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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.
This book overturns the idea that psychiatric drugs work by correcting chemical imbalance and analyzes the professional, commercial and political vested interests that have shaped this view. It provides a comprehensive critique of research on drugs including antidepressants, antipsychotics and mood stabilizers.
In an era when more people are taking psychiatric drugs than ever before, Joanna Moncrieff's explosive book challenges the claims for their mythical powers. Drawing on extensive research, she demonstrates that psychiatric drugs do not 'treat' or 'cure' mental illness by acting on hypothesised chemical imbalances or other abnormalities in the brain. There is no evidence for any of these ideas. Moreover, any relief the drugs may offer from the distress and disturbance of a mental disorder can come at great cost to people's physical health and their ability to function in day-to-day life. And, once on these drugs, coming off them can be very difficult indeed. This book is a wake-up call to the potential damage we are doing to ourselves by relying on chemical cures for human distress. Its clear, concise explanations will enable people to make a fully informed decision about the benefits and harms of these drugs and whether and how to come off them if they so choose.
Psychiatry and psychology have constructed a mental health system that does no justice to the problems it claims to understand and creates multiple problems for its users. Yet the myth of biologically-based mental illness defines our present. The book rethinks madness and distress reclaiming them as human, not medical, experiences.
No small town’s secrets can stay buried for long. Moncrieff digs into the treachery of memory and the power of female friendships... "Moncrieff’s new book is rich in narrative and empathy [...] This is an exceptional story that really trends a fine line balance between two worlds of small town life and action paced thriller that is really a hard thing to balance but she does this as a pro." - Literary License Podcast Dragonfly Summer is a gripping thriller that asks: What happens when the past comes back to haunt you? Jo Carter never thought she'd return to Clear Springs, Minnesota. But when the former journalist receives a cryptic note about the disappearance of her friend Sam twenty ye...
"Moncrieff’s novel is a lightning-fast read, which is not a bad thing. She paints a vivid picture of the lost tribe and weaves her story arcs together brilliantly. She also sheds light on Native peoples’ treatment in both past and present, smoothly integrating the issue into the novel. Readers won’t want to put it down." — Booklist People are dying at Strong Lake, and the worst is yet to come. An idyllic weekend camping trip is cut short when Reese Wallace s friends are brutally murdered. As the group s only survivor, Reese is the prime suspect, and his story doesn t make much sense. A disembodied voice warning him to leave the campground the night before? A strange, blackened tree t...
This edited volume provides an answer to a rising public health concern: what drives the over prescription of psychiatric medication epidemic? Over 15% of the UK public takes a psychiatric medication on any given day, and the numbers are only set to increase. Placing this figure alongside the emerging clinical and scientific data revealing their poor outcomes and the harms these medications often cause, their commercial success cannot be explained by their therapeutic efficacy.Chapters from an interdisciplinary team of global experts in critical psychopharmacology rigorously examine how pharmaceutical sponsorship and marketing, diagnostic inflation, the manipulation and burying of negative clinical trials, lax medication regulation, and neoliberal public health policies have all been implicated in ever-rising psycho-pharmaceutical consumption. This volume will ignite a long-overdue public debate. It will be of interest to professionals in the field of mental health and researchers ranging from sociology of health, to medical anthropology and the political economy of health.
This book is a guide for psychiatrists struggling to incorporate transformational strategies into their clinical work. The book begins with an overview of the concept of critical psychiatry before focusing its analytic lens on the DSM diagnostic system, the influence of the pharmaceutical industry, the crucial distinction between drug-centered and disease-centered approaches to pharmacotherapy, the concept of “de-prescribing,” coercion in psychiatric practice, and a range of other issues that constitute the targets of contemporary critiques of psychiatric theory and practice. Written by experts in each topic, this is the first book to explicate what has come to be called critical psychiatry from an unbiased and clinically relevant perspective. Critical Psychiatry is an excellent, practical resource for clinicians seeking a solid foundation in the contemporary controversies within the field. General and forensic psychiatrists; family physicians, internists, and pediatricians who treat psychiatric patients; and mental health clinicians outside of medicine will all benefit from its conceptual insights and concrete advice.