The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won't Tell You about Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox

by Peter R. Breggin

Book Overview

Known as "the Ralph Nader of psychiatry," Dr. Peter Breggin has been the medical expert in countless court cases involving the use or misuse of psychoactive medications. This unusual position has given him unprecedented access to private pharmaceutical research and correspondence files, information from which informs this straight-talking guide to the most prescribed and controversial category of American drugs: antidepressants. From how these drugs...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 073820451X
• ISBN13: 9780738204512
• Release Date: July 2001
• Publisher: Da Capo Press
• Length: 240 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.0" x 8.9"

Customer Reviews

Thoroughly Competent, "Tilted," but Not Biased

Dr. Breggin, Harvard-trained, is my favorite among psychiatrists and psychologists who have written on this subject. As he weighs "nature vs. nurture" as causes of depression, his comments emphasize environmental causes more than genetic or purely physiological causes. So why is this not bias? Because it's a valid view that needs to be stated in our social climate of overly pharmaceutical treatment tendencies. Since publishing my report, Mormon Women, Prozac® and Therapy (readable on the internet by entering that title or my name into Google or other search engine), I received responses from nearly 3,000 readers, nearly all of whom were women who agreed with the general comments of the outlook represented by Dr. Breggin. Breggin is, above all, honest and fearless (he can afford to be, because of his ultracredible track record) in his warnings, assessments and general recommendations. While acting without a personal vendetta toward drug companies, he champions the position of so many women who have been whipsawed and manipulated by sometimes hapless physicians who too often have been in turn manipulated by under-educated drug salesmen who essentially parrot what the companies they represent have taught them. I don't think it would be reasonably possible to recommend this book too highly, to medical professionals, therapists and counselors, and thinking readers in general.

Addresses important safety and efficacy issues with ADs

This should be required reading for anyone who is taking or knows some one considering taking an anti-depressant. I literally could not believe what I read in this book. The influence of the pharmaceutical industry on the media, as well as the medical profession is completely beyond reprehensible. Studies conducted by the pharmaceutical industry - sometimes as short as 6 weeks - are somehow considered sufficient evidence for the release of these drugs to the public. Dr. Breggin is biased, but he is biased for good reason. Many people are taking these drugs without knowledge that the clinical data has been manipulated to cover the hazardous side effects while promoting an innacurate picture of their efficacy. A highly readable and extremely informative book, well worth it's cover price.

An important, critical guide

Dr. Peter Breggin's Anti-Depressant Fact Book provides an important, critical guide to the latest group of antidepressant drugs from Prozak and Zoloft to Luvox. Chapters cover how antidepressants work on the brain, how they affect other mental disorders, and the process of withdrawing from the drug routine.

Biopsychiatry's bane, the public's boon...

Peter Breggin has done it again. He has managed to overwhelm the fair-minded reader with so much knowledge, good sense and wisdom that it is impossible for him/her to reject his air-tight, wholly sensible arguments. The fact that he has been privy to the most sensitive data--internal documents from pharmaceuticals, hundreds of published and unpublished research articles, etc.--makes him the most qualified individual in the world to look critically at both the modern "antidepressants" and the empires that create and market them. If only every consumer could witness a debate between Dr. Breggin and the "champions" of the pharmaceuticals...what a glorious drubbing these champions would suffer! If you are considering buying this book, do yourself a grand favor: do it. Read it once. Don't attempt to highlight the good parts, because the whole book would be covered in marker. Then read it again. You will become determined to look critically at the propoganda that is foisted on you every day in the media regarding "antidepressants" and biopsychiatry. Every page is illuminating, shocking, sensible, sound, and ultimately, encouraging. I could not recommend this book any more highly.

A Must Read For Patients and Professionals

This comprehensive book about anti-depressant medications picks up where Talking Back To Prozac left off. Dr. Breggin, through his vast personal experience and research as a medical expert in legal cases against the drug manufacturers, as well as his carefully documented research into the psychopharmacology of anti-depressants provides us with a great deal of information that is available no where else. Although quite disturbing to read, The Anti-depressant Fact Book is so well written and so clear that it is appropriate reading for the mental health professional as well as for the general public. Dr. Breggin discusses the meaning and purpose of depression as an emotional response to things, people, and situations in our lives, rather than as a biochemical disease in our brains. He points out that depression also reflects the contrasting desire in us that we have to live a more creative, meaningful life. This is in sharp contrast to the majority of the psychiatric community who sees depression as an imbalance of brain chemicals that must be corrected by drugs. Dr. Breggin explains in detail how the anti-depressant medications work, with special emphasis upon the selective seratonin reuptake inhibitors, (SSRIs') like Zoloft, Paxil, and Prozac. He carefully explains how the SSRI's block the reabsorbing of the brain chemical seratonin, causing an excess amount of it to accumulate in the spaces between neurons both in the brain and elsewhere. He goes on to explain how the brain then tries to fight back from this chemical assault by permanently eliminating receptors. This process is called "die-back" and results in sub-sensitivity of the receptors, better known as down regulation, leading to permanent dysfunction. Dr. Breggin goes on to explain through current research findings, how the SSRI anti-depressants act in the brain like stimulants and he shows their striking similarities to the illegal drugs Ecstasy and cocaine in terms of dangerousness and the creation of Mania and akathesia. He goes on to describe a multitude of other problems that are directly attributable to these anti-depressants such as cardiovascular problems, parkinsonian symptoms, tardive dyskinesea, loss of sex drive, emotional blunting, suicide, and violent behavior. Of particular interest, Dr. Breggin highlights how these anti-depressant drugs often cause depression themselves, and particularly a very dangerous kind of depression; an agitated depression. This book clearly spells out the great difficulties that people encounter when trying to stop taking these drugs and it suggests ways to soften the rebound and withdrawal effects of the drugs. Breggin also devotes a chapter to the special problems encountered when children are given anti-depressants along with the exceptional; brain damage that occurs. He goes on in yet another chapter to discuss the resurgence of electroconvulsive shock therapy (ECT) and to psychosurgery as treatment