From Publishers Weekly
The author of Prozac Backlash returns with important and sound advice for patients who are taking antidepressant medications, particularly selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) like Prozac and Paxil. "Stopping antidepressants abruptly can cause severe withdrawal reactions," Glenmullen writes, among them aggression, dizziness, vomiting, headaches and suicidal tendencies. The withdrawal symptoms can even, ironically, mimic the symptoms of depression, and this can confuse both the doctor and the patient, leading the patient to stay on the medication (and suffer its side effects) longer than necessary. So how can people safely decide when and how to stop taking the meds? Glenmullen, a clinical instructor in psychiatry at Harvard Medical School, offers a complete five-step program. He explains and describes possible withdrawal symptoms, identifies the signs that a patient is ready to go off his or her meds and gives guidelines for tapering off to avoid unpleasant and dangerous aftereffects. Offering cases from his own practice and drawing from the medical literature, Glenmulllen clarifies how to manage this necessary and often poorly understood process in an important book for anyone taking, or prescribing, antidepressants today.
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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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
