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Prozac, Xanax, Halcion, Haldol, Lithium. These psychiatric drugs--and dozens of other short-term "solutions"--are being prescribed by doctors across the country as a quick antidote to depression, panic disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and other psychiatric problems. But at what cost?
In this searing, myth-shattering exposé, psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, M.D., breaks through the hype and false promises surrounding the "New Psychiatry" and shows how dangerous, even potentially brain-damaging, many of its drugs and treatments are. He asserts that: psychiatric drugs are spreading an epidemic of long-term brain damage; mental "illnesses" like schizophrenia, depression, and anxiety disorder have never been proven to be genetic or even physical in origin, but are under the jurisdiction of medical doctors; millions of schoolchildren, housewives, elderly people, and others are labeled with medical diagnoses and treated with authoritarian interventions, rather than being patiently listened to, understood, and helped.
Toxic Psychiatry sounds a passionate, much-needed wake-up call for everyone who plays a part, active or passive, in America's ever-increasing dependence on harmful psychiatric drugs.
Issuing a passionate, much-needed wake-up call for everyone who plays a part in America's ever-increasing dependence on harmful psychiatric drugs, a psychiatrist breaks through the hype and false promises surrounding the "New Psychiatry" and shows how potentially dangerous, even brain-damaging, many of its drugs and treatments are.
More Reviews and RecommendationsPeter R. Breggin, M.D., is a leading critic of psychiatric drugs and the psychopharmaceutical complex. He is a graduate of Harvard College and Case Western Reserve Medical School, and was formerly a teaching fellow at Harvard Medical School and a full-time consultant with the National Institute of Mental Health. He is the director of the Center for the Study of Psychiatry and has been in the full-time practice of psychiatry in Bethesda, Maryland, since 1968. Dr. Breggin is the author, with Ginger Ross Breggin, of Talking Back to Prozac and The War Against Children.
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March 09, 2006: This is a brilliant and wonderful book by a doctor with the compassion of an angel. If more doctors were like him the healthcare system would be in much better shape, and no one would forget the _care_ in healthcare. I can't say enough good things about Dr. Breggin, he is truly a gift to humanity. You owe it to yourself to read his books, for he truly cares for all people and understands that drugs do not solve people's problems- people who care about others solve people's problems. As Dr. Breggin so wisely says, there is no 'quick fix' to our problems that doesn't carry unexpected consequences, often terrible ones. However, he elucidates a new way to deal with problems and conflicts based on loving, caring, and respecting all people, even those tagged 'insane'. He's often called 'the conscience of modern Psychiatry' and with this book , it's easy to understand why. I can't recommend this book too highly for anyone and everyone alive today. Everything I've read by him has been brilliant.
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June 21, 2004: I was always a beleiver in human and the power we have over our behavior. All it take is the recognition of our issues and the willingness to address them in a manner that doesn't add to the issue. When I heard about this book: 'Toxic Psychiatry' I didn't care how much it cost, I had to get it. As a student of Behavioral health, and my experience working with the psychiatric population, I see first hand the pain,and the non-loving ways in which these patients health are view by caregivers. It hurts my heart, because they are treated in ways that lead them to feel that is what they are. Thanks for Dr. Breggin's bold honesty. His faith and genuine need to perpetuate giving and wanting what is the very nature of what psychiatry is about. thanks for your openness and sharing with those who are broad-sided by the numbness those toxic pills brings to the spirits of mankind. You are with true integrity because you choose mankind over popularity in your vocation. God bless you! and as a student in humanity, I am pleased with your venture to help make mankind whole and human again.