Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications [Hardcover]

Peter Breggin (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 8, 2008 | ISBN-10: 0312363389 | ISBN-13: 978-0312363383 | Edition: First Edition

Medications for everything from depression and anxiety to ADHD and insomnia are being prescribed in alarming numbers across the country, but the “cure” is often worse than the original problem. Medication Madness is a fascinating, frightening, and dramatic look at the role that psychiatric medications have played in fifty cases of suicide, murder, and other violent, criminal, and bizarre behaviors. 

As a psychiatrist who believes in holding people responsible for their conduct, the weight of scientific evidence and years of clinical experience eventually convinced Dr. Breggin that psychiatric drugs frequently cause individuals to lose their judgment and their ability to control their emotions and actions. Medication Madness raises and examines the issues surrounding personal responsibility when behavior seems driven by drug-induced adverse reactions and intoxication.

Dr. Breggin personally evaluated the cases in the book in his role as a treating psychiatrist, consultant or medical expert.  He interviewed survivors and witnesses, and reviewed extensive medical, occupational, educational and police records. The great majority of individuals lived exemplary lives and committed no criminal or bizarre actions prior to taking the psychiatric medications.

Medication Madness reads like a medical thriller, true crime story, and courtroom drama; but it is firmly based in the latest scientific research and dozens of case studies. The lives of the children and adults in these stories, as well as the lives of their families and their victims, were thrown into turmoil and sometimes destroyed by the unanticipated effects of psychiatric drugs.  In some cases our entire society was transformed by the tragic outcomes.

Many categories of psychiatric drugs can cause potentially horrendous reactions.

Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, Adderall, Ritalin, Concerta, Xanax, lithium, Zyprexa and other psychiatric medications may spellbind patients into believing they are improved when too often they are becoming worse.  Psychiatric drugs drive some people into psychosis, mania, depression, suicide, agitation, compulsive violence and loss of self-control without the individuals realizing that their medications have deformed their way of thinking and feeling. 

This book documents how the FDA, the medical establishment and the pharmaceutical industry have over-sold the value of psychiatric drugs.  It serves as a cautionary tale about our reliance on potentially dangerous psychoactive chemicals to relieve our emotional problems and provides a positive approach to taking personal charge of our lives.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Following his landmark book Talking Back to Prozac, psychiatrist Breggin follows up by arguing against what he calls the ‘spellbinding’ effects of psychiatric medications, and he doesn't mean ‘spellbinding’ as praise. His point is that all psychiatric drugs are dangerous; he describes how these medications can compromise brain function, resulting in bizarre, even violent behavior. Breggin, a former staffer at the National Institute of Mental Health who has testified in liability suits against pharmaceutical companies, cautions that consumers should thoroughly examine the drug labels for side effects as a precaution for such drugs as stimulants, antidepressants, tranquilizers, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. The tragic cases of beleaguered patients detailed here are troubling. Breggin joins the growing group of experts who argue that the FDA is ‘more dedicated to serving the drug companies than consumers,’ relying on doctored or incomplete evidence and botched tests. Breggin's assertion that psychotropic drugs induce rather than treat brain imbalances is controversial, but this book is a reasoned look at these drugs, which have come under increasing scrutiny in the media as well as medical world.”—Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Review

?Following his landmark book Talking Back to Prozac, psychiatrist Breggin follows up by arguing against what he calls the ?spellbinding? effects of psychiatric medications, and he doesn't mean ?spellbinding? as praise. His point is that all psychiatric drugs are dangerous; he describes how these medications can compromise brain function, resulting in bizarre, even violent behavior. Breggin, a former staffer at the National Institute of Mental Health who has testified in liability suits against pharmaceutical companies, cautions that consumers should thoroughly examine the drug labels for side effects as a precaution for such drugs as stimulants, antidepressants, tranquilizers, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers. The tragic cases of beleaguered patients detailed here are troubling. Breggin joins the growing group of experts who argue that the FDA is ?more dedicated to serving the drug companies than consumers,? relying on doctored or incomplete evidence and botched tests. Breggin's assertion that psychotropic drugs induce rather than treat brain imbalances is controversial, but this book is a reasoned look at these drugs, which have come under increasing scrutiny in the media as well as medical world.??Publishers Weekly

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Press; First Edition edition (July 8, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312363389
• ISBN-13: 978-0312363383
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #354,252 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

66 of 69 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Psychotropics: Unsafe At Any Dose, July 17, 2008

By 

Dr. Dathan Paterno (Chicago, IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications (Hardcover)

For years, I have questioned how any mental health clinician could believe that psychotropic were safe or effective, with such a mountain of evidence showing that they are neither. In my practice, I have sat with many clients who were on psychiatric drugs; while none of them had really gotten better from them, so many of them seemed oblivious to this.

This book satisfies my question. They were "spellbound" by the drugs themselves: by the pharmacological properties of the drugs themselves and by the professionals who convinced them that the drugs were going to help.

It is easy to prove to an objective person that psychiatric drugs are unsafe and useless; the data are compelling, even overwhelming. But I now understand that the person taking these drugs is and cannot be objective about the drugs. This is quite helpful to me clinically.

I recommend ALL of Dr. Breggin's books; this is one of his most rigorously researched, persuasive, and conclusive yet.

41 of 45 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Medication Madness - Required Reading, July 13, 2008

By 

Evelyn Pringle "Big Pharma Sleuth" - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications (Hardcover)

Dr Peter Breggin has outdone himself. Medication Madness is a masterpiece.

There is probably no other psychiatrist in this country more knowledgeable about the lengths the drug companies will go to in order to profit off the sale of ineffective and harmful psychiatric drugs through the massive misdiagnosing of people as mentally ill.

Likewise, there is probably no other psychiatrist more knowledgeable about how far the same companies will go to cover up their wrongdoings when people are injured by their products.

Consequently, in Medication Madness Dr Beggin has provided the whole story of how the entire nation has been conned for the past 20 years and the resulting toll on human lives and society as a whole.

He leaves no stone unturned. Starting with the corruption involved in the clinical trials used to get the new generation of psychiatric drugs FDA approved to the recruitment of the so-called "opinion leaders" to publish bogus studies to sway the minds of prescribing physicians in every field of medicine to the victims left in the aftermath.

Some of the most damning chapters in the book give the details of how the legal system allowed the drug makers to keep the evidence of harm hidden for nearly two decades while they quietly settled cases out of court and made obscene profits off products they knew were causing great injury to millions of people.

This book should be required reading for not only consumers but for every doctor who is even thinking about prescribing psychiatric drugs.

Evelyn Pringle
Investigative Journalist
OpEd News columnist

23 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mandatory Reading For All Professionals and Consumers, July 13, 2008

By 

Delores Jankovich (Overland Park, Kansas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Medication Madness: A Psychiatrist Exposes the Dangers of Mood-Altering Medications (Hardcover)

Dr. Peter Breggin's ground-breaking and truth-telling new book, Medication Madness, is profoundly impacting in its focus on the dangerous side effects that can occur with psychotropic drugs. The one thing that the perpetrators of the many random appearing crimes such as the massacre at Columbine have in common is that they were taking SSRI (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) antidepressants. Dr. Breggin describes the spell-binding effects these, as well as other psychotropics, have on patients' minds. He documents many crimes where he has been an expert witness and the individual has been under the effects of involuntary intoxication.

This book is a necessity for every family's book shelf and should be a mainstay for every person who practices in any of the Mental Health Professions. It is a book that will also be enlightening for those who practice Mental Health Law. It addresses the myths regarding treatment with psychiatric medications. The evidence is clearly documented, indicating that taking such medications can be very harmful to patients and can devastate the lives of family members and friends who love and care for them.

Peter Breggin, M.D. is a Harvard-educated, main-stream psychiatrist and expert witness, who dares to proclaim that "the emperor has no clothes." He explodes the claim that those who are diagnosed with a mental illness must take medication to correct a chemical imbalance. Rather, taking such medications indeed induces a chemical imbalance in one's brain.

This book is written with clarity and empathy. It reads easily for both laymen and professionals.It truly may very well be the most important book written in this century about mood altering medications and the dire effects on the mental and physical health of those who take them. It is a must read for anyone who desires to be fully informed as to the consequences for those who take these drugs. Every professional and every consumer, potential consumer and psychiatric survivor has an invaluable resource in this book that "tells it all." I cannot overemphasize the importance of reading this important new work by the Conscience of Psychiatry, Dr. Peter Breggin.

Delores Jankovich, MA, LMSW
Overland Park, Kansas