Medication Madness Paperback – May 26, 2009

Once you have given yourself to the medical system by allowing your body to be a localized testing lab for a psychiatric drug evaluation, you will have relinquished control over your life. You will be placed in the difficult position of reading your own mind while on drugs, and relying on a medical doctor to successfully control your mind by adding to or reducing your drug intake. Interpretation of your description of your medical condition before, during and after the ingestion of psychiatric drugs will be performed by the medical system.But your "machine" for self-evaluation can be compromised by the use of prescription drugs and therefore your description of the success or failure of the current dosage or type of medicine may be flawed. Medical professionals appear to be flying blind in the use of such drugs. The patient is an unreliable source of information. His friends or relatives may be pleased that he is less agitated, less active or more controllable, but they will be unaware of the underlying state of mind of the patient. And the doctor will most likely increase dosage if the original negative symptoms remain, or just as bad or worse, stop the patient's drug use "cold turkey" when faced with undesirable side effects.MEDICATION MADNESS describes some of the documented worst outcomes in the use of common prescription drugs with brand names like Wellbutrin, Ritalin, Xanax and many others. Are these worst case killings, suicides, and other violent examples isolated extremes? The book provides evidence that such negative outcomes are not isolated. Warnings for all of these drugs advise that the patient should stop taking the medicine and seek medical help if they have negative symptoms. For example Wellbutrin's list includes the admonition to do so if you experience: "Severe agitation or confusion, thoughts of hurting yourself, other unusual thoughts".If you ever wondered upon watching the television ads for these and other drugs why anyone would take medicines apparently loaded with possible negative outcomes, the obvious answer is that they are willing to accept the risks knowing that they can evaluate their current state of mind or body and thus be able to stop the process before it becomes dangerous. Maybe this is possible with psychiatric drugs, but placing that burden of risk evaluation on a medicated, mentally unbalanced patient or on a small child who has a limited understanding of his body, seems very risky indeed.The mind is a wonderful thing, but it is also a delicate mechanism with its reasoning powers easily reduced by the use of drugs or alcohol and by social, parental or peer pressure, coupled with pronouncements from authorities above. The prescription and evaluation of psychiatric drugs brings into play many of these elements. This is dangerous territory for those who are on the edge or simply innocent children.

Once again, Peter Breggin (the "Conscience of psychiatry") has written a badly-needed book on the immorality and unethical ways in which medical psychiatry poisons the lives of good men, women, and children, every single day. Dr. Breggin illustrates well the ways in which antidepressants, benzodiazepines, mood stabilizers, and antipsychotic medications actually disable parts of the human brain (essentially, chemical lobotomies - especially in the case of the anti-psychotics, which actually DO target the frontal lobes; see pp.225-226) and lull the poor people who take them into thinking they are doing better, when in fact they are NOT. This is what Dr. Breggin calls "medication spellbinding."He does this by telling us about over 50 cases he has directly been involved with over the years, in which people have been literally poisoned by the very toxic drugs they were told would help them. Some of these cases he profiles have endings that could have been much worse; others that he profiles DO end much worse, resulting in suicides, homicides, violent attacks, broken families and shattered lives.Unfortunately, if you are like me and work in a non-profit mental health clinic, you see the effects of these medications every day, which Dr. Breggin describes in this and other books. Tragically, the unholy allience that began in earnest in the 1970s between medical psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry is alive and well, and growing every day. This incestuous marriage is supported by a pseudoscientific manual known as the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th edition (DSM-IV; soon to be DSM-5)Most disgusting is the new inroads, starting 20 years ago, into what was then still an untapped market; children and adolescents. Now, thanks to the fictitious diagnosos of "ADHD" and the sudden, magical appearance of such diagnoses as Bipolar Disorder in children, they are a multibillion-dollar-a-year industry. Dr. Breggin addresses this story in-depth and quite well in the book, charting for us the tragic effects of this alliance, for example in Chapter 15 ("Parents forced to drug their children.")Thankfully, there are people of great conscience and courage as Dr. Peter Breggin, and books like Medication Madness, to help shed the light of truth on what the late great psychiatrist Thomas Szasz called, "The Science of Lies."

Unbelievable. We all have to deal with people and children on drugs. It is so common. But I had no idea of exactly why. I had no idea of the side effects. I had no idea of the destruction of people by the medical field or the schools.I am so fortunate in that I just have no attraction for drugs. And I didn't turn to doctors. My sons and I are often called out as ADHD, but we just went on our merry old way. Thank goodness. I guess we dodged a bullet.This book is so important to me as I can offer advice to family members and others to stay away from drugs, be they on the street or from the doctors.The pushing of drugs is from ordinary women and not just teachers and doctors though. I guess if they think it's okay for their kids and themselves, they think they can recommend them to you too.I'm still stunned by learning so much from this book.

Peter is around 80 years old now, you still have the chance to listen to his podcasts and follow his opinions around legalization of recreational drugs, but if you don't read at least one of his books you will never meet the character and will lose the chance to get out of all the myths around mental health. Is a very interesting, easy to read, necessary book to have. Get yours, it happens to be also very entertaining.

A brilliant job informing the public of the horror of these drugs. The problem is this: He seems to be checkmated by the drug companies, they always settle out of court, pay out vast amounts and people sign to keep quiet. Why I wonder does he not focus on pharmacogenetics and the Cytochrome P450 test which to my mind and understanding is, at this time, THE way of dealing with the problem. Pharmacogenetics is to the drug companies what silver is to a vampire. Also there is no acknowledgment that the psychiatrists are as it were the useful - greedy - idiots in all this. Although I doubt they are idiots, there is something more malevolent going on: a need to control and not deal with the real possible causes that require blood tests, such as anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis and other causes of psychosis. I would use the leverage of hedge funds armed with the knowledge of pharmacogenetics to bring about change.

Good piece of work. enables The Public to open up their eyes to the pharmacetucial industry, The Power theses prescriptive mediation has and other alternatives.

this book helped me when quitting medication for a mental illness. not too many people took me seriously how badly said medication effected me.

Big Pharma=Big Money.

Very good