Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex [Hardcover]

Peter R. Breggin MD (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 082612934X | ISBN-13: 978-0826129345 | Publication Date: December 17, 2007 | Edition: 2

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." --Bertram Karon, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Michigan State University, Author of The Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia

"Nowhere does false medical thinking do more harm than in the modern psychiatric argument that mental illness is easily diagnosed and then cured by a side-effect free drug. Nowhere is the correct psychiatric thinking more evident than in the books by Peter Breggin." -- William Glasser, MD, psychiatrist, author of Reality Therapy

In Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, renowned psychiatrist Peter R. Breggin, M.D., 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. Yet reliance on these drugs has continued to escalate in the last decade, and drug company interests have overwhelmed psychiatric practice.

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:


• Chapters covering every new antidepressant and stimulant drug
• Twenty new guidelines for how to conduct non-drug therapy
• A chapter describing how to safely withdraw from psychiatric drugs
• A discussion of "medication spellbinding," explaining how patients fail to appreciate their drug-induced mental dysfunctions
• Documentation of how the drug companies control research and the flow of information about psychiatric treatments

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Praise for Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry, 1st Edition:

"Peter Breggin has written the definitive text for professionals and the public alike who really want to know the hazards, inadequacies and illusions of psychopharmacology. This book will be a foundation for those who specialize in medication-free treatment."
-Kevin F. McCready, PhD, Clinical Director, San Joaquin Psychotherapy Center

"This book proves once again that Peter Breggin truly is the `conscience of American psychiatry.' Breggin shows that the brain-disabling hypothesis of organic psychiatric treatments is overwhelmingly confirmed by clinical experience and the scientific literature. With astounding numbers of elderly, adults, and children on prescribed psychoactive drugs, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry should be required reading for all medical interns, practicing physicians, and mental health professionals."
-David Cohen, PhD, Professor of Social Services, University of Montreal

About the Author

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 twenty books. Some of his many books include Toxic Psychiatry, Talking Back to Ritalin, The Antidepressant Fact Book, and The Heart of Being Helpful: Empathy and the Creation of a Healing Presence, and with co-author Ginger Breggin, Talking Back to Prozac and The War Against Children of Color (Springer Publishing 1999, paperback 2006). His forthcoming book, in mid 2008, is Medication Madness: 55 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. From the New York Times and Wall Street Journal to Time and Newsweek, and from "Larry King Live" and "Oprah" to "60 minutes" and "20/20," his views have been covered in major media throughout the world.

In 1972 Dr. Breggin founded the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (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 reformed-minded professionals and laypersons who wish to raise ethical and scientific standards in field of mental health. In 1999 he and his wife Ginger founded ICSPP's peer-reviewed scientific journal, Ethical Human Psychology and Psychiatry (Springer Publishing). 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, three years of residency training in psychiatry, a two-year staff assignment at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), and several teaching appointments including The Johns Hopkins University Department of Counseling and the George Mason University Institute for Conflict Analysis and Resolution. Dr. Breggin's website is www.breggin.com

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Springer Publishing Company; 2 edition (December 17, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 082612934X
• ISBN-13: 978-0826129345
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.4 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #311,325 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #21 in Books > Medical Books > Pharmacology > Neuropsychopharmacology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

32 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stretch your mind: read this book, February 16, 2008

By 

Jeff D. "Jeff D." (Bridgewater, NJ) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex (Hardcover)

Counterintuitive in an age when the "chemical imbalance" mythology of emotional problems is commonly accepted as fact, this updated work by Breggin demonstrates that psychiatrists have sold the public a bill of goods. People taking or sanctioning the taking of psychiatric drugs do not realize that much of the perceived good from these agents derives from the emotional blunting that they cause in the brain. Patient stop complaining, families don't have to listen to it, and doctors feel empowered. Little do they know that the drugs often cause the very problems they are supposed to treat.

As a practicing psychologist, I believe people attribute positive outcomes to various drugs for reasons other than dulled emotions. Placebo (what Breggin calls enhanced placebo) reactions, victimization, and withdrawl/rebound problems also can lead patients to believe that the drugs are helping. As a recent example of the latter, the Northern Illinois shooter was said to be coming off his medication when he killed several students. This doesn't mean he needed his medication any more than a nicotine addict in withdrawl needs his stimulant.

The best aspect of the new material in this book is material on how to safely withdraw from drugs. Patients will be hard-pressed to find a doctor to help them do this.

Even if this book upsets your preconceived notions about organized psychiatry, knowing the truth about drug safety and efficacy will "set you free." That the research evidence against drugs has not been completely suppressed by the multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical industry is itself amazing.

18 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Accusations that need to be heard, short on solutions, August 1, 2008

By 

CustomerCritique (New York) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex (Hardcover)

First, let me state that I think that there is much in the work of Dr. Breggin that is important to read and think about. I would highly recommend anyone become familiar with his work, because his opinions are in the minority in the medical profession and these opinions need to be heard. Many naysayers of Dr. Breggin point out all sorts of problems with his accusations and some of this is warranted, but what is also warranted is Dr. Breggin's ability to point out problems with so-called legitimate research. Let's face it, there IS a crisis in psychiatry. Many people suffer needlessly "trying out" medications that will never cure them, may make them worse, and may not even have an effect. Most, if not all, psychiatric textbooks have this glaring sentence over and over; "we don't really know how this chemical functions in the brain". This fact alone is upsetting when thinking about how millions of children with developing brains are being medicated by compounds that "we don't really know how they work". This way of doing medicine is unacceptable and must be changed. Whether driven by drug company profit motives, or the researcher's grant needs, true answers and cures need to be found for mental illness in order for psychiatry to evolve into a branch of medicine that will finally "first do no harm."

The alarmist nature of Dr. Breggin's work points to someone who is motivated by the nearly insurmountable task of being one of the few to try to take up this mission. Armed with lots of information, this book tries to paint a picture that is very bleak and I do think that there is much truth to this outlook. Nevertheless, the solutions offered here are troublesome at best even if he were correct. His answers to the problem of treatment of mental illness are not that black and white. The whole argument over biological psychiatry needs to come to an end by coming up with better ways to do research and better ways to vet research so that profit and other motives can be discounted and true cause and effect can be seen. This task can only begin with an understanding of the problems of the research and there I think this book provides the reader with an excellent overview, and hopefully a call to action. Psychiatry needs to change. Let us hope more people like Dr. Breggin will rise to the task to try to change it.

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Stunning Scientific Critique of Modern Psychiatry, July 24, 2008

By 

Paul Theodorescu "Paul T." (Sherbrooke, QC, Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex (Hardcover)

This book is comprehensive, referenced, it is a solid indictment of modern psychiatry.

The basic premise of the book is that current psychiatric treatments (ie: drugs and ECT) are:
-Not evidence based (ie: they don't work). Ex: Antidepressants have no efficacy over placebo in double blind trials.
-Psychiatric drugs are dangerous. Breggin provides AMPLE evidence for this.
-Psychiatric works by lobotomizing patients. The evidence that antipsychotics work in this manner is very convincing.

The first chapter where Breggin explains concepts like patient dependency and "spell-binding" are really enlightening.

The chapter on how to withdraw from psychiatric drugs (ie: how to taper there use) is very enlightening.

I would love to hear Peter Breggin's thoughts on:

-The notion of spell-binding, isn't it somewhat circular reasoning? I definitely see the usefulness, though.
-SSRIs for anxiety disorders
-Anticonvulsivants for bipolar disorder (he mentions Depakote only briefly)

Paul 3rd year medical student
[e-mail]