The Zyprexa Papers

By: Jim Gottstein

Narrated by: Nick Young

On December 17, 2006, The New York Times began a series of front-page stories about documents obtained from Alaska lawyer Jim Gottstein, showing Eli Lilly had concealed that its top-selling drug caused diabetes and other life-shortening metabolic problems. The "Zyprexa Papers," as they came to be known, also showed Eli Lilly was illegally promoting the use of Zyprexa on children and the elderly, with particularly lethal effects. Although Mr. Gottstein believes he obtained the Zyprexa Papers legally, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York in Brooklyn decided he had conspired to steal the documents, and Eli Lilly threatened Mr. Gottstein with criminal contempt charges.

In The Zyprexa Papers, Mr. Gottstein gives a riveting first-hand account of what really happened, including new details about how a small group of psychiatric survivors spread the Zyprexa Papers on the internet untraceably. All of this within a gripping, plain-language explanation of complex legal maneuvering and his battles on behalf of Bill Bigley, the psychiatric patient whose ordeal made possible the exposure of the Zyprexa Papers.

©2020 Jim Gottstein (P)2020 Jim Gottstein

Thank You Mr. Gottstein

This book should be required reading for all healthcare workers before they treat individuals suffering from mental illness.

Interesting

It didn’t talk much about the zyprexa papers though. It was more about the court case after he leaked the papers that he knew deep down the pharmaceutical companies would not like — to the guy who wrote mad in America too. Idk it was okay; I love this moment in history was documented, but he’s a lawyer not a writer.

“Forced drugging” by any other name still smells

Attorney Gottstein’s struggle to get real evidence into court is a dynamic game of chess where the rules can be changed by a judge. Professionals with alternatives to debilitating and disabling neuroleptics are barely allowed to testify. The author so well describes and shows the skewed power dynamics operating against those identified as mentally ill.