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The Bitterest Pills: The Troubling Story of Antipsychotic Drugs
A challenging reappraisal of the history of antipsychotics, revealing how they were transformed from neurological poisons into magical cures, their benefits exaggerated and their toxic effects minimized or ignored.
292 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 2013
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
October 21, 2013
A must-read for anyone concerned with the well-being of society
In this book, Dr Moncrieff explains carefully, soberly and with considerable academic integrity, how the world of psychiatry has become distorted by its own desire for recognition as a medical profession, its dubious assumptions about the nature of mental conditions and by the efforts made by drugs companies to increase their business.
Dr Moncrieff explains how the desire for psychiatry to be as scientific/medical as other areas of health has led to rushed conclusions about the link between brain chemistry/biology and complex mental conditions of the mind such as schizophrenia, manic depression and anxiety.
The assumption made is that a chemical imbalance in the brain requires toxic 'antipsychotic' drugs to counter it, and like insulin for diabetes, over a lifetime since it is a permanent deficiency in the brain. This assumption is shown to have little or no evidence to support it, yet is the mainstay of modern psychiatric practice. Dr Moncrieff proposes an alternative view, that the drugs are simply suppressing brain activity, and thus appear to 'cure' mental conditions. The trouble is, whichever view is taken, the drugs have toxic effects which are in many ways no different those from the illegal drugs taken for pleasure that we criminalise in society. These effects are downplayed as 'side effects' despite there being substantial evidence of long term damage to body and brain health.
Dr Moncrieff shows how drugs companies, keen to maintain and improve their business, have funded research which shows marginal and questionable improvement through their drugs and have suppressed negative reports. Despite contradictory results, this 'research' is followed by advertising and efforts to shift the wider society understanding of mental health, so that patients demand ever more drugs to 'cure' their sometimes modest problems, now made to sound like serious illnesses.
The distortions to academic practice, pyschiatric prescription and most damning of all, the attempts to treat young children with toxic drugs are revealed by Dr Moncrieff with careful attention to the published record in a convincing manner, providing a solid basis for further debate.
But, most damning of all, is the experience that Dr Moncrieff reports of a refusal in the psychiatric world to engage with these issues or to properly discuss the ethical dilemmas that arise. I found myself intrigued, challenged but ultimately enraged by the failure of the academic/medical professionals to 'do no harm'.
I recommend this book without reservation to anyone prepared to think hard about these issues, and who perhaps has been unaware of concerns about mental health treatment and the huge cost to the well-being of society. It is then for us to take up the challenges Dr Moncrieff has described and ask how are we and society to respond?
In this book, Dr Moncrieff explains carefully, soberly and with considerable academic integrity, how the world of psychiatry has become distorted by its own desire for recognition as a medical profession, its dubious assumptions about the nature of mental conditions and by the efforts made by drugs companies to increase their business.
Dr Moncrieff explains how the desire for psychiatry to be as scientific/medical as other areas of health has led to rushed conclusions about the link between brain chemistry/biology and complex mental conditions of the mind such as schizophrenia, manic depression and anxiety.
The assumption made is that a chemical imbalance in the brain requires toxic 'antipsychotic' drugs to counter it, and like insulin for diabetes, over a lifetime since it is a permanent deficiency in the brain. This assumption is shown to have little or no evidence to support it, yet is the mainstay of modern psychiatric practice. Dr Moncrieff proposes an alternative view, that the drugs are simply suppressing brain activity, and thus appear to 'cure' mental conditions. The trouble is, whichever view is taken, the drugs have toxic effects which are in many ways no different those from the illegal drugs taken for pleasure that we criminalise in society. These effects are downplayed as 'side effects' despite there being substantial evidence of long term damage to body and brain health.
Dr Moncrieff shows how drugs companies, keen to maintain and improve their business, have funded research which shows marginal and questionable improvement through their drugs and have suppressed negative reports. Despite contradictory results, this 'research' is followed by advertising and efforts to shift the wider society understanding of mental health, so that patients demand ever more drugs to 'cure' their sometimes modest problems, now made to sound like serious illnesses.
The distortions to academic practice, pyschiatric prescription and most damning of all, the attempts to treat young children with toxic drugs are revealed by Dr Moncrieff with careful attention to the published record in a convincing manner, providing a solid basis for further debate.
But, most damning of all, is the experience that Dr Moncrieff reports of a refusal in the psychiatric world to engage with these issues or to properly discuss the ethical dilemmas that arise. I found myself intrigued, challenged but ultimately enraged by the failure of the academic/medical professionals to 'do no harm'.
I recommend this book without reservation to anyone prepared to think hard about these issues, and who perhaps has been unaware of concerns about mental health treatment and the huge cost to the well-being of society. It is then for us to take up the challenges Dr Moncrieff has described and ask how are we and society to respond?
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May 19, 2022This book worries me with its questioning of the legitimacy of a class of medical drugs, the "so called" anti-psychotics, in primary treatment of an impressively diverse collection of illnesses. Even people who want to get better might be haplessly tricked by yet another big pharma conspiracy.
First this book capitalizes on the drugs' seemingly horrific history (intrinsic to the discovery of any medicine). Of course modern psychiatry had a shaky beginning but what field of medicine hasn't? This medicine, which we take for granted, replaces far more barbaric treatments. We know better now and without the sacrifices of the past we wouldn't have the life-saving treatments we do today. How many schizos would end up dead in a ditch without it?
Not to mention how much safer it is for health care workers and families of the ill. Luckily the legislation unique to this medicine ensures those battling mental illness will receive treatment no matter what. I would go even further and ask governmental healthcare to extend this helping hand for treatments of addiction or obesity or even malnutrition considering the comparative amount of deaths they cause. But I understand this soft spot for the psychotics. These people aren't able to make this decision for themselves. And when they get violent or resist their medicine real people get hurt, even though they are just trying to help.
These drugs are fixing a chemical imbalance. Sick people's brains have different chemicals than healthy people's brains. And even if there is no 'specific' underlying known mechanism of the psychoses, many wide-action drugs are effectively used in treatment of many common illnesses.
Of course these drugs have side-effects. Name one drug that doesn't. Sure this drug causes irreversible brain damage but that is a pittance compared to daily life racked by insane delusions. What other treatments are there? This is simple, cheap, and is exceptionally versatile in treating a plethora of mental illnesses inside the DSM. Everyone wins.
We only use medicine when we absolutely need to. If there was a better option the scientists and the doctors would tell us.
This big pharma agenda and supposed commodification of mental illness is spun out of proportion. No one is out to get you man! The whole book seems like the author's own persecutory delusion. I only hope readers can rely upon their rationality to see it for what it is.
First this book capitalizes on the drugs' seemingly horrific history (intrinsic to the discovery of any medicine). Of course modern psychiatry had a shaky beginning but what field of medicine hasn't? This medicine, which we take for granted, replaces far more barbaric treatments. We know better now and without the sacrifices of the past we wouldn't have the life-saving treatments we do today. How many schizos would end up dead in a ditch without it?
Not to mention how much safer it is for health care workers and families of the ill. Luckily the legislation unique to this medicine ensures those battling mental illness will receive treatment no matter what. I would go even further and ask governmental healthcare to extend this helping hand for treatments of addiction or obesity or even malnutrition considering the comparative amount of deaths they cause. But I understand this soft spot for the psychotics. These people aren't able to make this decision for themselves. And when they get violent or resist their medicine real people get hurt, even though they are just trying to help.
These drugs are fixing a chemical imbalance. Sick people's brains have different chemicals than healthy people's brains. And even if there is no 'specific' underlying known mechanism of the psychoses, many wide-action drugs are effectively used in treatment of many common illnesses.
Of course these drugs have side-effects. Name one drug that doesn't. Sure this drug causes irreversible brain damage but that is a pittance compared to daily life racked by insane delusions. What other treatments are there? This is simple, cheap, and is exceptionally versatile in treating a plethora of mental illnesses inside the DSM. Everyone wins.
We only use medicine when we absolutely need to. If there was a better option the scientists and the doctors would tell us.
This big pharma agenda and supposed commodification of mental illness is spun out of proportion. No one is out to get you man! The whole book seems like the author's own persecutory delusion. I only hope readers can rely upon their rationality to see it for what it is.
December 8, 2022
An essential, critical history of the most common drug class that people are forced to take when civilly committed. One of those books that's most disturbing when it just shows you what the proponents of something say themselves when they think most people aren't listening.
May 3, 2021
After reading a good story like this one, I can't help but suggest that you publish your book in NovelStar. For sure a lot of readers will love your work.
September 11, 2024
A very informative book indeed
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April 24, 2015615.7882 M739 2013
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews