Product Description

Psychiatric drugs and their use are amongst the most hotly debated issues in the 21st century. How they work, whether they are effective and how to understand the evidence, and explanations of the major categories of psychiatric drugs are all covered in this clearly written guide. The competing theories of drug action are also explained in easy-to-understand terms. Here, Joanna Moncrieff arms you with some of the information you'll need to make informed choices about psychiatric drugs. She provides an honest account of the uses of medication, when it is advised and what effects it may have. The book concludes with gives practical advice on the right questions to ask if you are prescribed medication for mental health problems and what happens on withdrawal of medication.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #114753 in Books
• Published on: 2009-05-19
• Binding: Paperback
• 142 pages

Review
This straightforward book is one that should be read by anyone currently taking, or thinking about taking, a psychotropic drug; anyone prescribing them and anyone party to their use. It offers a radically different and sobering view as to what the drugs do compared with the views on offer elsewhere. --David Healy,Professor of Psychological Medicine, University of Wales School of Medicine, Cardiff.

About the Author
Joanna Moncrieff is a Senior Lecturer in psychiatry at University College London and a practising consultant psychiatrist. She has written articles critical of various psychiatric drug treatments, including lithium, antidepressants and neuroleptics. She has also written about the adverse influence of the pharmaceutical industry on psychiatry. She is one of the founders and the co-chair person of the Critical Psychiatry Network, a group of psychiatrists who are critical of biological models of psychiatric distress and opposed to increasing coercion of psychiatric patients.

Customer Reviews

Essential reading.
Joanna Moncrieff is a published psychiatrist, a senior lecturer at University College London and a founding member of the Critical Psychiatry Network. Her experience and commitment to providing information for those taking or prescribing psychiatric medication is evident right from the beginning of this book. Although it's a little book the comprehensive and intelligible manner in which it is written presents the reader with an extensive amount of relevant information. Information which is sometimes unseen for a variety of reasons by the patient.

Moncrieff details how psychiatric medications work and devotes a quite interesting chapter on drug trials and how the results are interpreted. She examines : Neuroleptics, Anti-depressants, Lithium, Stimulants and the ubiquitous Benzodiazepines. The consequences of a drug centered approach to psychiatric care is explained, as is the process of withdrawal.

I found this book to be both informative and interesting and Moncrieff provides food for thought for patients and indeed healthcare professionals. However I would have liked a bit more information on the subject of withdrawal, and thought there was room to expand on that particular chapter. I wonder how many people would knowingly start on this type of medication if all the relevant information was provided, not the scaremongering of certain others but unbiased and educational facts. Why are some drugs allowed to be marketed as a " magic cure " when all they do is put us in a state of dullness where we become emotionally blunted. I wonder do some of these drugs actually hinder our recovery and make the road back a little longer, steeper and with more pitfalls ?

Knowledge if Power
A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs (Straight Talking Introductions)If you, like me, are currently locked in a power struggle with your local NHS psychiatrist over whether you or someone you care for will benefit from withdrawing from medication this book is for you. Joanna Moncrieff has added the voice of a respected British psychiatrist to that of American Dr Peter Breggin to make the research-based case for withdrawal. Like him she believes that psychiatric medications achieve their effects by suppressing normal brain function rather than by correcting chemical imbalances, and that the long-term use of neuroleptics is not justified by the evidence. Covering neuroleptics, antidepressants, mood-stabilisers, stimulants and benzodiazepines, this book is aimed at patients, relatives and carers and explains medication pros and cons in plain words. Knowledge is power. Thank you Joanna.

Joanna reveals the Truth
Essential reading!

I am a third year student of mental health nursing and I have read widely. I wish all mental health professionals could read this book (perhaps students and practitioners of psychiatry since the often prescribe these drugs). As the titles of this series of books suggest it gets straight to the core by means of straight talking. It is by no means mainstream thinking but who needs to be popular when speaking the truth?

If this doesn't convince you about the nature of psychiatric drugs I suggest you read Joannas "The Myth of the Chemical Cure".

As Joanna rightly points out drugs will have a place for some people experiencing emotional distress, but they certainly have the right to know what these drugs do and not do for them.