A young man and woman stand face to face, staring intently into each other’s eyes. Emotions are running sky high, but they have only just met. Connie and Tristan, paid volunteers in a clinical trial for a new anti-depression drug, seem to have fallen madly in love.
It might be love. Or it could be a side effect of the drug, which is firing a chemical replication of dopamine, the brain’s “happy hormone”, through their nervous system. Their passion may be a chemical romance, with a hangover on the horizon.
One way to find out is to step up the dosage and see what happens. However, Dr Lorna James, a psychiatrist observing the trial, becomes increasingly concerned by the volunteers’ behaviour. Her supervisor, Dr Toby Sealey, a psychiatrist working for the drug company, wants to press on because there’s money in the game.
This is the scenario of English playwright Lucy Prebble’s drama, The Effect, being staged by the Auckland Theatre Company from April 16.
The play’s central debate spins around the diverging methods – and ethics – of treating depression. Dr James believes the condition is caused by external factors, like life itself, and supports therapies such as counselling. Dr Sealey favours neuroscientific interventions using drugs. Sometimes, both
