Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry: Drugs, Electroshock, and the Psychopharmaceutical Complex / Edition 2

ISBN-13:	9780826129345
Publisher:	Springer Publishing Company
Publication date:	12/17/2007
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	576
Sales rank:	1,057,696
Product dimensions:	6.40(w) x 9.30(h) x 1.40(d)

When the first edition of this book exploded upon the scene in 1997, it created a storm of controversy and protest that continues to this day. The author and publisher received threats and Breggin's then controversial stand was excoriated in the psychiatric literature as heretical and dangerous. In that first edition, he presented his more complete documentation to date of how psychiatric drugs and electroshock disable the brain. He presented the latest scientific information on potential brain dysfunction and dangerous behavioral abnormalities produced by the most widely used drugs, including Prozac, Xanax, Halcion, Ritalin, and lithium. Psychiatry hasn't been the same since. Ten years later, Springer Publishing is again proud to publish the second edition of this epochal book. This edition, twice the size of its predecessor, has been drastically updated and expanded and Breggin has elaborated his concept of medication spellbinding (intoxication anosognosia). The neuroleptic chapters have been updated to include much more material on the newer, atypical drugs, as well as new information on the neurotoxicity and cytotoxicity of all antipsychotic drugs. A massive amount of new information about antidepressant drugs and the stimulant drugs has resulted in a additional chapter on each drug. This new edition concludes with two new chapters on treatment—one on how to safely withdraw from psychiatric drugs and the other about psychosocial and educational approaches to very disturbed people, including 20 guidelines for therapy. He also, for the first time, includes a wealth of "how-to" treatment information. Many of Breggin's findings and theories are finding there way into clinical practice and FDA-mandated changes in antidepressant labels. At the same time, he acknowledges that the increasing power of drug companies to influence psychiatric treatment has only grown and adds new information debunking the "medical model" of mental illness