Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America by Robert Whitaker
This book is written with an agenda, and I usually don’t like one-sided arguments, but in this case, the argument is one that I was already disposed to believe: namely, that taking mind-altering drugs does not make a person mentally healthy. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a strong personal aversion to drugs of any sort (not you caffeine! You’re different! BFF!) but I made an occasional exception in my anti-drug worldview for the case of anti-depressants, anti-psychotics and the like when clinically prescribed. After reading this book, I now look at the proscribing of ritalin and anti-depressants to children with the same horror that I previously reserved for those who gave mercury and leeches to people suffering from seasickness.
The book starts out with the history of psychology, and how it dovetailed into the “magic bullet” idea of medicine with the invention of the sulfa drugs. It talks about the invention of psychiactric drugs and how they not only provided new therapies, but catapulted psychiatry from the peripheries firmly into the sphere of science and medicine.
What follows is a rather harrowing account of sloughs of mind-altering drugs being promoted as the only solution to a growing medical epidemic of mental illness, when in fact, the author concludes, the medicines themselves turn what should be a one-time temporary condition into a life long debilitating disability. The epidemic is iatrogenic.
I have mixed feelings about promoting this book. Several members of my family have been on psychiatric drugs (ADHD diagnoses used to be all the rage in the eighties) and I would hate for them to feel regretful about a decision that wasn’t theirs to make (go on drugs or not.) I also have some friends who have been on Xanax, Wellbutrin, Prozac, and the like, and feel that these drugs have helped them.
On the other hand, I think this is a must-read for anyone who is ever considering on going on psychiatric drugs for any reason. Schizophrenia and Bipolar disorder can be very serious, but the evidence presented here is of a giant drug company that has steamrolled the ADA into promoting their drugs as the cure for a serious illness, when in fact they have consistently failed to prove that their drugs are safe and/or effective. They have used their considerable financial might to shunt aside other, non-drug therapies which have proven more effective.
It has been suggested that this book is promoted by the Scientologists. I don’t think there’s a connection. (In fact, the author says that the fact that the Scientologists are so outspoken against psychiactric drugs was an amazing boon for Eli Lilly.) I know the Scientology people don’t like psychologists (because they compete for customers), and those people can be a little kooky, but even a blind squirrel gets a nut once in a while.
The prose is good enough, though I will admit that even a well-read layperson is going to have issues with some of the neurological descriptions. It runs on a little long, because it’s meant to be more of a comprehensive and well-backed argument than an entertaining non-fiction.
