Brain Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Role of the FDA (Hardcover)

by Peter R. Breggin (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Text on the brain-disabling effects of the physical treatments in psychiatry. For clinicians and investigators. DNLM: Mental Disorders--therapy.

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

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

Product Details

• Hardcover: 306 pages
• Publisher: Springer Publishing Company; 1 edition (January 15, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0826194907
• ISBN-13: 978-0826194909
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 6.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (8 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,345,720 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

19 of 21 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Book More Doctors Should Read, August 5, 1998

By	[e-mail] (Long Beach, California) - See all my reviews

Dr. Breggin points out the side effects of psychiatric drugs and procedures that many doctors either ignore or don't know about due to drug company hype and the FDA's shoddy oversight. I wish more doctors would read this book before they prescribe dangerous drugs and procedures who's long term effects are in many cases still unknown.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, June 21, 2005

By	Headoctor - See all my reviews

I am a mental health professional, and am extremely grateful for this book. For years, I sought to explain why most of my clients were suffering through medical treatments that are supposed to help but clearly did not. I knew that medication contraindicated psychotherapy, which has far superior efficacy relative to medication, but I couldn't verbalize exactly how or why. This book did a great job of doing just that. I also knew that drug companies played a significant role in perpetuating the fraud of psychiatry, but I didn't have the time to find out how or why. This book did a great job of explaining that sad unethical phenomenon. I knew that many of the medications produced a lobotomy-like indifference in most of my clients, and I appreciate individuals with the courage to make this finding public despite the wide-spread denial of those who have the 'medicalized executive functioning cognitive deficit.' Throughout my years as a mental health professional, I thought about ways to expose the fraud of psychiatry that was and continues to ruin my clients' lives. This book did a great job of exposing that fraud. It has also motivated me into taking action against this fraud. One other thing: this review is based on generalities. Thus, I do not wish to take away anything from the relatively minimal amount of consumers that have benefitted from psychiatric medication, which I have never seen personally. However, it should be noted that psychological methods are far more efficacious and do not produce nasty, and sometimes permanent side effects relative to toxic medications. I encourage people to take this into consideration before I begin treatment with them, which is something that many psychiatrists will never admit to or allow their clients the empowerment to decide on their own).

18 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Personal Experience with Antipsychotics, April 16, 2000

By	David Zeller (Indianapolis, In) - See all my reviews

This book helped my son, but unfortunately the information it contains came to me too late to help a woman friend whose brain was severely damaged by neuroleptic drugs. My son was taking a popular anti-depressant administered by a Psychaitrist. He was able to get out of bed which was some improvement in his condition and was limping along through life when I told him of the possible destructive effects and essential ineffectualness of these psychaiatric drugs which attack symptoms only. He immediately fired his psychaitrist whose sessions consisted merely of asking him if he felt better, contacted a psychologist and started a course of talk therapy. There were times when he hated me, times when he hated his mother, but now he is doing fine without the need for drugs. I have done considerable research on the findings outlined in the book. The National Library of Health website is full of articles confirming the incredibly destructive effects of these drugs on a significant percentage of patients.