Recommended Books
Bad Science
by Dr. Ben Goldacre
Dr. Ben Goldacre’s book “…about the misuse of science by quacks, journalists, and big pharmaceutical companies.”
Psychiatric Drug Widthdrawal
by Peter Breggin, M.D.
Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Families, responds to a citizen rebellion that demands, “Help us get off these drugs!” It also encourages a professional revolution among concerned therapists who want to reject the idea of enforcing “patient compliance.”
The Myth of the Chemical Cure: A Critique of Psychiatric Drug Treatment
by Dr. Joanna Moncrieff
This book exposes the traditional view that psychiatric drugs correct chemical imbalances as a dangerous fraud. It traces the emergence of this view and the way it supported the vested interests of the psychiatric profession, the pharmaceutical industry and the modern state. Instead it is proposed that psychiatric drugs ‘work’ by creating abnormal brain states, which are often unpleasant and impair normal intellectual and emotional functions along with other harmful consequences.
Bad Pharma
by Dr. Ben Goldacre
Drugs are tested by the people who manufacture them, in poorly designed trials, on hopelessly small numbers of weird, unrepresentative patients, and analysed using techniques which are flawed by design, in such a way that they exaggerate the benefits of treatments. Unsurprisingly, these trials tend to produce results that favour the manufacturer. When trials throw up results that companies don’t like, they are perfectly entitled to hide them from doctors and patients, so we only ever see a distorted picture of any drug’s true effects. Regulators see most of the trial data, but only from early on in its life, and even then they don’t give this data to doctors or patients, or even to other parts of government. This distorted evidence is then communicated and applied in a distorted fashion.
Pharmageddon
by David Healy
“This searing indictment, David Healy’s most comprehensive and forceful argument against the pharmaceuticalization of medicine, tackles problems in health care that are leading to a growing number of deaths and disabilities. Healy, who was the first to draw attention to the now well-publicized suicide-inducing side effects of many anti-depressants, attributes our current state of affairs to three key factors: product rather than process patents on drugs, the classification of certain drugs as prescription-only, and industry-controlled drug trials.”
A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs
by Dr. Joanna Moncrieff
“Suitable for students of mental health disciplines, psychiatric service users, and carers, this book offers information that you need to make informed choices about psychiatric drugs. It presents practical advice on the right questions to ask if you are prescribed medication for mental health problems and what happens on withdrawal of medication.”
Rethinking Psychiatric Drugs: A Guide for Informed Consent
by Dr. Grace Jackson
Are patients aware of the fact that pharmacological therapies stress the brain in ways which may prevent or postpone symptomatic and functional recovery? – Dr. Grace Jackson is a board certified psychiatrist who graduated summa cum laude from California Lutheran University with a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and a Bachelor of Science in Biology, as well as a Masters Degree in Public Administration. She earned her Medical Degree from the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in 1996 and completed her internship and residency while in the U. S. Navy.