Introduction

These Are True Stories

NOTHING LIKE THIS BOOK has ever before been written. I have evaluated hundreds of cases of drug-induced mental and emotional disturbances, some in my clinical practice as a psychiatrist treating patients, some as a consultant to patients injured by drugs, and many in my role as medical expert in criminal cases, in malpractice suits against doctors and hospitals, and in product liability suits against drug companies. The stories in this book are about children and adults who have been emotionally injured and sometimes driven mad by psychiatric medications, many committing horrific crimes. Psychiatric drugs can and do transform the lives of otherwise well-meaning, ethical people, sometimes causing them to act in ways they would ordinarily find reprehensible.

Although I have studied and written about these adverse drug effects for several decades, only in the last year have I grasped and described the unifying concept of the spellbinding effects of psychiatric drugs. Many people who take the drugs become desperately depressed and suicidal, violently aggressive, or wildly out of control without realizing that their medication is causing them to think, to feel, and to act in unusual and otherwise abhorrent ways.

There are no secondhand stories in this book. I have personally evaluated each and every one of the dozens of detailed cases, as well as the many additional cases that are scattered throughout the book. The stories in this book are accurate down to the details. I have not taken dramatic license with any of them. Nothing has been "fictionalized" to make them more interesting; the truth is dramatic enough. Although the book is written for the public, health professionals can rely on the stories as valid case studies of medication-induced adverse effects on the brain, mind, and behavior.

In those cases where the victims of medication madness have survived their adverse drug effects, I have personally interviewed each one at length, usually on more than one occasion. In nearly every instance, I have interviewed other surviving participants in the tragedies described here. Often, I have gathered additional information from friends, family, and coworkers. In all cases, I have sought and nearly always obtained any relevant medical, police, educational, and employment records. Sometimes, I have visited the crime scene and I have always had access to any coroner’s reports, autopsy findings, and toxicology results. I have often read depositions given under oath by doctors and by others involved in the case. For most of the cases, I have written lengthy medical-legal reports, and on many occasions I have testified in depositions, hearings, and trials.

Some of the cases were high profile and generated considerable publicity; in those cases—such as Eric Harris, one of the Columbine shooters—I have used real names, since they could not be adequately disguised. I have not changed the names of any of the lawyers with whom I have worked on these cases.

I have chosen to provide names, mostly pseudonyms, to the more detailed cases in the book. Additional shorter cases scattered throughout the book remain unnamed. For the reader’s convenience, the named cases can be located in the index. An appendix provides tables listing the various psychiatric drugs by category, including antidepressants, stimulants, tranquilizer/sleeping pills, antipsychotic agents, and mood stabilizers. Another appendix provides a description of the International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology (icspp.org), a psychiatric reform organization open to professionals and nonprofessionals alike, which promotes ethical and human service-oriented approaches.

This book is much more about bad drugs than about bad doctors. Although some of the cases do involve gross medical negligence, Medication Madness is not meant to be an indictment of incompetent doctors. It’s about the harmful, spellbinding effects of psychiatric drugs, even when prescribed at approved doses by well-intentioned, seemingly informed doctors. As some cases illustrate, even sophisticated physicians, including psychiatrists, can be driven mad by psychiatric medications that have been prescribed to them.

After reading this book, you will possess more knowledge about medication-induced abnormal mental and behavioral reactions than almost any psychiatrist you are likely to encounter—including those who call themselves experts and who give lectures and write papers about medication for other psychiatrists. Although knowledge gained from a book cannot substitute for medical training and clinical experience, or for a visit to a genuinely good medical doctor, Medication Madness will make you better informed in these critical areas than the overwhelming majority of doctors who routinely prescribe psychiatric drugs.

In the nearly thirty years since I published my first medical book in 1979, awareness of the dangers of psychiatric drugs and electroshock treatment has not grown as much as I might have hoped. Yes, there is now much more science to substantiate my views. For example, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has recently issued warnings about antidepressants that corroborate much of what I’ve been saying for many years in numerous books and scientific articles. But most of my colleagues in medicine and psychiatry continue to practice without sufficient regard for the dangers of medication madness or, for that matter, electroshock treatment. The public—and not the medical or psychiatric profession—will have to stem the tide of cavalier prescription practices and the widespread use of mind-altering drugs that often do more harm than good.

I hope the many stories in this book—plus the accompanying scientific explanations—will make the dangers of psychiatric drugs unmistakably clear. I also hope they will add to our knowledge about how drugs act upon human beings and about human nature itself.

Excerpted from Medication Madness by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.

Copyright © 2008 by Peter R. Breggin, M.D.

Published in 2008 by St. Martin’s Press

All rights reserved. This work is protected under copyright laws and reproduction is strictly prohibited. Permission to reproduce the material in any manner or medium must be secured from the Publisher