David Healy (psychiatrist)
David Healy FRCPsych | |
---|---|
Born | Raheny, Ireland | 27 April 1954
Scientific career | |
Fields | Psychiatry |
Institutions | Bangor University |
David Healy
Healy has been involved as an
Career
David Healy originally trained in
Healy has been involved as a legal expert witness in homicide and suicide trials involving
Healy directs an Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) clinic in Wales. He strongly defends the procedure as having an immediate visible effect in severely depressed patients for whom no other options have worked, particularly geriatric patients. He has co-written a history of ECT along with Edward Shorter and cites Max Fink as a source.[4][5] Healy has clarified which chapters he wrote and that he was not personally financially supported by Fink's Scion Foundation.[6] Another reforming psychiatrist, Peter Breggin, has strongly criticised Healy for this aspect of his work on the grounds of ethics and the longer-term data.[7] Healy has even speculated that Insulin coma therapy may have 'worked' in the sense of generating enthusiasm in staff and in an unclear way to challenge anxiety or 'psychosis', despite a lack of, or contrary, evidence from the time.[8] He has also been criticized for portraying psychiatrists as greedy and duped.[9]
Healy is a founder and chief executive officer of Data Based Medicine Limited, which operates through its website RxISK.org, which aims to make medicines safer through "online direct patient reporting of drug effects". Healy sits on the Honorary International Editorial Advisory Board of the Mens Sana Monographs.[10]
In 2020 Healy's book The Decapitation of Healthcare - A Short History of the Rise and Fall of Healthcare was published by Samizdat Health Writers' Co-operative, the first of a series.[citation needed]Ref Rxisk blog and David Healy Blog Feb 2020
Research interests
SSRI antidepressants and suicide
In an international review article, Healy (and Aldred) say that the idea that
Healy has written many papers and presented many lectures on his view that all SSRI antidepressants – Prozac, Paxil and
Conflict of interest
Healy says that the
Medical ghostwriting occurs when anonymous scribes with scientific backgrounds are paid to produce reports for publication as if written by better-known experts. Healy estimates that 50 per cent of literature on drugs is ghostwritten/abnormally written. In his thesis, Healy states that ghostwriters write on research given to them by drug companies, which want both positive results and positive research; therefore ghostwriting is biased from the beginning.
Healy allegedly encountered ghost writing involving
In the preface of his book Let them Eat Prozac Healy describes the need for a "new contract between society and the pharmaceutical industry – a contract that will require access to the raw data". Healy suggests a new division that can manage the hazards that only becomes visible after products are launched. This new division would be separate from the regulatory bodies and pharmaceutical companies. In "Interface between authorship, industry and science in the domain of therapeutics"[18] a paper of 2003 for The British Journal of Psychiatry, David Healy notes that
- "The literature profiles and citation rates of industry-linked and non-industry-linked articles differ. The emerging style of authorship in industry-linked articles can deliver good-quality articles, but it raises concerns for the scientific base of therapeutics … If ghostwriting is an inevitable feature of modern scientific writing, the potential availability of the raw data would do more to ensure a correspondence between those data and a published end result than could be achieved by any other mechanism".[18]
History of pharmacology
This article may contain verify the text.(January 2014) ) |
In his book 2012 Pharmageddon, Healy discusses the well-publicised birth defects crisis caused by thalidomide, a drug initially marketed as a sleeping pill. The 1962 disaster involved more than 10,000 children in 46 countries being born limbless and disabled. The United States Congress wanted to prevent a recurrence of such a tragedy, and sought to limit the marketing excesses of the pharmaceutical industry. So new drug development was rewarded with product rather than process patents, and new drugs were made available only through prescription. Also, new medications had to prove they worked through controlled trials before they reached the market. On the 50th anniversary of the 1962 FDA bill enacted by Congress, Pharmageddon argues that these arrangements have not been successful and have actually led to an escalating number of drug induced deaths and injuries.[19] In the same book ("Pharmageddon" page 155), Healy states that in the United States, the country that makes the greatest use of the latest pharmaceuticals, life expectancy has been falling progressively further behind other developed countries since the mid-1970s.
Bibliography
Books
- The Decapitation of Care - Samizdat Health Writer's Cooperative Inc, 2020 ISBN 978-1777056506
- The Suspended Revolution: Psychiatry and Psychotherapy Re‑examined, Faber & Faber, London 1990.
- Images of Trauma: From Hysteria to Post‑traumatic Stress Disorder. Faber & Faber, London, 1993.
- Psychotropic Drug Development; Social, Economic and Pharmacological Aspects. Chapman and Hall, London 1996.
- The Psychopharmacologists Volume 1, Chapman & Hall, London, 1996; Arnold, London, 2002
- The Psychopharmacologists Volume 2. Chapman & Hall, London, 1998; Arnold, London 1999.
- The Psychopharmacologists Volume 3. Arnold, London 2000.
- The Antidepressant Era. Harvard University Press, 1997.
- The Rise of Psychopharmacology & The Story of the CINP, Animula, Budapest, 1998.
- The Triumph of Psychopharmacology & The CINP, Animula, Budapest, 2000.
- From Psychopharmacology to Neuropsychopharmacology & The Story of the CINP, Animula, Budapest, 2002.
- Reflections on Twentieth Century Psychopharmacology, Animula, Budapest, 2004.
- The Creation of Psychopharmacology (Paperback 2004) ISBN 978-0-674-01599-9
- Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression New York University Press (2004) ISBN 978-0-8147-3697-5
- Shock Therapy: A History of Electroconvulsive Treatment in Mental Illness. Rutgers University Press/ University of Toronto Press 2007.
- Mania: A Short History of Bipolar Disorder Johns Hopkins University Press (Paperback 2010) ISBN 978-1-4214-0397-7
- Psychiatric Drugs Explained Churchill Livingston (Paperback 5th ed. 2011) ISBN 978-0-7020-4136-5
- Pharmageddon University of California Press(2012) ISBN 978-0-520-27098-5
Selected articles
SSRI Antidepressants and suicide
- Healy D (2000). "Emergence of antidepressant induced suicidality". Primary Care Psychiatry. 6 (1): 23–28. .
- Boardman A, Healy D (2001). "Modeling suicide risk in affective disorders". European Psychiatry. 16 (7): 400–405. S2CID 40073522.
- Healy D (2003). "Lines of Evidence on SSRIs and Risk of Suicide". Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 72 (2): 71–79. S2CID 1583644.
- Healy D, Cattell D (2003). "The Interface between authorship, industry and science in the domain of therapeutics". British Journal of Psychiatry. 183: 22–27. PMID 12835239.
- Healy D, Whitaker CJ (2003). "Antidepressants and suicide; Risk-Benefit Conundrums". Journal of Psychiatry & Neuroscience. 28 (5): 331–339. PMID 14517576., with response by Y Lapierre 340–349.
- Fergusson D, Doucette S, Cranley-Glass K (2005). "The association between suicide attempts and SSRIs: A systematic review of 677 randomised controlled trials representing 85,470 participants". British Medical Journal. 330 (7488): 396–399. PMID 15718539.
- Healy D, Aldred G (2005). "Antidepressant drug use and the risk of suicide". International Review of Psychiatry. 17 (3): 163–172. S2CID 6599566.
- Healy D, Herxheimer A, Menkes D (2006). "Antidepressants and violence: Problems at the interface of medicine and law". PLOS Medicine. 3 (9): e372. PMID 16968128.
- Healy D, Harris M, Tranter R, Gutting P, Austin R, Jones-Edwards G, Roberts AP (2006). "Lifetime suicide rates in treated schizophrenia: 1875–1924 and 1994–1998 cohorts compared". British Journal of Psychiatry. 188 (3): 223–228. PMID 16507962. With Commentary by T Turner, 229–230.
- Reseland S, Le Noury J, Aldred G, Healy D (2008). "National suicide rates 1961–2003: further analysis of Nordic data for suicide, autopsies and ill-defined death rates". Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 77 (2): 78–82. S2CID 23306023.
- Healy D, Brent D (2009). "Are Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors a risk factor for adolescent suicides?". Canadian Journal of Psychiatry. 54 (2): 69–71. PMID 19254434.
- Healy D (2011). "Science, rhetoric and the causality of adverse events". International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine. 23 (3): 149–162. PMID 22020395.
Conflict of interest
- Healy D (2004). "Conflicting Interests: The evolution of an issue". Monash Review of Bioethics. 23 (4): 8–18. S2CID 23624502.
- Healy D (2004). Perspective. Manufacturing Consensus. Hasting Center Reports July–August, 53.
- Healy D (2006). "Manufacturing Consensus. Culture". Medicine and Psychiatry. 30 (2): 135–156. S2CID 7439017.
- Healy D (2006). "The Latest Mania. Selling Bipolar Disorder". PLOS Medicine. 3 (4): e185. PMID 16597178.
- Healy D (2007). "The New Engineers of Human Souls and Academia". Epidemiologia e Psichiatria Sociale. 16: 205–211. S2CID 31092695.
- Healy D, Le Noury J (2007). "Paediatric Bipolar Disorder. An object of study in the creation of an illness". Int J Risk & Safety in Medicine. 19: 209–221.
- Healy D (2008). "Our Censored Journals". Mens Sana Monographs. 6 (1): 244–256. PMID 22013362.
- Healy D (2008). "Irrational Healers?". Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics. 77 (4): 198–200. S2CID 37648518.
- Healy D (2009). "Trussed in Evidence: Ambiguities at the interface of clinical practice and clinical evidence". Transcultural Psychiatry. 46 (1): 16–37. S2CID 27722175.
- Healy D, Mangin D, Mintzes B (2010). "The ethics of randomised placebo controlled trials of antidepressants with pregnant women". Internat Journal of Risk and Safety in Medicine. 22: 7–16. .
- Healy D (2012). "Medical Partizans? Why doctors need conflicting interests". Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry. 46 (8): 704–707. S2CID 206398405.
History of pharmacology
- Healy D, Harris M, Tranter R, Gutting P, Austin R, Jones-Edwards G, Roberts AP (2006). "Lifetime suicide rates in treated schizophrenia: 1875–1924 and 1994–1998 cohorts compared". British Journal of Psychiatry. 188 (3): 223–228. PMID 16507962. With Commentary by T Turner, 229–230.
- Tschinkel S, Harris M, Le Noury J, Healy D (2007). "Postpartum Psychosis: Two Cohorts Compared, 1875–1924 & 1994–2005". Psychological Medicine. 37 (4): 529–536. S2CID 1820395.
- Farquhar F, Le Noury J, Tschinkel S, Harris M, Kurien R, Healy D (2007). "The incidence and prevalence of manic-melancholic syndromes in North West Wales: 1875–2005". Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica. 115 (433): 37–43. S2CID 24032889.
- Linden S, Harris M, Whitaker C, Healy D (2010). "Religion and psychosis. The effects of the Welsh Religious Revival 1904–1905". Psychological Medicine. 40 (8): 1317–1324. S2CID 33563939.
- Harris M, Farquhar F, Healy D, Le Noury J, Baker D, Whitaker CJ, Linden S, Green P, Roberts AP (2011). "The incidence and prevalence of admissions for Melancholia in two cohorts 1875–1924 & 1995–2005". Journal of Affective Disorders. 134 (1–3): 45–51. PMID 21733576.
- Healy D, Le Noury J, Linden SC, Harris M, Whitaker C, Linden D, Roberts AP (2012). "The Rise and Fall in the Incidence of Admissions for Schizophrenia: 1875–1924 & 1994–2010". BMJ Open. 2 (1): e000447. PMID 22267688.
- Healy D, Le Noury J, Harris M, Butt M, Linden S, Whitaker C, Zou L, Roberts AP (2012). "Mortality in schizophrenia and related psychoses: data from two cohorts, 1875–1924 & 1994–2010". BMJ Open. 2 (5): e001810. PMID 23048063.
Medication-induced sexual dysfunction
- Healy D, Noury LJ, Manginb D (May 2018). "Enduring sexual dysfunction after treatment with antidepressants, 5α-reductase inhibitors and isotretinoin: 300 cases". International Journal of Risk & Safety in Medicine. 29 (3): 125–134. PMID 29733030.
See also
References
- ^ "Dr David Healy Bio". Archived from the original on 12 May 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2013.
- ^ Sept 24th 2001 Press Conference Transcript
- PMC 1174757.
- ^ Max Fink, M. D. (12 August 2010). "The Perplexing History of ECT in Three Books | Psychiatric Times". Psychiatric Times. Psychiatric Times Vol 27 No 10. 27 (10). Archived from the original on 12 September 2017. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ISSN 0028-4793.
- ^ "'Let them Eat Prozac' Website - Academic Stalking - Shock Therapy Controversy". www.healyprozac.com. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- ^ Breggin, Dr Peter (16 February 2012). "The Stealth ECT Psychiatrist in Psychiatric Reform". HuffPost. Retrieved 12 September 2017.
- PMID 20592884.
- S2CID 42062976.
- ^ Hon Int Ed Adv Board of the Mens Sana Monographs
- ^ S2CID 6599566. Archived from the original(PDF) on 21 October 2013.
- ^ David Healy's Website
- ^ PMID 12724241.
- ^ Barnett, Antony (7 December 2003). "Revealed: how drug firms 'hoodwink' medical journals". The Observer. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
- ^ PMID 25023129.
- PMID 12835239.
- ^ Boseley, Sarah (7 February 2002). "It said the drug was the best thing since sliced bread. I don't think it is". The Guardian. Retrieved 11 April 2017.
- ^ S2CID 8727777.
- ^ Pharmageddon
External links
- David Healy's site to research and report drug side effects
- David Healy's homepage
- Is Academic Psychiatry for Sale? – debate between David Healy and Michael Thase published in the British Journal of Psychiatry
- Let Them Eat Prozac Details about Healy's case and material on the link between SSRIs and suicide.
- "They said it was safe" Guardian article on Healy's role in Forsyth case
- Barry Yeoman, Putting Science in the Dock, The Nation
- David Healy One Side of the Background to an Academic Freedom Dispute Academy for the Study of the Psychoanalytic Arts