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From the author of Toxic Psychiatry and Talking Back to Prozac
"Peter Breggin is the conscience of American psychiatry. Once more he updates us on the real evidence with respect to the safety and effectiveness of specific psychiatric medications and ECT. This information is needed by all mental health professionals, as well as patients and families."
"Nowhere is the correct psychiatric thinking more evident than in the books by Peter Breggin."
In Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, renowned psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, MD, presents startling scientific research on the dangerous behavioral abnormalities and brain dysfunctions produced by the most widely used and newest psychiatric drugs such as Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Cymbalta, Effexor, Xanax, Ativan, Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta, Strattera, Risperdal, Zyprexa, Geodon, Abilify, lithium, and Depakote.
Many of Breggin's earlier findings have improved clinical practice, led to legal victories against drug companies, and resulted in FDA-mandated changes in what the manufacturers must admit about their drugs.
This greatly expanded second edition, supported by the latest evidence-based research, shows that psychiatric drugs achieve their primary or essential effect by causing brain dysfunction, and that they tend to do far more harm than good.
New scientific analyses in this completely updated edition include:
Follow some items, that came before the first chapter, in the original book.
Peter R. Breggin, MD, has been called "the conscience of psychiatry" for his efforts to reform the mental health field, including his promotion of caring psychotherapeutic approaches and his opposition to the escalating overuse of psychiatric medications, the oppressive diagnosing and drugging of children, electroshock, lobotomy, involuntary treatment, and false biological theories.
Dr. Breggin has been in the private practice of psychiatry since 1968, first in the Washington, D.C., area, and now in Ithaca, New York. In his therapy practice, he treats individuals, couples, and children with their families without resort to psychiatric drugs. As a clinical psychopharmacologist, he provides consultations and is active as a medical expert in criminal, malpractice, and product liability lawsuits, often involving the harmful effects of psychiatric drugs. He has been an expert in landmark cases involving the rights of patients.
Since 1964, Dr. Breggin has written dozens of scientific articles and approximately 20 books. Some of his many books include Toxic Psychiatry, The Heart of Being Helpful, Talking Back to Ritalin, The Antidepressant Fact Book, and, with coauthor Ginger Breggin, Talking Back to Prozac and The War Against Children of Color. His forthcoming book in early 2008 is Medication Madness: True Stories About Mayhem, Murder and Suicide Caused by Psychiatric Drugs.
At various stages of his career, he has been decades ahead of his time in warning about the dangers of lobotomy, electroshock, and, more recently, antidepressant-induced suicide and violence as well as many other recently acknowledged risks associated with psychiatric drugs. His views have been covered in major media throughout the world including The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal to Time and Newsweek, and from Larry King Live and Oprah to 60 Minutes and 20/20.
In 1972, Dr. Breggin founded the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP; http://www.icspp.org). Originally organized to support his successful campaign to stop the resurgence of lobotomy, ICSPP has become a source of support and inspiration for reform-minded professionals and laypersons who wish to raise ethical and scientific standards in the field of mental health. In 1999, he and his wife, Ginger, founded ICSPP's peer-reviewed scientific journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry. In 2002, they selected younger professionals to take over the center and the journal, although Dr. Breggin continues to participate in ICSPP activities.
Dr. Breggin's background includes Harvard College, Case Western Reserve Medical School, a teaching fellowship at Harvard Medical School, 3 years of residency training in psychiatry, a 2-year staff assignment at the National Institute of Mental Health, and several teaching appointments, including in the Johns Hopkins University Department of Counseling and the George Mason University Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution.
Dr. Breggin's Web site is http://www.breggin.com.
Breggin, Peter Roger.
Brain-disabling treatments in psychiatry: drugs, electroshock, and the psychopharmaceutical complex / Peter R. Breggin. - 2nd ed.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-0-8261-2934-5
ISBN-10: 0-8261-2934-X
Psychiatric Drugs Are Dangerous to Take and Dangerous to Stop
The psychiatric drugs discussed in this book are far more dangerous to take than many doctors and patients realize, but they can also become hazardous during the withdrawal process. In short, it is dangerous to start psychiatric drugs and dangerous to stop them.
Many are addictive, and most can produce withdrawal symptoms that are emotionally and physically distressing and sometimes life threatening. Tapering off psychiatric drugs should usually be done gradually with the aid of experienced clinical supervision.
A book cannot substitute for individualized medical or psychological care, and this book is not intended as a treatment guide. It provides a critical analysis of biological treatments in psychiatry written from a scientific, ethical, psychological, and social viewpoint.
My wife, best friend, partner in life, most trusted advisor, last human resort in all crises, and playmate
College Students in a Mental Hospital: Contributions to the Social Rehabilitation of the Mentally Ill (Jointly authored) (1962)
Electroshock: Its Brain-Disabling Effects (1979)
The Psychology of Freedom: Liberty and Love as a Way of Life (1980)
Psychiatric Drugs: Hazards to the Brain (1983)
Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry" (1991)
Beyond Conflict: From Self-Help and Psychotherapy to Peacemaking (1992)
Talking Back to Prozac (coauthor Ginger Breggin) (1994)
Psychosocial Approaches to Deeply Disturbed Persons (coeditor E. Mark Srern) (1996)
Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Role of the FDA (1997)
The Heart of Being Helpful: Empathy and the Creation of a Healing Presence (1997)
The War Against Children of Color: Psychiatry Targets Inner City Children, Updated (coauthor Ginger Breggin) (1998)
Reclaiming Our Children: A Healing Solution to a Nation in Crisis (2000)
Talking Back to Ritalin, Revised Edition (2001)
The Antidepressant Fact Book (2001)
Dimensions of Empathic Therapy (coeditors Ginger Breggin and Fred Bemak) (2002)
Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Medications, Revised and Updated Edition (coauthor David Cohen) (2007)
Medication Madness: True Stories of Mayhem, Murder and Suicide Caused by Psychiatric Drugs (2008)
Throughout this book, I use diagnostic terms such as attention-deficit / hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, and schizophrenia. If I were to express my scientific skepticism toward these terms each time I used them, the book would be marred by constant interruptions. Instead, I want to establish from the beginning that I am using these diagnostic terms only for the purpose of consistency with current usage in the various sources on which I am drawing, such as clinical studies, research reports, and Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved drug labels.
As the book will indicate, these diagnostic categories do not reflect valid diseases or illnesses comparable to Alzheimer's disease, stroke, or diabetes. Despite claims to the contrary, these psychiatric disorders have no proven genetic, chemical, or biological basis. They cannot be diagnosed with physical symptoms or laboratory studies.
Of course, no one denies that people can become highly irrational, lose touch with ordinary reality, or become suicidal or violent; but an extreme emotional response, however destructive, in itself does not demand an explanation rooted in biological dysfunction. Without any underlying medical disorder, human beings have the capacity for extreme psychological reactions, especially under stress.
Of course, genuine diseases or disorders of the brain, such as endocrine disorders or dementia, can change and disrupt human behavior. In this book and in Medication Madness (in press), I describe how psychiatric drugs cause brain disorders that lead to mayhem, murder, and suicide. Indeed, the FDA at long last has begun to confirm observations that I made long ago concerning antidepressant-induced mental and behavioral abnormalities. However, except for the brain dysfunction and biochemical imbalances caused by psychiatric drugs, there are no known abnormalities in the brains of people who routinely seek help from psychiatrists and who become diagnosed with disorders like ADHD, schizophrenia, and major depressive disorder.
To label children with ADHD or to label adults with schizophrenia or major depressive disorder is to stigmatize them with damaging, discouraging labels and to encourage or coerce them to submit to biopsychiatric interventions such as drugs and electroshock. In my own psychiatric practice, I do not think in conventional diagnostic terms or tell patients that they have so-called mental disorders. Instead, I try to understand the life story of each individual-his or her personal biography - in all its subtle complexity. Often, I involve loved ones and family to help them understand each other. On this basis of genuine understanding, instead of cookie-cutter diagnoses, I am far more able to help individuals lead more satisfying, successful lives.
Springer Publishing Company published my first medical book, Electroshock: Its Brain-Disabling Effects, a long time ago, in 1979. Now, almost 30 years later, this new edition of Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry comes at a time when the public's perception of psychiatric treatments has come closer to many of the seemingly controversial positions taken in my earlier Springer books. Even within the health care professions, there is growing recognition that the risks associated with psychiatric drugs and shock treatments are greater than originally anticipated and that their effectiveness is more limited than hoped.
None of the basic assertions in the original edition of this book or in its precursors, Psychiatric Drugs: Hazards to the Brain (1983) and Electroshock (1979), have been proven wrong. Instead, a mountain of new evidence supports the main themes that I have been developing over the last decades. In a number of areas, the Food and Drug Administration has confirmed assertions in the first edition that once seemed especially controversial, for example, that antidepressants are ineffective in children and increase the rate of suicide attempts and that they also increase suicidality in young adults. Many other conclusions made in my earlier books have been adopted by the mainstream, including recent confirmation that electroshock treatment causes permanent brain damage and dysfunction.
When Springer Publishing Company decided to bring out my first two medical books, Electroshock (1979) and Psychiatric Drugs (1983), it required courage. The president of the company, Dr. Ursula Springer, and the senior editor at the time, Carole Saltz, had to be concerned about publishing a viewpoint so critical of seemingly established concepts of treatment. The opportunity they gave me has helped to encourage a lifetime of work in the field. From then until the present, nearly all of my publications have drawn energy and direction from these first two books.
I am grateful that Dr. Springer and her company found my first two medical books of sufficient merit and importance to take the risk of publishing them. If they had not, my career might have taken a different and ultimately less useful direction.
Nearly three decades later, and after the retirement of Dr. Springer, Springer Publishing Company and Sheri W. Sussman, Senior Vice President, Editorial, have continued to support my work with a new paperback edition of The Heart of Being Helpful (1997b) and now with this new editian of Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry.
Springer Publishing Company also worked with me and my wife, Ginger, in developing the peer-reviewed scientific journal Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry, sponsored by the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (ICSPP; www.icspp.org). The journal is now enjoying a decade of publishing under the leadership of younger professionals and provides a unique opportunity for scientists and clinicians to publish independent research in the light beyond the shadow of the psychopharmaceutical complex.
I also want to thank the many members of ICSPP who have been so supportive of my work and each other's work in the reform movement.
As in many of my books, my research assistant Ian Goddard continued to provide much-needed help obtaining original articles, sometimes under considerable time pressure, often delivering them along with a big dose of his own original ideas and remarkable insights. Beyond that, he read the entire manuscript and made many useful editorial observations. This new edition is a better book because of Ian.
And now, approaching 25 years together, my wife, Ginger, continues to provide the strength and often the inspiration behind so much of what I do. It is because of Ginger's encouragement that the book now has two concluding chapters on treatment and my 20 guidelines for therapy with disturbed patients. She insisted that I needed to write them, and then she helped to edit them.
This book is aimed at professional audiences, but it is hoped that it is written with sufficient clarity and explanation to be read by nonprofessionals. The current edition has been very thoroughly revised, but the basic scientific thrust remains essentially the same. The past several years have confirmed the brain-disabling principie of psychiatric treatment, and many of the author's seemingly controversial conclusions have become more widely accepted.
For this edition of the book, the concept of brain-disabling treatment has been updated and expanded with the additional concept of medication spellbinding (intoxication anosognosia). The neuroleptic chapters have been updated to include much more material on the newer, atypical drugs as well as new information on the neurotoxicity and cytotoxicity of all antipsychotic drugs. A massive amount of new information about antidepressant drugs and the stimulant drugs has resulted in an additional chapter on each drug.
The new edition concludes with two entirely new chapters on treatment - one on how to safely withdraw from psychiatric drugs, and the other about psychosocial and educational approaches to very disturbed people, including 20 guidelines for therapy. I am pleased to include how-to treatment information in the book for the first time.
My observations that antidepressant drugs cause a spectrum of stimulant or activation effects - including agitation, hostility, aggression, and mania as well as crashing into depression and suicidality - have been elevated to the status of official dogma in the new Food and Drug Administration (FDA) - mandated changes in antidepressant labels. The concept that psychiatric drugs are neurotoxic is now a widely accepted principle in scientific research, especially concerning the antipsychotic drugs and mood stabilizers, and research has mounted up that demonstrates similar neurotoxic effects in all categories of psychiatric drugs. Many other medical experts have now joined in my criticism of the FDA's failure to do its duty and my concern about the corrupting influence of the drug companies on the theory and practice of psychiatry. Put simply, I am no longer quite such a lonely voice crying in the wilderness.
The lineage of this new edition began in 1983 with Psychiatric Drugs: Hazards to the Brain, a book that broke new ground with the first extensive review of the subject of neuroleptic-induced dementia. It also took a firm stand on the view that neuroleptics frequently cause tardive dyskinesia (TD) in young people. TD in children has become an accepted reality, and so that section has been reduced in size. Tardive psychosis is gaining increasing, if slow, recognition. Tardive dementia remains controversial - although it should not be - and an increasing amount of evidence supports my earlier observations on the cognitive deficits caused by neuroleptics. In addition, the neurotoxicity of psychiatric drugs is being studied more openly in laboratories.
In the 1970s, when I first began offering detailed critiques of psychiatric drugs, the medical model, and the psychopharmaceutical complex, I was, in many cases, breaking new ground, and initially, there were few supporters. By the time of the first edition of Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry in 1997, I could already cite many books that voiced strong criticism of the biological model and physical treatments from a variety of perspectives (Armstrong, 1993 [67]; Breeding, 1996 [171]; Caplan, 1995 [255]; Cohen, 1990 [293]; Colbert, 1995 [299]; Fisher et al., 1989 [444]; Grobe, 1995 [568]; Jacobs, 1995 [660]; Kirk et al., 1992 [763]; Modrow, 1992 [938]; Mosher et al., 1989 [954]; Romme et al., 1993 [1096]; Sharkey, 1994 [1162]).
Especially in the last few years, an escalating number of authors, many from within the medical establishment, have been offering strong criticism of that conglomerate of powerful interest groups, and especially the dominating influence of the pharmaceutical industry (Abramson et al., 2005 [9]; Angell, 2004 [53], 2007 [54]; Glenmullen, 2000 [528], 2005 [529]; Healy, 2004 [609]; Jackson, 2005 [657]; Kean, 2005 [747], 2006 [748]; Medwar et al., 2004 [911]; Moncrieff, 2006a [940], 2006b [941]; O'Meara, 2006 [1001]; Rost, 2006 [1110]).
Although many of my critiques and criticisms of biological psychiatry and the psychopharmaceutical complex have a broader acceptance, in many ways, the situation has deteriorated as the strength of the drug companies has grown. In the process, my predictions about the growing power of the psychopharmaceutical complex have come true.
The last two decades have seen escalating reliance on psychiatric, drugs, not only within psychiatry but also throughout medicine, mental health, and even education. In private-practice psychiatry, it is common to give patients a medication on the first visit and then instruct them that they will need drugs for their lifetimes. Family practitioners, internists, and other physicians liberally dispense antidepressants and benzodiazepine tranquilizers. Nonmedical professionals, such as psychologists and social workers, feel obliged to refer their patients for drug evaluations. Managed care aggressively pushes drugs to the exclusion of psychotherapy. Adult medications are increasingly prescribed to children. Hospitals force psychiatric drugs on patients against their will.
There is a successful movement within psychiatry, implemented in many states, that makes it easy to force clinic outpatients to take long acting injections of drugs. Under these outpatient commitment laws, if the person refuses to come to the clinic, mental health workers can come to the home to administer the injections by force. At the same time, there is a movement to screen schoolchildren, and even preschoolers, for so-called mental illness. This potentially disastrous movement is driven by drug company money and aims at increasing the market for their products.
Laypersons have joined in the enthusiasm for drugs. Because of media support for medication as well as direct advertising and promotion to the public, patients frequently arrive at the doctor's office with the name of a psychiatric drug already in mind. Teachers often recommend children for drug evaluation or treatment.
This drug revolution views psychiatric medications as far more helpful than harmful, even as an unmitigated blessing. Much as insulin or penicillin, they are vigorously promoted as specific treatments for specific illnesses. Often, they are said to correct biochemical imbalances in the brain. These beliefs have created an environment in which emphasis on adverse drug effects is greeted without enthusiasm, and criticism of psychiatric medication in principle is uncommon heresy.
Drug companies heavily promote that unproven speculation that the problems they treat are biological in origin and result from biochemical imbalances. Advertising slogans are used to justify the prescription of medications. For example, Janssen (2005) [668], the manufacturer of the antipsychotic drug Risperdal, offers a section "About Bipolar Disorder," downloaded from its Web site in February 2006. It declares,
"Mental illness is a medical illness, just like high blood pressure or heart disease."
The Janssen Web site goes on to say, "It is also thought that bipolar disorder may be caused by a genetic predisposition to the illness because it tends to run in families". Notice again that no claim to scientific veracity is made. But the repetition of these unscientific biochemical and genetic speculations nonetheless conditions people to believe that psychiatric drugs are specific treatments for genetic, biochemical disorders, much like antihypertensive drugs for high blood pressure or insulin for diabetes.
This book takes a decidedly different viewpoint from that of biological psychiatry. It provides theory and evidence that psychiatric drugs achieve their primary or essential effect by causing brain dysfunction and that they tend to do far more harm than good. I will show that psychiatric drugs are not specific treatments for any particular so-called mental disorder. Instead of correcting biochemical imbalances, psychiatric drugs cause them, sometimes permanently.
Health care providers and the general public have also been bamboozled by the much-advertised speculation that brain scans can demonstrate the existence of mental disorders, and even diagnose them. In reality, no psychiatric disorder is demonstrable or diagnosable by brain scan (Jackson, 2006a [658]) or by any other medical or biological means.
This second-edition book discusses how to stop taking psychiatric drugs and presents 20 guidelines for therapy. Considerably more information on how to help disturbed and disturbing people without resort to drugs or electroshock is readily available elsewhere (Breggin, 1991a [188], 1992a [191], 1997 [198]; Breggin et al., 1994a [195], 1996 [197], 2002 [222]). Chapters in Reclaiming Our Children (2000b [206]), Talking Back to Ritalin (2001c [209]), The Antidepressant Fact Book (2001a [207]), and The Ritalin Fact Book (2002b [211]) also deal with therapeutic approaches. The best overall summary of my approach to helping people can be found in The Heart of Being Helpful (1997b [199]). Finally, Medication Madness: True Stories of Mayhem, Murder and Suicide (in press) can be viewed as a companion to this book, providing real-life cases of the devastating impact of these drugs on individual lives.