Synopses & Reviews
With the FDA's warning that antidepressants may cause agitation, anxiety, hostility, and even violent or suicidal tendencies, these medications are at the forefront of national legal news. Harvard physician Joseph Glenmullen has led the charge to warn the public that antidepressants are overprescribed, underregulated, and, especially, misunderstood in their side and withdrawal effects. Now he offers a solution!
More than twenty million Americans -- including over one million teens and children -- take one of today's popular antidepressants, such as Paxil, Zoloft, or Effexor. Dr. Glenmullen recognizes the many benefits of antidepressants and prescribes them to his patients, but he is also committed to warning the public of the dangers associated with overprescription. Dr. Glenmullen's last book, Prozac Backlash, sounded the alarm about possible dangers. The Antidepressant Solution provides the remedy. It is the first book to call attention to the drugs' catch-22: Although many people are ready to go off these drugs, they continue to take them because either the patient or the doctor mistakes antidepressant withdrawal for depressive relapse. The Antidepressant Solution offers an easy, step-by-step guide for patients and their doctors.
Written by the premier authority in the field, The Antidepressant Solution is an invaluable book for all those concerned with going through the process -- from friends and family members to doctors and patients themselves.
Review
Joan Acocella, The New Yorker One is inclined to listen to him, because he is not a one-solution man. Indeed, he prescribes SSRI [antidepressants]. Like many cautious psychiatrists, he uses them to relieve depression to the point where the patient can do something about its source.
Review
Janet Maslin, The New York Times An important, deeply troubling examination of the means by which these drugs have become so widely disseminated and the possible long-term toll they may take.
Review
Leon Eisenberg, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School Dr. Glenmullen documents the carefully concealed dark side of these highly touted drugs and makes a strong case that alternative treatments yield equal benefits at much less risk. Provocative and hopeful, a must-read for anyone on the drugs.
Review
John Horgan, author of the End of Science and The Undiscovered Mind An authoritative and eloquent antidote to the pro-drug bias of modern psychiatry.
Review
Candace B. Pert, Ph.D., Research Professor, Georgetown University School of Medicine, author of Molecules of Emotion: The Science Behind Mind-Body Medicine Beautifully, clearly, and enthrallingly written, it is a courageous book and a must-read for every American.
Review
Alan Stone, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry and Law, Harvard University, former President of the American Psychiatric Association Dr. Glenmullen has assembled from every possible source the clinical and scientific evidence that there are costs as well as benefits to Prozac and related drugs. He warns us that no one really knows the long-term consequences of these chemicals on the brain.
Review
Thomas J. Moore, George Washington University Medical Center, author of Prescription for Disaster: The Hidden Dangers in Your Medicine Cabinet Joseph Glenmullen has done an outstanding job in portraying the real-life experiences of patients and using them to illustrate the scientific facts. If you really want to listen to Prozac, this is an eye-opening account that should not be missed.
Review
Sherwin B. Nuland, M.D., Yale School of Medicine, author of How We Die and The Mysteries Within The all-purpose pill that guarantees a psychiatric quick fix has finally been exposed as an illusion. Dr. Glenmullen's lucid explanations and engrossing narratives are the much-needed corrective to the sensationalism of the false prophets of Prozac and the zealots of Zoloft. This is the book that sets the record straight. It should become the criterion of reason, against which all the current hype and misinformation can be measured.
Table of Contents
Contents Preface
1. Antidepressant Withdrawal and Dependence: Defining the Problem
2. Resolving the Controversy over "Addiction" to Antidepressants: The BBC Exposé
3. The Withdrawal Spectrum: Mild, Moderate, and Severe Withdrawal Reactions
4. How Changing the Dose of Antidepressants Up or Down May Make Patients Suicidal
5. Worst Offenders: The Antidepressants that Cause the Most Frequent Withdrawal Reactions
6. The 5-Step Antidepressant Tapering Program: How to Avoid Uncomfortable or Dangerous
Withdrawal Reactions
7. Step 1. Evaluating Whether You Are Ready to Try Tapering Off Your Antidepressant
8. Step 2. Making the Initial Dosage Reduction
9. Step 3. Monitoring Withdrawal Symptoms After a Dosage Reduction
10. Step 4. Making Additional Dosage Reductions
11. Step 5. The End-of-Taper Evaluation
12. Tapering Children Off Antidepressants
Afterword
Appendix 1: Daily Checklist of Antidepressant Withdrawal Symptoms
Appendix 2: Graph of an Antidepressant Withdrawal Reaction
Appendix 3: Tapering Older Tricyclic and Heterocyclic Antidepressants
Appendix 4: Tapering Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitor Antidepressants
Notes
Acknowledgments
Index