In the final days of the 20th century, a North Wales
psychiatrist named David Healy conducted a curious study, and with more than a
curious result. Twenty volunteers with no history of psychiatric problems were
recruited, half of whom were given the drug Zoloft, an antidepressant from the
Prozac family of drugs known as the SSRIs, or "selective serotonin
reuptake inhibitors." The other half were given an antidepressant that,
unlike Zoloft and Prozac, does not selectively target the brain chemical
serotonin. Each group took their respective drug for two weeks and then,
shortly thereafter, switched to the other.
Healy had designed his "healthy volunteer study"
to compare the psychological experience of being on a serotonin antidepressant
versus a non-serotonin antidepressant, but before he knew it, two of his
volunteers became dangerously agitated and suicidal. Both were taking the SSRI
drug. The adverse reactions couldn't easily be blamed on psychological
instability – these were healthy volunteers. And the rate of 10 percent
made it clear that such results were not so rare as to be incidental.
Healy was
surprised at the effect, but he would not stay surprised. Some months later,
when serving as an expert witness in a civil action against Zoloft's
manufacturer, Pfizer, Healy obtained access to the company archives. There he
discovered an unpublished study from the 1980s in which healthy female
volunteers were given either Zoloft or a placebo. The study was canceled four
days later, after all those taking Zoloft began complaining of agitation and
apprehension. Healy's case was not so bad; in fact, some of his volunteers
rated Zoloft positively. Of the two who did not, one was a 30-year-old woman
who, within two weeks of starting the drug, became obsessed with the idea that
she should throw herself in front of a car. "It was as if there was
nothing out there apart from the car which she was going to throw herself
under," Healy reported. "She didn't think of her partner or
child."
The Zoloft case was not Healy's first involvement in a civil
action against an SSRI manufacturer. Earlier, he had been involved in a
wrongful death suit against Eli Lilly, the maker of the much celebrated SSRI
drug, Prozac. An internationally renowned psychiatrist as well as a historian
of psychiatric medicine, Healy's recruitment onto the plaintiffs' side was a
small but significant victory. Prior to his involvement as an expert witness,
Healy had already raised a number of questions about the SSRIs, including the
possibility that they might produce agitation and other problems with an
unusual frequency, sometimes leading to suicide. Healy was also ideal because
he's not a radical, nor an outsider; he has done research and consulting for
various drug companies, and has himself prescribed SSRIs and other psychiatric
drugs. In fact, he had been consulted on several SSRI suicide cases in which he
had concluded that the SSRIs were not at fault.
This view changed, however, with
the case of William Forsyth.