The Anti-Depressant Fact Book

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http://www.antipsychiatry.org/br-afb.htm

The Anti-Depressant Fact BookWhat Your Doctor Won't Tell You

About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox

Perseus Publishing - Cambridge, Massachusetts

copyright 2001, paperback

 

by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.

reviewed by

Douglas A. Smith

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book because it says so clearly and

convincingly what I have believed for a long time about the myth of biologically

caused depression and about so-called antidepressant drugs and so-called

electroconvulsive " therapy " (ECT).

Of the idea of biologically caused depression, the author, psychiatrist

Peter Breggin, says " It is a mistake to view depressed feelings or even severely

depressed feelings as a 'disease' " (p. 14) and " There is still no reason to

define grief, dejection, or melancholia as a 'disease' simply because it is

severe or lasting " (p. 19). He says " ...in psychiatry, none of the problems are

proven to originate in the brain " (p. 169) and that " Depression is never defined

by an objective physical finding, such as a blood test or brain scan. ...

Attempts have also been made to find physical markers for depression, the

equivalent of lab tests that indicate liver disease or a recent heart attack.

Despite decades of research, thousands of research studies, and hundreds of

millions of dollars in expense, no marker for depression has been found " (pp. 18

& 22).

Of the theory behind the so-called SSRI or selective serotonin reuptake

inhibitor " antidepressants " Dr. Breggin says " In reality, science does not have

the ability to measure the levels of any biochemical in the tiny spaces between

nerve cells (the synapses) in the brain of a human being. All the talk about

biochemical imbalances is sheer speculation aimed at promoting psychiatric

drugs. ... science has almost no understanding of how the widespread serotonin

system functions in the brain. Basically, we don't know what it does. " (pp. 21

& 42).

Of drugs used to " treat " this nonexistent disease called depression he

says " The term 'antidepressant' should always be thought of with quotation marks

around it because there is little or no reason to believe that these drugs

target depression or depressed feelings " (p. 14). He says " Impairing our

emotional awareness and our intellectual acuity with psychoactive drugs such as

SSRI antidepressants [including Prozac, Paxil, and Zoloft] tends to impede the

process of overcoming depression " (p. 26). About the foolishness of the beliefs

of most people about psychiatric drugs he says: Overall, we're a rather

sophisticated citizenry with a fairly high index of suspicion about the products

we buy and the corporations that influence our lives. But something happens to

us when we are dealing with companies that make prescription medicines. Perhaps

it's the aura of FDA approval. Perhaps it's the passage of these drugs through

the trusted hands of our physicians. Perhaps it's the cleverness of the ad

campaigns. Perhaps we just can't believe that anyone would sell poison as if it

were a miracle cure. [p. 2]

That's right: He said " poison. " Psychiatric drugs are poisons. In a chapter

titled " Damaging the Brain with SSRI Antidepressants, " Dr. Breggin says " the

evidence is piling up that SSRIs cause permanent brain damage " (p. 38). Let's

stop concealing or minimizing this truth as we do when we call psychiatric drugs

" medications " or say they are merely " ineffective " or " harmful " or even

" neurotoxic. " Lawyers trying to defend us from outpatient commitment laws (as

they are called in the USA) or laws authorizing " community treatment orders "

(CTOs) (as such laws are called in Canada) should stop accepting the terminology

of those advocating forced psychiatric drugging. Lawyers trying to defend us

from forced psychiatric drugging should not go into court and say the so-called

patient should not be ordered " to take his medication. " Because psychiatric

drugs are poisons, and because most that are administered by force cause

permanent brain damage, lawyers representing people threatened with forced

psychiatric drugging should tell it like it is and say, " Judge, the question

presented for your decision today is whether my client should be ordered to

swallow poison - poison that is known to cause permanent brain damage. " Letting

advocates of forced psychiatric treatment get away with calling brain-damaging

poisons " medications " is hurting our cause. It has been said: Whoever controls

the language controls the perceived reality of those who have it. Let's not let

the advocates of forced psychiatric " treatment " and those who would persuade

gullible people to take harmful drugs win because they use deceptive semantics.

In the Introduction Dr. Breggin reveals why pharmaceutical companies would

do something as evil as hoodwink people into believing poisons are in fact

miracle cures. He says: " In the previous year [1999], Prozac had generated more

than one-quarter of the company's [Eli Lilly & Company's] $10 billion in

revenue " and that " Prozac, Zoloft, and Paxil are among the top-selling drugs in

the United States, with total sales exceeding $4 billion per year " (p. 1). We

apparently can't expect pharmaceutical companies to bypass enormous profits just

because the drugs they sell are hurting people.

Throughout this book Dr. Breggin points an accusing finger at the USA's

Food and Drug Administration (FDA), which is given the responsibility of keeping

harmful drugs off the market in the USA. After reviewing how the FDA had to

accept misleading, manipulated data to approve SSRI antidepressants as safe and

effective, and after reviewing the harm done by these drugs, he says " If the FDA

had been more responsible, these continuing tragedies could have been avoided.

.... When I began my review of FDA documents as a medical expert in product

liability suits against Eli Lilly and Co., I was shocked and disillusioned by

what I found. Until that time, I had not fully confronted the willingness of

the FDA to protect drug companies, even at the cost of human life. " (pp. 78-79).

He says " The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has forsaken its watchdog role.

Instead, FDA officials climb like puppies into the laps of drug company

executives who might some day hire them at enormous salaries " (p. 181).

One of the reasons I like this book is in it Dr. Breggin is as bold as he

has been in any of his previous books when describing the pseudoscience called

biological psychiatry and the harm done by its so-called treatments. For

example, speaking of psychiatric drugs he says -

 

" If a drug has an effect on the brain, it is harming the brain. Science has

not found or synthesized any psychoactive substances that improve normal brain

function. Instead, all of them impair brain function. ... antidepressants are

typically prescribed in doses that cause a wide variety of adverse effects in

most patients and significantly harm a great many people " (p. 168).

" FDA approval by no means indicates that a drug is truly effective. ... the

combined efforts of the drug company and the FDA could not come up with even one

good study that unequivocally supported the value of Prozac in comparison to

placebo " (p. 151).

" Overall, the results suggest that placebo is actually much better than an

antidepressant " (p. 145).

" If anything, as I've already indicated, antidepressants worsen severe

depression and suicidal tendencies " (p. 170).

" Nothing reinforces depression more than having your brain befuddled by

psychiatric drugs, unless it is having your mind befuddled by false ideas about

the biological or genetic origin of your suffering " (p. 189).

" Lithium, for example, is a toxic element that suppresses over-all brain

function... " (p. 125)

" There are so many potential hazards involved in taking SSRIs that no

physician is capable of remembering all of them and no patient can be adequately

informed about the dangers without spending days or weeks reviewing the subject

in a medical library " (p. 107).

 

Of electroconvulsive " therapy " (ECT) he says -

 

" Damaging the brain to impair brain function lies at the heart of all the

physical treatments in psychiatry. Shock and lobotomy are merely the most

egregious examples " (p. 155, italics in original).

He deplores " the willingness of psychiatry to defend its treatments no matter

how obviously damaging to the brain " (ibid).

" In my clinical and forensic experience, patients and their families are

never told the truth about how dangerous shock is; otherwise they would not

consent to it. Shock advocates tend to tell patients that memory loss is

temporary and surrounds the treatment time only, when in reality the memory loss

can wipe out years of educational and career knowledge. ... Nurses, teachers,

and other professionals may never again be able to function in their jobs. Like

head injury patients from other causes, such as automobile accidents and

lighting strikes, general mental function is often impaired for the rest of

their lives. Advocates [of ECT] ignore this by chalking it up to the patient's

'mental illness.' " (pp. 160-161).

" Electroshock treatment causes brain damage and, in my clinical experience,

can cause lasting depression " (p. 141). This of course is in contrast to

psychiatry's claim that by some unknown means ECT relieves depression.

" The question is not 'Does shock treatment cause brain dysfunction and

damage?' A series of shocks to the head sufficient to cause convulsions will

always produce brain dysfunction and damage. The real question is 'How

completely can a person recover from shock?' " (p. 162).

Advocates of shock claim that newer methods make it safer. ... Instead,

it's more dangerous. ... modified ECT requires the use of higher amounts of

electrical charge than were used in the early animal experiments that showed

brain damage and cell death " (p. 163).

" In my clinical experience, the brain damage [caused by electroconvulsive

therapy, or ECT] makes people feel more hopeless and resentful, and hence more

suicidal " (p. 164).

" Several state legislatures have passed laws banning shock treatment for

children. It's now time to ban it for adults a well " (p. 165).

 

This book is a fairly short (200 page), recent (2001) book that neatly

summarizes many of the best arguments against biological psychiatry. I

recommend it highly.

 

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