform of our currently corrupted evidence-based medical system.

David Healyis Professor of Psychiatry at Cardiff University in Britain and a former Secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology. He is the author of books includingLet Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression, The Antidepressant Era,andMania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder.

Acknowledgments

Introduction
1. They Used to Call It Medicine
2. Medicine and the Marketers
3. Follow the Evidence
4. Doctoring the Data
5. Trussed in Guidelines
6. The Mismeasurement of Medicine
7. The Eclipse of Care
8. Pharmageddon

Notes
Index

This meticulously documented book makes extraordinary claims with far-reaching intellectual and practical ramifications. It is the most powerful critique of the contemporary medical-industrial complex that I know. Andrew T. Scull, author ofHysteriaandMadness: A Very Short Introductionlsh