http://bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7316/770

 

BMJ 2001;323:770 ( 6 October )

News roundup

Doctor sues university for breach of academic freedom

Owen Dyer London

A British psychiatrist has launched a £4m ($6m) lawsuit against Canada’s largest university, claiming that it rescinded a job offer because of his outspoken opinions on antidepressants.

Dr David Healy, who works at the University of Wales at Bangor, says that his lawsuit against the University of Toronto is the first case of a university being sued for breach of academic freedom.

Dr Healy, aged 47, was offered a professorship at the university in 1999. The post came automatically with the job of clinical director of the mood disorders unit at the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, an affiliated institution.

He told his current employers that he was leaving and planned to move to Toronto in May 2001. During a preliminary visit in November 2000, he gave a lecture at the centre in which he said that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors such as fluoxetine (Prozac) could lead to suicidal thoughts and were probably being overprescribed. Two weeks later he was told he was no longer wanted.

His supporters are concerned that the job might have been withdrawn because his future employers feared losing sponsorship from the drug industry. The mood disorders clinic receives nearly half of its funding from drug companies, including the manufacturer of Prozac, Eli Lilly. Dr Healy has been an expert witness in US lawsuits against drug companies, in which patients’ families argued that selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors contributed to suicides and murder-suicides committed by their relatives.

The Centre for Addiction and Mental Health and the University of Toronto said that fear of losing funding had nothing to do with their change of heart. Rather, they said, in a letter circulated to staff, Dr Healy expressed in his lecture "extreme views that are extraordinary extrapolations, scientifically irresponsible and, in fact, incompatible with the scientific evidence."

The letter went on: "It’s one thing to raise questions, it’s another thing to reach conclusions based on unacceptable methodology. We were deeply concerned that Dr Healy would bring this approach to all of his work and especially into the patient care environment."

Dr Healy is also suing the university and two staff members for defamation in questioning his scientific methodology and clinical competence. He is claiming total damages of $C8.9m (£3.8m; $5.6m) in a Toronto court for breach of contract, breach of academic freedom, and defamation. He says that if he wins, all money from punitive damages and any award for breach of academic freedom will go into a trust fund for academic freedom.

"My plan was to lodge it with a Canadian institution as the support I have had from colleagues there has been remarkable. The plans range from a foundation to an endowed chair to a fund."
 

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Collections under which this article appears: Professional conduct and regulation Other Ethics Drugs: psychiatry Medicine and the law (incl forensic medicine) Competing interests / conflicts of interest Getting and changing jobs (including job descriptions and contracts)

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