Is it possible that the drug-based psychiatric care industry has actually fueled an epidemic of mental illness?

Dr. Harriet Cooke of Rethinking Psychiatry was the featured guest on Lisa Loving’s KBOO FM radio show on April 14, 2012.  They discussed the mental health industry and Robert Whitaker’s award winning book, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.

Listen here

Robert Whitaker defends Anatomy of an Epidemic

ISEPP (International Society for Ethical Psychology & Psychiatry) is a non-profit research and education network focusing on the critical study of the mental health movement.  Robert Whitaker spoke at the group’s 2011 conference in Los Angeles.  He discussed attempts by certain psychiatric groups to discredit the research and conclusions he presents in his book, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.

Whitaker’s talk can be viewed here:

Robert Whitaker at the ISEPP 2011 Conference in L.A. (part 1)
Robert Whitaker at the ISEPP 2011 Conference in L.A. (part 2)

by Lesley Stahl for CBS News

Do antidepressants work? Since the introduction of Prozac in the 1980s, prescriptions for antidepressants have soared 400 percent, with 17 million Americans currently taking some form of the drug. But how much good is the medication itself doing? “The difference between the effect of a placebo and the effect of an antidepressant is minimal for most people,” says Harvard scientist Irving Kirsch. Will Kirsch’s research, and the work of others, change the $11.3 billion antidepressant industry?   View video

by Janet Parker in OpEdNews.com

Let us remember that the amount of money you spend on medical care does not necessarily equate to quality care — medical fraud like a hidden greedy parasite saps the lifeblood of our public health system.  As we restrict preventative medical care to the poor and needy we are expanding the use of psychiatric drugs exponentially to include an ever increasing percentage of our population on these addictive lifelong mind-altering medications.

As a nation, we must not only look to the human rights ethics of whether psychiatric drugs should be prescribed with such frequency but also consider the ultimate cost to our nation’s health care budget.

Should we not question whether behavioral/social support systems, non-drug therapies, psychotherapy and other possible treatments should be the first line of action, rather than reaching for a pill that will doom a patient to lifelong treatment with expensive and often dangerous medications?

Read more.