David Healy: Marketing, Bipolar, and Biobabble

In an interview with Chrisopher Lane on Psychology Today's blog, David Healy covers the gamut, including the marketing techniques used to pimp Zyprexa, academic spokespersons/key opinion leaders, and bipolar diagnoses run amok. I've been a fan of Healy's work for a long time, but this interview in particular is captivating. Some will claim that Healy is a "bipolar denialist" -- he states that bipolar is overdiagnosed and that the disorder is entirely misunderstood. The fur will continue to fly on bipolarity for years to come, or at least until drug companies run out of products to push for as "mood stabilizers." In the interest of being fair and balanced, Nassir Ghaemi has a rebuttal to Healy's opinion that is also worth reading.

Though I'm tempted to provide a snippet here, I'll instead direct readers to the interview. After a very interesting interview with Philip Dawdy, and now one with David Healy (and other interesting posts), I am really glad the Psychology Today has Christopher Lane on board. I'm sure some people are not pleased with Lane interviewing two of the more prominent critics of modern psychiatry. Giving both of them an outlet to express their views at length runs the risk of Lane being labeled as a Scientologist, as "antipsychiatry," a pharmascold, and as a general rabble-rouser. Good for him. Nice to see that a fairly mainstream publication is willing to step outside the box.

Friday, April 17, 2009