BookCorners:
Anti-Depressant Drugs: Are They Safe?
review by Irene Alleger

The Anti-Depressant Fact Book
by Peter R. Breggin, MD

Published by Perseus Books Group
11 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, Massachusetts 02142 USA;
617-252-5298

2001, Softcover, 225pp.
$13 US/$19.95 CAN

Peter R. Breggin, MD is a practicing psychiatrist who has written a number of books about the toxicology of psychiatric medications, the best-known being Talking Back to Prozac (1994). His well-publicized criticism of drugs like Prozac and Ritalin has earned him a title: the conscience of psychiatry. However, among the many family physicians who are the primary prescribers of these drugs, the word does not seem to have gotten out. If they need to be convinced I can’t think of a better way than a fact book – not opinion but scientific data that can be substantiated. Unfortunately, through either ignorance or bias, most physicians have nothing else to offer in place of the prescription drug. That leaves it up to the patient to ask the questions and do a little research. The Anti-Depressant Fact Book is an excellent place to start with information you won’t find elsewhere.

The author has testified in court as an expert witness against some of the pharmaceutical companies and therefore can give the reader an inside look at the way these corporations deceive the public about the safety of their products.

And do not let the word fact in the title lead you into thinking this is a dry compilation of lists, charts and complicated data. Dr. Breggin has more than 30 years of experience and accumulated wisdom in treating mental illness, and he has the faculty of being able to explain medical and psychological effects clearly. In “The Meaning and Purpose of Depression,” for instance, he explains why he thinks the labeling of depression as a “disease,” is a mistake, instead of viewing it as a feeling of unhappiness; an emotional response to life, which cannot be targeted by these drugs. “In fact,” he says, “I find considerable evidence that these drugs have little or no therapeutic effect on feelings of depression.”

In his practice he often works with very depressed children and adults who have failed to “get better” despite years of treatment. In those cases, he says he usually finds one or more of the following circumstances:

• Years of treatment by authoritarian, uncaring doctors or therapists

• Years of exposure to multiple psychiatric drugs

• Long-term submission to an emotionally abusive parent, spouse, or loved one

Also, he finds that many of the individual’s previous doctors may have overlooked or denied the obvious harmful effects of severe emotional, physical or sexual abuse in childhood.

In the main part of the book, on the SSRIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors), the most popular of the new antidepressants, the reader learns how they work by blocking the reabsorption of serotonin. The author says “Tampering with the serotonin neurotransmitter system is especially fraught with difficulties because the serotonin nerves spread in a vast network through the brain…essentially, they go everywhere.” The dangers of disrupting this system are fully explained, with studies showing evidence for permanent damage and dysfunction from SSRIs. There are additional risks as well – everything from sexual impotence to mania – and the little-publicized effects of depression and suicide caused by the anti-depressants. Cases of criminal behavior and violence are cited, as well, caused by the mania from the stimulating effects. This information has been withheld by the FDA and the public made to believe the drugs are safe.

Dr. Breggin’s conscience is nowhere more apparent than when he writes of the special dangers of treating children with SSRIs. As early as 1990-1991, a group of Yale doctors found that 50% of children ages 8 to l6, developed two or more abnormal behavioral reactions to Prozac. These included aggression, loss of impulse control, agitation, and manic symptoms. In 1997, an editorial in the Journal of the American Medical Association raised serious concerns about “exposing the growing brains of children to agents that distort the biochemical reactions that control the way the brain will develop.” Dr. Breggin states categorically: “Doctors are prescribing extremely dangerous drugs to children for purposes (diagnoses) that in the past, would not have led a doctor to prescribe anything for them. They are exposing children to gigantic risks with little hope of benefit…meanwhile, there is not a shred of clinical or scientific evidence to justify the use of…psychiatric drugs in treating children. Every one of these children is being subjected to a radical but unsupervised medical experiment.”

That these scientific and ethical criticisms have not slowed the use of these drugs for children, shows the enormous influence of the pharmaceutical corporations. School officials and social workers (not MDs) have forced parents to drug their children against their better judgement. Although SSRIs are not approved for treatment of depression in children, there is no law that prohibits a doctor from prescribing them to children. Breggin says “This freedom to treat may be valuable in other areas of medicine, but in the psychiatric treatment of children, off-label prescribing has become irrational and abusive.”

This dangerous practice shows no sign of abating, and hundreds of thousands of children currently are being brain altered in ways that have led many to violence (while the authorities keep us focussed on the dangers of illegal drugs). It is a frightening realization that many American children may be turned into aggressive, even murderous criminals, for which they are then put into prison for many years.

Machiavelli himself could not have thought up a more evil proposition. Dr. Breggin has been an advocate for parents, especially, and has rendered real service to us all. His books need to be widely publicized and heeded.