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Blaming the Brain : The Truth About Drugs and Mental Health
Asserting that the widely accepted current belief that most mental illness has a physiological cause is without empirical basis, a professor critically examines the role, rise in popularity, and often ineffective use, of psychoactive drugs. 20,000 first printing.
304 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1998
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 7, 2008
Best book I've read on the subject. No axe to grind, just a clear-eyed view full of facts and history. Very enlightening.
June 6, 2016
This is a really interesting one. It tackles the "chicken and egg" problem of biogenic theories of mental illness without going into "woo" territory. I'm pretty sure that stronger studies about it have been done since this was written - which was in 1988 - but I gotta look more into that. He does make excellent points about therapy sometimes being written off, and about pharmacutical companies having a HUGE hand in the promotion of psychotropic drugs. But - and this is my favorite thing about the book - he doesn't stray off into "BIG PHARMA IS EVIL AND YOU'RE ALL SHEEPLE" and he also doesn't go "everything is chemicals and shrinks are useless for everyone". At no point does he come down too hard on one side or the other. I think he gives a pretty balanced look at all sides of mental health issues, and he recognizes that everyone's mental health mileage may vary. Probably anyone who took Abnormal Psych at Rutgers with "Dr. Love" had to read parts of this. I'm finally finishing it now, 7 years later, and glad that I did.
April 26, 2015
Very readable and interesting
June 8, 2012
Do doctors actually know how the mood drugs that they prescribe work on the brain? No. A brain scientist carefully discerns the reality of exactly how our pharmacological system is part fantasy part science, emphasizing up to date information in the brain sciences, from his expertise in neuronal chemistry.
February 11, 2015
This book was interesting in the beginning, bland in the middle, but picked up in the end. I loved all the studies, ads and marketing that the author cited in the text. It's a must read, albeit some parts are repetitive.
If you have taken or have known anyone who's taken drugs to cope with mental illness, this book is for you.
If you have taken or have known anyone who's taken drugs to cope with mental illness, this book is for you.
July 16, 2009
MUST READ!
January 11, 2017
This book is extremely enlightening. I am a neuroscience student - this book gave me some much needed perspective.
January 14, 2019
Boy oh boy does this book have an axe to grind. Basically, it makes the argument that because we don’t really understand exactly how psychopharmacological drugs work, they must not have any value. It raises the important question, “Am I depressed because my brain chemistry is out of whack or is my brain chemistry out of whack because I’m depressed?”
I read this book because it was referenced in “My age of anxiety” and thought it would be an interesting read. To be sure, there are parts of it that are very interesting. It is fascinating reading how scientists tried all manner of tests to try to determine why these drugs were effective in the first place. We all accept that SSRI work because they adjust your serotonin receptors. We believe this because in studies they would treat samples of brain cells that would turn purple when anything bound to the serotonin receptors in the brain, and when you add an SSRI the treated brains turned purple. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
The book makes a big deal out of the fact that there are thirty to a hundred different types of known receptors in the brain and we don’t know how they really, truly work, therefor we don’t know if it’s serotonin that is the key to us being happy or unhappy, or if it’s one of the other receptors piggy-backing along.
Maybe, but the author also seems to skip past the fact that these drugs had a profound affect on patients that didn’t anticipate the drug being used for mood at all – the first tranquilizer was originally developed as an allergy medicine.
There are also a number of horror stories of the early days of testing. Such as in 1955 when the governor ordered Reserpine (A drug from the dried root that is used as a tranquilizer in India) given to all 94,000 mental patients just to see what would happen. It’s terrifying to consider such a shotgun, brute force approach today, but there was a period of wild west and try-anything-to-get-results era of drugs and medicine.
This is also where the book starts to fall off the rails. The author traces how so much of the motivation for drug companies is to maximize profits, at times behaving in a largely unethical way. The last third of the book devolves into what feels like listening to a conspiracy theorist radio host ranting on his show. I don’t disagree that at times the behavior of corporations in a capitalistic society can be disturbing and immoral and we don’t always know how exactly something works. But that doesn’t negate the ability of the drugs to be useful. The historical pieces of the book were quite interesting and enjoyable; I just found found it to be overshadowed by the virtolic, and in my opinion unsubstantiated, anger of the author. It’s much like listening the moon landing conspiracy theorists or anti-vaccers; if you look hard enough at any subject, and scream loud enough, some of the facts feel very strange and disconcerting. That doesn’t make the conspiracy correct.
I read this book because it was referenced in “My age of anxiety” and thought it would be an interesting read. To be sure, there are parts of it that are very interesting. It is fascinating reading how scientists tried all manner of tests to try to determine why these drugs were effective in the first place. We all accept that SSRI work because they adjust your serotonin receptors. We believe this because in studies they would treat samples of brain cells that would turn purple when anything bound to the serotonin receptors in the brain, and when you add an SSRI the treated brains turned purple. Post hoc, ergo propter hoc.
The book makes a big deal out of the fact that there are thirty to a hundred different types of known receptors in the brain and we don’t know how they really, truly work, therefor we don’t know if it’s serotonin that is the key to us being happy or unhappy, or if it’s one of the other receptors piggy-backing along.
Maybe, but the author also seems to skip past the fact that these drugs had a profound affect on patients that didn’t anticipate the drug being used for mood at all – the first tranquilizer was originally developed as an allergy medicine.
There are also a number of horror stories of the early days of testing. Such as in 1955 when the governor ordered Reserpine (A drug from the dried root that is used as a tranquilizer in India) given to all 94,000 mental patients just to see what would happen. It’s terrifying to consider such a shotgun, brute force approach today, but there was a period of wild west and try-anything-to-get-results era of drugs and medicine.
This is also where the book starts to fall off the rails. The author traces how so much of the motivation for drug companies is to maximize profits, at times behaving in a largely unethical way. The last third of the book devolves into what feels like listening to a conspiracy theorist radio host ranting on his show. I don’t disagree that at times the behavior of corporations in a capitalistic society can be disturbing and immoral and we don’t always know how exactly something works. But that doesn’t negate the ability of the drugs to be useful. The historical pieces of the book were quite interesting and enjoyable; I just found found it to be overshadowed by the virtolic, and in my opinion unsubstantiated, anger of the author. It’s much like listening the moon landing conspiracy theorists or anti-vaccers; if you look hard enough at any subject, and scream loud enough, some of the facts feel very strange and disconcerting. That doesn’t make the conspiracy correct.
July 20, 2017
Tackles a controversial subject with solid empirical evidence to provide a provocative and thoughtful reading experience.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews