Are we being lied to about the efficacy of pharmacology in treating mental disorders, such as depression, bipolar, schizophrenia, and ADHD? Are these conditions true chemical imbalances, and do psychotropic drugs help people long-term?
Not according to science writer Robert Whitaker. After researching the evidence of trials on psychiatric medications for treating the mentally ill, he found that long-term use worsened these conditions. Episodic, environmental depression turns into a “chemical imbalance” in need of pharmacological manipulation. Schizophrenia is no longer a short-term illness that for many people resolves itself, but a disease requiring a lifetime of drugging that causes increased debility.
And children are being treated for ADHD in record numbers. Young children with behavioral problems are drugged and, in time, many of them develop bipolar disorder–because of the drugs!–and are permanently branded as mentally ill and reliant on medications for the rest of their lives.
While these drugs do help some people–for reasons we don’t fully comprehend–this interview discusses the evidence that drugs prescribed for mental illness cause even greater problems over the long-term for most people. But they do fill the coffers of the pharmaceutical companies. The psychiatric institutions know it and are trying to make sure you don’t!
Total time: 38 minutes.
Interview
Click to listen to interview or right-click to download MP3 file
Bio
Robert Whitaker is the author of four books, two of which tell of the history of psychiatry. His first, Mad in America, was named by Discover magazine as one of the best science books of 2002, while the American Library Association named it one of the best history books of that year. His newest book, Anatomy of an Epidemic, investigates the astonishing rise in the number of disabled mentally ill in the United States. Prior to writing books, Robert Whitaker worked for a number of years as the science and medical reporter at the Albany Times Union newspaper in New York. His journalism articles won several national awards including a George Polk award for medical writing and a National Association of Science Writers’ award for best magazine article. A series he co-wrote for The Boston Globe was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.
Books by Robert Whitaker
Transcript
Links in Interview
William Pelham
Big Pharma, Bad Medicine–Marcia Angell, Boston Review
Loren Mosher
The Soteria Project
The David Healy Affair
Is Academic Medicine for Sale?–Marcia Angell
{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
It’s really quite horrible, isn’t it? I’ve noticed an odd apathy in some people on antidepressants that makes them seem borderline sociopathic. Not to a criminal degree, but it’s there. A deadening that makes them seem kind of shallow and not as interested in other people in their lives (I mean to a noticeable extent that comes across as selfish but they are still functional and have emotions).
The drugs can change how one feels, absolutely, but yes often there is just a shift to something equally bad, just different in a way that fools some people at first. Some people do seem to do okay on them, though. But more often than not, I see the negative side in most people due to side effects and other shifts.
I was put on an antidepressant years ago during a sad time in my life. It stopped one problem but caused another (in my case, the drug increased the anxiety part of my down feelings and my thoughts started to repeat). When I went off the drug and felt better than I did before going on it, so maybe it helped to shift something in me, but I only had that happen OFF it is the point. Being on it was just getting worse and worse for me. I’m glad that my doctor didn’t push me to take more and more. I was only on it for about 3 months. They felt I only had to be on it for a short time anyway, and that was shortened even more due to my poor reaction to it.
I know others who tried every drug you can imagine, and nothing truly helped. If anything they got worse, just different than the way they were before which at first seemed hopeful.
And as you mention, Joanne, there are people who have mental illness thanks to gluten and removing that corrects things. Amazing when that happens. For myself, my tendency to feel anxious was greatly reduced when I dropped gluten.
Lillea, I’ve always been amazed at how even-keeled I feel when I reduce my carbohydrates drastically. And people can improve their moods and mental health by making sure they get adequate vitamin D and fatty acids EPA and DHA and remove food allergens from their diets.
In our pharmaceutically dominated society, we tend to separate the mind from the body, and we buy into the idea that we have “mental illnesses.” What we have is a toxic body starved of nutrition. Heal the body, heal the mind.
At times we have environmental reasons for being depressed. I was depressed when I was losing my business and home, but what I needed was a new home, not a drug. I just relaxed into the depression and embraced it as part of life, part of the process of growth. And I breathed deeply a lot when anxiety threatened to overwhelm me.
To be avoided at all costs is the quick-fix mentality that substitutes drugs for positive action.
Yes, definitely!
Good nourishment can help so much even during the worst of times – makes it easier to cope!
Deep breathing has helped me too.
Vitamin D from the sun has really helped a friend of mine who used to suffer badly in winter from depression. SAD. Now she lives in place that has adequate UV for D synthesis year-round and she doesn’t experience that any more. It was so poorly understood not so long ago, and now it’s so simple to treat with the sun or foods rich in D or supplements.
While I generally agree with the oringial post, I must wonder: have either of you ever been on psychotropic drugs yourselves? I dare say that if you’ve been fortunate enough to “just breathe through” any anxiety you’re having… then it wasn’t even the type or level of anxiety that would warrant medication. How lucky you are! I have severe anxiety and panic attacks. And let me tell you, I could not function without Klonopin in those times. (Yes, I’ve tried deep breathing, as well as mediation, and it doesn’t do anything to touch this type of anxiety).
I also suffer from chronic idiopathic insomnia, for which I have to take a strong sleep med every single night, or I will NOT fall asleep. My mind is completely foggy all the time now, I suffer from random body pains, memory problems, etc. AND I’M ONLY 23 YEARS OLD! (My mom started me on psychotropic meds at age 9, when she noticed me having nervous tics. I do feel completely “broken” – weather it’s from the long-term med use, or something else, i don’t know).
I wish their was an answer for this – because as I said, I agree with the original post, agree with the sentiment, but you two are making it sound like it is something it’s not (like all anxiety is like the type you’ve experienced, and is able to be defeated with simple deep breathing!) I would MUCH rather not be on medications. I HATE feeling that I’m poisoning myself with them. But my point is, I’ve tried everything you said – including eliminating foods, eating healthier, supplementation (God knows I’ve tried every kind of supplement there is!) And it still seems like THERE IS JUST NO OTHER ANSWER apart from the drugs.
If anyone else has an experience similar to this, or has an advice please please reply.
Holly, neither I nor Robert have stated that all anxiety can be cured by breathing or any simplistic method. And Robert does state that these drugs help some people for reasons unknown. His major emphasis is on the overprescription of these drugs and the potential long-term problems they create.
I’m so sorry to hear that you are living with such a debilitating condition. You say you’ve tried everything? Did you try giving up all gluten in your diet for several months? Have you ever tried fasting?
I wish there was a simple answer. I have my own issues to deal with, and it’s never simple.
Dear Bob,
Tracked you down through Google. Thought of you when I heard that Bob Thorpe died this week from cancer in Potsdam at 56 years of age. Impressed by your resume. I have been retired for ten years and Neil Seymour retired this week. Think of you often. Hope all is well with you,
Steve
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