Talking Back To Prozac: What Doctors Aren't Telling You About Today's Most Controversial Drug (Mass Market Paperback)

by Peter Breggin (Author) "Nearly everyone knows someone who is taking Prozac..." (more)
Key Phrases: stimulant syndrome, stimulant profile, stimulant symptoms, Eli Lilly, Desk Reference, Prozac Survivors Support Group (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
Are you one of the thousands of Americans "listening to Prozac"? Chances are you at least know someone who is. It's time to take a closer look at this supposedly "safe" drug. Peter Breggin picks through the studies used to justify Prozac's safety, often uncovering flaws and shoddy science. He details the FDA approval process, including who on the panel was paid by whom. The key players and the details will surprise you.

Review
"There is unquestionably a great deal of truth in what Breggin writes. Let the pill-swallower beware." --Los Angeles Times

"Peter Breggin is Prozac's worst enemy." --Time

"Dr. Breggin is the conscience of American psychiatry." --Bertram P. Karon, Ph.D., author of Psychotherapy of Schizophrenia
-- Review

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 318 pages
• Publisher: St. Martin's Paperbacks (September 15, 1995)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312956061
• ISBN-13: 978-0312956066
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.6 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #577,755 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 33 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Breggin, P.R. (1994). Talking back to Prozac. New York: St., November 27, 2002

By	hhedieh (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews

Psychiatrist Peter Breggin is known for his outspoken stance against psychiatric medications. Talking Back to Prozac is in effect a response to Peter Kramer's Listening to Prozac, a book that argues Prozac is safe, relatively free of side effects, and effective in relieving mild, chronic depression as well as what may be called "personality flaws." Breggin contends that psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies are hiding the scary facts about Prozac. He makes the same point about newer psychiatric drugs in more recent works. Breggin's book offers a one-sided rather than a fair, balanced judgment of antidepressants like Prozac. About fourteen years have passed since Prozac became available in the U.S., and the drug has been taken by over 20 million people worldwide. It has proven safe for the overwhelming majority of these people, although it is no longer the "hot," popular drug that it was in the late 1980s and early 90s. Countless studies have shown Prozac to be safe and effective in a range of conditions such as depression, social phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In this light, Breggin's book seems alarmist. Most mental health professionals in the U.S. and Europe believe that medications, along with psychotherapy, are an important part of treating mental disorders. With his rigid stance, Breggin is denying patients an effective means of relieving their anxiety, depression, etc.
On the other hand, Breggin's arguments are not all completely false. Antidepressants like Prozac are not bogus pills, as he suggests, but their effectiveness has probably been exaggerated. New antidepressants constantly enter the market and are prescribed in the hope that they would be effective in patients that did not respond to Prozac or other older drugs. Also, studies usually report an efficacy rate of 60-80% for these drugs, but it is not clear why the 20-40% who respond to placebo are not subtracted from those larger figures to report an actual efficacy rate of 20-60%. Another valid point is that the rate of side effects for Prozac and similar drugs has been under-reported. Sexual side effects are far more widespread in patients taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) including Prozac than previously thought. One possible reason is that patients in clinical trials did not readily express sexual complaints about the drug they were given. Another plausible point is that pharmaceutical companies are sometimes less than fully ethical in reporting all the facts. If we consider the entire drug industry, there have been many cases in which these companies have apparently exaggerated the benefits and hidden the problems related to drugs they were marketing. These companies also mount very effective advertising campaigns to encourage both psychiatrists and ordinary people to take certain drugs rather than older and cheaper alternatives. For example, Prozac is now available in its generic form as fluoxetine, but it has lost popularity to newer drugs introduced in the past few years. All of this suggests that patients must consider both the pros and cons of antidepressants. Breggin only offers the cons in his book.

44 of 54 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars I dislike extreme views not well argued!, October 24, 1998

By A Customer

I found the author's argument unconvincing. I think Kramer's "Listening to Prozac" paints too rosy a picture, while "Talking Back To Prozac" is way too negative. I think the truth is somewhere in between. The comment the author makes repeatedly in the book about the "sick" people who seem to like Prozac is not open minded, and reveals the religious intensity of the author's opposition (I am not taking Prozac!). The close minded arguments of the author turned me off, and I could care less about the bureaucratic problems of the FDA. The truth about depression and the effectiveness of the SSRIs is independent of the FDA's Prozac drug trials, and dumping on a very large part of the medical community because of a strong feeling against SSRIs was not at all convincing to me, and made for an unsatisfying read. His linking of SSRIs to amphetamines seemed very unscientific to me, and he did not reveal how he came up with this conclusion to my satisfaction. I would appreciate a more clinical proof of SSRI ineffectiveness, and would not accept his word for it just because he believes strongly about his point of view. Two words to describe this book is: Too extreme. I disliked this book alot.

24 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Breggin lacks understanding of Depression, January 23, 1999

By A Customer

While I agree there is much abuse of Prozac, I think he lacks understanding of those with much more serious cases of mental illness. What I found particulary offensive is the last part of the book when Breggin tells that he has very depressed clients come to him for help. Breggin instead shuns them away from drugs and insteads "tries" to comfort them with talk therapy alone. He tells he understands their situation, but from reading part of this book, it is obvious he doesn't. The book is extremely one-sided and never points out the positive aspects of these types of drugs. Although there are a few reported case of disabilities created by Prozac, the vast majority are helped by it. Let me tell you this, a seriously depressed person would rather take their chances with an antidepressant than not be helped at all. It is true that antidepressants are unnecessary by those with mild cases or no illness at all. Those that have rated this book 5 stars evidently have not read the other argument of this drug.