If Psychiatric Drugs Don’t Cure Disease, What Do They Do?

Guest Bio: Joanna Moncrieff, MD is a Professor of Critical and Social Psychiatry at University College London, and works as a consultant psychiatrist at the North East London Foundation Trust. She has been writing about the over-use and misrepresentation of psychiatric drugs since the 1990s and she has also researched and written about the history, politics and philosophy of psychiatry more generally. She is currently leading UK government-funded research on reducing and discontinuing antipsychotic drug treatment (the RADAR study), and collaborating on a study to support antidepressant discontinuation. In the 1990s she co-founded the Critical Psychiatry Network to link up with other, like-minded psychiatrists. She is the author of numerous papers and her books include A Straight Talking Introduction to Psychiatric Drugs Second edition (PCCS Books), published in September 2020, as well as The Bitterest Pills: The Troubling Story of Antipsychotic Drugs (2013) and The Myth of the Chemical Cure (2009) (Palgrave Macmillan).

[MedicatingNormal]

If you like what we do and want more of it, for the mere cost of a cup of coffee you can support us!

[seamusconlan]

I didn't have psychiatric problems until I started taking psychiatric drugs.

[incognito]

I can't believe I ever believed they would help me. They destroyed my entire life.

[ajax]

Psychiatric drugs get billions of dollars for the pharma companies, and solve no mental health problem of the sufferer.
Best wishes.

[garyjagoe]

I had been on Prestiq anti depressant for over 10 years. I started to wean myself off after starting a carnivore diet. It took over three months. And I realised that my emotions had been frozen during that period. I’m starting to re-experience my emotions again.

[BL-sdqw]

They create the problems that they claim to be trying to eliminate. Best way to never run out of clients under capitalism.

[marcodallolio]

What, a psychiatrist with moral integrity? Next, a unicorn

[HannahHarbourDeep]

Follow the money. In years to come these past decades of psychiatric drugs will be seen as a crime.

[lizmcdermott]

I have recently purchased Joanne's book The Bitterest Pills. The main reason for this was because for the last 4 years my son has been under psychiatry. He has been prescribed Antipsychotics drugs during this time. My son has really struggled on these meds told me his emotions have been blunted so much he hasn't been able to cry or feel emotions that we all take for granted. He described feeling like he was highly sedated, was not able to enjoy things he used to enjoy.

We have tried to raise these concerns with my sons psychiatrist to no avail. My son has had 2 more episodes of psychosis in the last year causing him to be sectioned again. This cannot be right.

I have to be an advocate for my son and continue to challenge the psychiatrist and his team.

I am very concerned for my sons overall wellbeing and the potential damage these Antipsychotics, are doing to his brain long term.

Keep up the good work Joanna, let's hope for more good psychiatrists like yourselfto come forward with better ways to treat psychosis, depression and other mental health illnesses.

[dr.davidgerstenaminoacidth]

I’m an integrative psychiatrist. I have not prescribed in years and was slowly phasing them out in 1985. When Prozac came out, I was told that 8% of rats had decreased libido due to the drug. Docs were also told that the dose was 20 mg, regardless of age or weight. After prescribing Prozac for about 9 months I concluded that about 80% of people had decreased libido. Years later I concluded that the drug didn’t just blunt libido. It blunted emotions and more subtle things like creativity. The standard of 20 mg wasn’t true. I’ve known people who were put on Paxil 20 mg, had it doubled four later, was on 60 mg in two weeks. She was hospitalized right after that. The SSRI are part of widespread psychiatry marketing, the DSM, the discontinuation of psychotherapy training in psychiatry residencies.

[marioct]

I believed what my doctors told me. I now research everything.

[celestepiccolo]

I wish I would have learned this about a decade or more ago. 😢

[EVOLr]

I think it would be best not to drug people so quickly.There needs to be some sort of mandatory prerequisite talk therapy monitoring for at least one year before suggesting those crappy drugs.

[marissadower-morgan]

Pseudoscience is the correct term for Psychiatry

[paulpenfold]

My Anxiety was ignored by my doctors for many years, when events sent me into severe ptsd, then they put me strait on fluoxetine then escitalopram, then just left me with it to cause its secret damage in the back ground with f---all duty of care, it took a while but appeared to work at first which was helpful but missing and or stopping this drug lets you know the damage its actually causing, (when I actually stopped ), Its a teeth grinding depression with super adhd confusion and mental torment that lasts for months and then some . If I was given opiates and valium for 6 months I would be a much happier person .

[babystudderbox]

I was on so much in my early 20's i feel it has done something permanent to my brain, i cant connect with people anymore.

[msd]

I lost ability to feel emotions for the most part while on various psychiatric medications like Risperdal, Zyprexa, Seroquel and others. I quit them, but they never really came back.

[Skoopyghost]

As an alcoholic even. Anti-depressant work for me as alcohol, gambling, drugs, and ETC. It takes me away from me. I like a high, but a high isn't needed for me to abuse an substance, but my main problem is alcoholism/addiction. Not depression, but when I say this I am not taken seriously.

[justmadeit]

I’ve always been against taking psychiatric drugs such as ssris, having tried some before for a short time.

Unfortunately my depression and terrible ocd has gotten so bad recently that I’ve been considering trying something else again that may help, I’ve been in bed for a couple of days, no appetite and not showered for 4 days. I crave sleep. This life and my mind it too much to deal with. I’m not even religious but I’ve started praying for something to help me if there was anything out there as I don’t feel I can do it alone. I’m 49 and have people who care about me but none of that is getting through to me

[thepolypharmacist]

The good doc makes a very important point. The assumption that mental health is a matter of just neurotransmitters is what we’ve been sold. I teach a college course called Medication Use: History, Science and Humanity. Doc, I concur.