Checkout Robert Whitaker‘s book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America whose other book Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill played a part in helping me understand what is happening in the treatment of mental illness in this country. Here is an excerpt from a review of the former at The People’s Voice:

Symptoms vs. Withdrawal

A couple of questions remain. First: for many people, the drugs are helpful. What gives?

Whitaker explained by email, “The drugs generally do knock down a target symptom better than placebo over the short term.” For instance, if a person has been staying up all night, psychiatric medications can provide a good night’s sleep. That alone can relieve a variety of symptoms.

Another question: Once a person is on psychiatric medications, they are often cautioned not to stop taking them – and if they do quit, sure enough, symptoms return. Doesn’t this prove they needed the drugs? Actually, says Whitaker, it may simply prove that the drugs have withdrawal symptoms. Since psychiatric medications affect the brain, it makes sense that withdrawal would affect the brain too, with symptoms that may resemble the original illness.

Whitaker’s research also led to troubling evidence suggesting the entire biological model of psychiatry was concocted to shore up psychiatry’s reputation as a medical specialty. He cites enough evidence, in fact, that a reader might wonder whether any psychiatrists are genuinely concerned with helping people.

Actually, says Whitaker, most psychiatrists honestly believe there is good evidence supporting the use of psychiatric medications, and are genuinely trying to help.

However, they don’t see the whole picture. According to Whitaker, “The practicing psychiatrist doesn’t see what happens to patients who are never exposed to medications, and thus the psychiatrist doesn’t see the natural course of the disorder.” Only science, he says, tells us what happens when people receive no medications. And science says that overall, they do far better than those who take drugs.