A Petition to NYT requesting an opportunity for Robert Whitaker to respond to Dr. Peter Kramer

This is so unlike me. Last week, the New York Times published a piece by Dr. Peter Kramer, on antidepressants.  Dr. Kramer is famous for writing two best sellers, "Listening to Prozac" and "On Depression", two books which I must say are in my own personal library.

Today, the Old Gray Lady published a piece with people agreeing or disagreeing with the post by Dr. Kramer here.  One of the people they published, was Marcia Angell, a lecturer at Harvard Medical School and former editor in chief of The New England Journal of Medicine. She has also written a book "The Truth About Drug Companies" which I have in print and in audio, and very highly recommend.  The Times also published reviews from Warren Procci, the current President of the American Psychanalytic Association and a professor at the the David Geffen School of Medicine. But where was a comment from Robert Whitaker, author of "Anatomy of an Epidemic", and the "Mad In America", column in Psychology Today? 

If you don't see my quandry, my friend Susan Kingsley-Smith, a talented blogger and radio personality, did, and started a petition for Mr. Whitaker to air his two cents in the Times. 

Her petition goes like this....

Dear Editors of the New York Times:

We are writing to request that the New York Times provide an opportunity for a public response to Dr. Peter Kramer's opinion piece, "In Defense of Antidepressants," published on July 9, 2011. Dr. Kramer's opinion appeared on the front page of the Sunday Review, and has been widely circulated since. It was the New York Times' most emailed article of that day.

Dr. Kramer's article was a response to Marcia Angell's review of three books that have called into question the efficacy of psychiatric drugs, one of which was Robert Whitaker's book Anatomy of an Epidemic, which won the 2010 Investigative Reporters and Editors Association Award for Best Investigative Journalism. Another was The Emperor's New Drugs, by Irving Kirsch. The substance of Angell's reviews was exposing the distortion of facts by academic psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies who have portrayed antidepressants and other psychiatric drugs as effective and safe, when much countervailing evidence exists to show that they are in fact, over the long term, ineffective and harmful.

We believe Dr. Kramer's article is another such distortion. He misinterpreted well-conceived and executed studies authored by Irving Kirsch and Robert DeRubeis, asserting that these supported the effectiveness of antidepressants, and that these drugs have earned a deserved, evidence-based place in the treatment of mental illness. Yet the very studies he referenced, when carefully parsed, do not in fact support those assertions at all, and he neglected to reference numerous other studies that would refute his assertions.

In the interest of balanced journalism, we respectfully request that the New York Times provide the opportunity for a rebuttal from one or more of the authors criticized or misinterpreted by Dr. Kramer. Whitaker has written a measured rebuttal of Dr. Kramer's piece, currently available at this link onPsychology Today. Kirsch and DeRubeis should also be allowed to voice their own interpretations of their studies. We believe it is important that the New York Times give adequate space for its readers to consider alternative and evidence-based viewpoints on antidepressants, as this is such an important, pervasive, and at times confusing issue. We must at a minimum hold up a standard of accurate representation of the facts so that consumers can make choices based on correct information.

Sincerely,

Dr. Mark Foster, DO, ClearMinds, Inc

Susan Kingsley-Smith
Amy Smith

I am passing on her petition. If anyone reading this is would like Mr. Whitaker to put his response in the the New York Times, please sign. If not, it's ok. We are trying to get 1,000 signatures. My opinion is in the fairness of journalism let Robert Whitaker speak.  

Instructions on the petition are below, and a  very short video of Robert Whitaker.

Thank you. 

Change.org|Start an Online Petition »

New Antidepressant Induced Chronic Depression Has a Name: Tardive Dysphoria

I love Gianna Kali. She really nailed it in today's post about now antidepressant-induced chronic depression has a name:Tardive Dysphoria. If you don't read Gianna, she is one of my favorite bloggers and one of the first five people that helped and influenced me when I was the new blogger on the block. I highly recommend her, she should be in everyone's RSS feeds.

From Gianna's post.

Robert Whitaker continues to be on the ball. His latest article on psychology today is about the phenomena of chronic depression being caused by anti-depressant use. This is good documented evidence for those who still want to believe drugs are always the answer. Most of us were not ever told about these sorts of risks.

Three recently published papers, along with a report by a Minnesota group on health outcomes in that state, provide new reason to mull over this question: Do antidepressants worsen the long-term course of depression? As I wrote in Anatomy of an Epidemic, I believe there is convincing evidence that the drugs do just that. These latest papers add to that evidence base. (the whole article)

Whitaker’s been saying this for a while and collected such information in the past.
This post from a year ago also speaks to this issue: Before excessive drug treatments NIMH declared depression “on the whole” a diagnosis with best prognosis for recovery: not so anymore.
Whitaker’s two seminal works on psychiatry:

• Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
• Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill

And lots more of Whitaker’s work on this blog here.

Thanks Gianna. I personally met Robert Whitaker two weeks ago at Psych Out, and all I can say this man is kind, as well as erudite and a very good public speaker. His books, "Anatomy of an Epidemic" and "Mad in America" should be on everyone's book shelf and read in the schools just like other non fiction books that changed the way America thinks like "The Jungle" and "And the Band Played on". "Anatomy" will be released in paperback on August 2 and is available for pre order on Amazon.

Speechless

I made it here but in a lot of pain. Bless you who showed up at Psych Out- the people who put it together and the ones who had the courage to speak.

And to Mr. Robert Whitaker,
who took time to talk to me without criticizing.

I gained convince to keep on going through hell and staying alive, and the courage to keep on living by the remarkable people I met today.

And Mr. Whitaker gave me the courage to keep writing, no matter how impossible it seems at the moment.

Thank you all.I am truly blessed

IRE Award Winner- Robert Whitaker!

Congratulations to Robert Whitaker, author of "Anatomy of an Epidemic", and 'Mad in America", for being one of the few recipients of a 2010 IRE award, winning the category of best book. This prestigious award, given to those in journalism was just announced, 430 journalists were considered for these awards.

The awards, given by Investigative Reporters and Editors Inc. since 1979, recognize the most outstanding watchdog journalism of the year. The contest covers 18 categories across media platforms and a range of market sizes.

What IRE had to say about Robert Whitaker,

Book: Robert Whitaker for “Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America.” This eye-opening investigation of the pharmaceutical industry and its relationship with the medical system lays out troubling evidence that the very medications prescribed for mental illness may, in increasing measure, be part of the problem. Whitaker marshals evidence to suggest medications “increase the risk that a person will become disabled” permanently by disorders such as depression, bipolar illness and schizophrenia. This book provides an in-depth exploration of medical studies and science and intersperses compelling anecdotal examples. In the end, Whitaker punches holes in the conventional wisdom of treatment of mental illness with drugs.

The entire press release can be found here.  His books can be purchased at Amazon, or your favorite book store. "Anatomy of an Epidemic" is also on audio tape via Audible, and will be released in paperback on August 2, 2011. It's available for pre-order right now on Amazon.
My review on this book can be found here. 

Rerun:Some Early Thoughts on Anatomy of an Epidemic

It's come to my attention that a lot of controversy has been generated lately by certain bloggers over Robert Whitaker's book Anatomy of an Epidemic. Let me put it this way. In my life time, I will rank it as one of the best non  fiction books I have ever read, the other one being "And the Band Played On". I hope Mr. Whitaker's book does for the mental health movement what Shilt's book was able to accomplish for the gay movement. Here is my review of Whitaker's book. If you haven't bought any holiday presents, I would consider purchasing this one as a gift.

Robert Whitaker's latest book "Anatomy of an Epidemic" came out last month. I had been listening to it on tape (Audible) since I have problems reading print at the moment. Yesterday, the blessed package came from Amazon. His new book, and the reissue of "Mad in America". 

I made myself a sandwich, poured a glass of ice tea from the fridge, and sat down, to read it again. And from the minute I started, I realized one thing. The publisher made a huge mistake. The book should come with Kleenex. 

Like the spoken edition- which is  the same book - it's the type of non fiction book that will make you cry. Weep, copiously. And after your tear ducts are dry, I felt like I was watching one of my all time favorite movies- "Network", living the "Mad as hell" scene. I would have indeed gone to the window and shouted, but my downstairs neighbor is 88 and deaf, and ... what good is shouting "I'm mad as hell" if no one can hear you? 

I'm too numb right now, and it's 5 am in the morning to sit down and write a review worthy of the New York Times Book Review. Let's just say this. 

In the book he interviews many, many people, especially in the last page. I am fortunate thanks to Facebook, to have emailed  some of them and they inspire me.  

And I think about the ones in the book as true cases, especially the children, who were also hurt and maimed. Including the one I love the most- ME. In the fact that we were not killed outright but, as a friend said in a phone call, - "our brains were raped".

I don't know who is pro-Big Pharma or against it, and frankly it isn't salient here. What I want everyone who sees this is to arm themselves with knowledge, every time they get a script from the doctor. The doctor can be your GP, Gynecologist, Dentist, or Shrink. You get a script, ask what this is. What are the side effects. Please ask. Go home and look up the drug on the Internet. Knowledge is important. Don't be a sheeple. This can save your life. 

 I was brought up by a father who worked for Big Pharma, and believed in Whitaker's "Magic Bullets". You take the script from the doctor, and take it. No questions asked. Doctors are just a fraction below G-d. If you don't question , you really are taking Blue and Red Pills. Within ten miles from where I grew up, and about 3 miles from where I am now, is a town called "Milltown". My mother always beamed with pride as she reminded her girls in the back seat of the car this town we were driving through was named after a wonderful drug from the 50s. (Whitaker describes the town and the drug in detail in the book as well). 

I had only one doctor who, upon giving me a script for Lamictal back in 2001, told me about the rash. If I get any kind of rash, call him immediately. If I cannot reach him, go to the emergency room. No other doctor, from childhood on, ever did this. 

The first drug I ever had a problem with was Prozac, which I started in 87, about 12 months after I was diagnosed. Prozac was was the wonder drug of that age- on the cover of Newsweek and The New York Magazine at the same time.  The side effects were awful.  I couldn't sleep, I had nightmares. Then the fevers, ringing in my ears, and the sensation my skin was moulting and I couldn't stop scratching. My whole personality changed, I went from being a mild Casper Milquetoast type person to someone looking for a girl fight. Then I was told to quit the drug cold turkey, and fortunately, for me, I was put on both Zoloft, and later, Paxil, and fortunately, no side effects. Not like the Prozac. 

It wasn't until I was reading this book I saw i was not alone with side effects from Prozac that I experienced. And when I told the doctor how I was feeling on it, he told me to keep staying on it, and ride it out. Two psychiatrists later, I was finally moved off Prozac to something else. 

And now I sit, 2 years ago almost dying from Haldol, where every muscle in my body fell asleep and I had to re-learn how to do everything. Walk, talk,eat, even go to the bathroom. Yet in the book, over and over again- Haldol- muscle fatigue. I was as bad a case from this as possible, the worst would have been dying. I survived. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. To this day I am haunted by something a nurse told me when my muscles started to wake, that my screams from the pain were exactly like the ones from burn victims. 

Three years ago, one P-doc put me on Remeron. After about two weeks on that I got so suicidal I checked myself into the hospital, because I reckoned, I would rather be shot up with Thorazine and be alive and get off this drug then stay home and I know I would suicide. While I was detoxing off Remeron, the same pdoc wanted to put me into Trenton Psychiatric Hospital due to the side effects I was experiencing with the meds. I fired him, and left the hospital against doctors orders. Alive. If I was put in Trenton Psych, I fear I would still be there, like a scene from "Cuckoo's nest" 

And being on lithium, since 87- with small respites on Depakote and Lamictal- well, I just wrote about loosing my hair. I am constantly sick to my stomach, and can only eat bland food. Anything spicy- no. Nexium has become a magic pill for me to be able to eat anything.  But the worst- is knowing that sometime between now and September I have to go for another bone marrow biopsy, and it's just a matter of time before I have leukemia unless by some miracle my white blood count should stop duplicating and go DOWN. Which it hasn't since 2003, it's been going up in some kind of Mathusian equation I haven't been able to crack.

I said this book belongs on every one's bookshelf. It does.This book deserves to be on the Times Top Ten list. But no matter your stance- pro pharma, anti pharma know this.  But please, question the doctor for everything. Don't be blind trust, there are good ones and bad ones out there- but you are the most important person in the world, and you must know every option out there, and question. Likewise, there are good drugs out there- Penicillin, for example has saved lives. But question. Question everything. Question authority like you haven't done since you are 18-19.  The life you save will be your own, your husbands, child's or parents. You owe them and yourself the chance to live long and prosper. 

. 

Government Officials Cause Whitaker To Be Banned From Keynote

Susan's note: I am a member of Mind Freedom, and am passing this on as a PSA. If you do not belong to MF- consider it. Mind Freedom International. They are good guys.


"WHAT ABOUT BOB?"

USA Mental Health Agency May Cancel Journalist Robert B. Whitaker as Keynoter of "Alternatives 2010"

Bob Whitaker's Book "Anatomy of an Epidemic" Criticizes Psychiatric Pharmaceutical Claims

A major annual conference funded by the US government since 1985 advertises itself as "organized by and for mental health consumers and survivors." The goal of this popular "Alternatives Conference" is to support empowerment, self-determination and choice by mental health clients.

But MindFreedom International News discovered that after Alternatives 2010 organizers confirmed their choice of keynote speaker as journalist Robert B. Whitaker, author of a new book with a scathing critique of psychiatric pharmaceutical claims, upper-level federal officials objected.

*BELOW* is an exclusive MindFreedom interview with Whitaker about his possible cancellation, plus how you can take action to inform President Obama, and join an online conversation on the controversy.

BACKGROUND: Anatomy of Psychiatric Censorship?

Since 1985, the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration [SAMHSA] has provided a grant to fund the Alternatives Conference, bringing together several hundred mental health consumers and psychiatric survivor from throughout the USA, many of whom lead innovative mental health peer support programs.

The Alternatives Conference is organized each year by one of the handful of federally-funded "Technical Assistance" or TA Centers, which are staffed and advised by mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors.

Alternatives 2010 is slated to begin 29 September in Anaheim, California with the provocative theme, "Promoting Wellness Through Social Justice." Conference organizers confirmed an invitation with Robert Whitaker to keynote.

Whitaker's book is getting a lot of attention. Time Magazine's review said, "Despite much vaunted claims to the contrary, writes Whitaker, a medical journalist, 'there was never any evidence' in the scientific literature showing that certain mental illnesses result from faulty brain chemistry... Psychiatric drugs have changed the lives of millions, but this book explores how they would have fared without them. It's an alternative worth imagining."

On 15 July, Alternatives organizers told Whitaker his "confirmation"
was retracted, saying they had received objections from US government higher-ups that he was a high-profile critic of federal agencies.
However, many past Alternatives keynoters -- including the heads of federal agencies and MindFreedom director David Oaks -- have also criticized federal agencies.

And Whitaker is no radical, he's a medical journalist. He emphasizes that he sees value in the use of psychiatric drugs. His book is also pro-active, describing his recent visit to Finland's vaunted "Open Dialogue" approach that is helping young people diagnosed with schizophrenia while minimizing psychiatric drug prescriptions.

By coincidence, the day before Whitaker's un-confirmation, on 14 July, a number of national mental health consumer/psychiatric survivor leaders issued a statement of "alarm" about "the conflict of interest in the current relationship between the federal government and the pharmaceutical industry."

So if the Alternatives conference is about alternatives... then what about the alternatives Bob talks about?

What about Bob?

BELOW is the MindFreedom International interview with Robert B.
Whitaker. BELOW that is how to speak out to President Obama, and find out more info.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

MINDFREEDOM INTERNATIONAL INTERVIEW WITH ROBERT B. WHITAKER:

MINDFREEDOM INTERNATIONAL [MFI] QUESTION: Why do you think you have been disinvited from the Alternatives conference? What do you make of this?

ROBERT B. WHITAKER ANSWER: I think the reason is obvious -- I was going to tell a well-documented story of science about psychiatric medications that some at SAMSH find threatening, a story that they don't want users of the drugs to hear. But you should ask those who nixed the invitation. I would be curious to hear their answer.

MFI: What is it that you write about in Anatomy of an Epidemic that is so threatening?

WHITAKER: The story told to the public by the NIMH and by academic psychiatry is that psychiatric medications have greatly improved the lives of those diagnosed with psychiatric illnesses. Yet, even as our society has embraced the use of psychiatric medications during the past two decades, the number of people receiving government disability due to mental illness has more than tripled, from 1.25 million people to more than 4 million people.

So you can see, in that data, that something may be wrong with that story of progress. And then, if you look at how psychiatric medications affect the long-term course of psychiatric disorders, you find -- in the scientific literature -- consistent evidence that they increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically ill. I know this is startling, particularly since we do know that some people do well on the medications long term, but that evidence, in terms of how the medications affect long-term outcomes in the aggregate, shows up time and again in the scientific literature.

MFI: Can you give an example?

WHITAKER: Sure. I'll give two quick examples.

First, outcomes for bipolar disorder today are much worse than they were 40 years ago. Today, people so diagnosed are much more constantly symptomatic than they used to be; their employment rates have declined from around 85% to around 33%; many struggle with drug-related physical problems, such as obesity; and today they show signs of long- term cognitive decline, whereas that didn't used to be the case.
Leading bipolar experts have written about this deterioration in modern outcomes, and they point to the prescribing of antidepressants and antipsychotics to this patient group as a likely reason for the decline.

Second, our society of believes that all people diagnosed with schizophrenia need to be on medication all their lives. Yet, the NIMH has funded a long-term study of schizophrenia outcomes by a researcher named Martin Harrow, and in 2007 he reported that at the end of 15 years, the recovery rate for those off medication was 40%, versus 5% for those on medication. At the very least, Harrow's study shows that some people diagnosed with schizophrenia do better long-term off medication, but that is the type of information that is never conveyed to the public. The NIMH didn't publicize the results of Harrow's study, and certainly it hasn't publicized the astonishing deterioration in modern bipolar outcomes, even though it is recognized by experts in the field.

MFI: Why is this information so important? What is at stake here?

WHITAKER: I think we can all agree that the honest communication of scientific results is essential to good medicine, and essential to helping people make informed choices about what is best for them. And if our society is going to stem this epidemic of disabling mental illness has erupted in our society, then it needs to know this information and think about alternative programs of mental health care that might be funded. Mindfreedom held a hunger strike in 2003 to push for this very thing--honesty in what psychiatry and the powers that be tell about psychiatric disorders and psychiatric medications.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

ASK: WHAT ABOUT BOB? *** ACTIONS *** ACTIONS *** ACTIONS ***

Please keep all communication civil and strong:

(1) ASK PRESIDENT OBAMA: WHAT ABOUT BOB?

Please use the White House web site to encourage President Barack Obama to ask SAMHSA to encourage empowered community organizing and choice by and for mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors,
here:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/contact/

Sample message -- your own words are best:

"Dear President Obama: You are a community organizer. Did you know that mental health consumers and psychiatric survivors have also done community organizing for decades? Please ask your agency SAMHSA to support their choice of journalist Robert Whitaker to be keynote speaker at the annual Alternatives 2010 conference. The Alternatives conference is about alternatives, so... WHAT ABOUT BOB? Bob's book Anatomy of an Epidemic is an important warning about problems with the psychiatric pharmaceutical industry."

If possible, please copy your message by e-mail to SAMHSA director Pam Hyde at Pam.Hyde@SAMHSA.hhs.gov, and to MFI for public use at news@mindfreedom.org


(2) TALK ABOUT IT!

You can use the MindFreedom Facebook page to speak out about your opinion. Should Bob be allowed to speak? What do we do if he's censored?

Go to MindFreedom's Facebook page here:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/MindFreedom-International/33579368821
or click here: http://3.ly/FacebookMFI


(3) USE THE WEB TO GET AROUND ANY CENSORSHIP!

Please *forward* this alert with a few words of your support to all interested people on and off Internet.

Forward MindFreedom's Twitter feed and add your own.

Use your "creative maladjustment" and get out the word!


~~~~~~~~~~~~

MORE INFO on WHAT ABOUT BOB CONTROVERSY:

** TIME Magazine's review of "Anatomy of an Epidemic":
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1983897,00.html

** Read OTHER reviews of "Anatomy of an Epidemic":
http://3.ly/WhitakerAnatomy

** ORDER Whitaker's book "Anatomy of an Epidemic" at discount from MindFreedom's MAD MARKET, and benefit MFI's human rights work:
http://www.madmarket.org

** HEAR a MindFreedom Radio interview with Whitaker:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/radio/whitaker-andre

** MORE about Bob's book at MFI web site:
http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psychiatric-drugs/whitaker-epidemic

** READ Rockville Bastille Day 2010 Statement about "Undue Influence of Psychiatric Pharmaceutical Industry":
http://www.mindfreedom.org/kb/psychiatric-drugs/bastille-2010

** INFO about Alternatives 2010:
http://www.power2u.org/alternatives2010/

** SAMHSA web site:
http://www.samhsa.gov/

~~~~~~~~~~~~

SUPPORT *INDEPENDENT* ACTIVISM TO CHANGE THE MENTAL HEALTH SYSTEM.

MindFreedom International is one of the few totally independent groups in mental health advocacy.

That means NO funding from mental health industry, drug companies, government and religions.

That means MindFreedom International counts on YOUR donations.

There are plenty of system-funded groups doing good work. But when it comes to speaking out about drug company abuse, you can see how important INDEPENDENCE can be.

Please join or renew your MindFreedom International membership here with a tax-deductible gift of any size:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

Support an independent united voice by and for survivors of human rights violations in the mental health system!

Everyone is welcome to join now and be part of MindFreedom's 25th Silver Anniversary celebration next year:

Join or renew your membership in MindFreedom International today, here:

http://www.mindfreedom.org/join-donate

For a limited time, all donors of $50 or more can ask for a free "thank you gift" premium jewelry pin, including a pin of MFI's logo.
See the pins at:

http://www.madmarket.org

Specify type and color of your pin when you join or renew by e-mailing to office@mindfreedom.org.

Some Early Thoughts on Anatomy of an Epidemic

Robert Whitaker's latest book "Anatomy of an Epidemic" came out last month. I had been listening to it on tape (Audible) since I have problems reading print at the moment. Yesterday, the blessed package came from Amazon. His new book, and the reissue of "Mad in America". 

I made myself a sandwich, poured a glass of ice tea from the fridge, and sat down, to read it again. And from the minute I started, I realized one thing. The publisher made a huge mistake. The book should come with Kleenex. 

Like the spoken edition- which is  the same book - it's the type of non fiction book that will make you cry. Weep, copiously. And after your tear ducts are dry, I felt like I was watching one of my all time favorite movies- "Network", living the "Mad as hell" scene. I would have indeed gone to the window and shouted, but my downstairs neighbor is 88 and deaf, and ... what good is shouting "I'm mad as hell" if no one can hear you? 

I'm too numb right now, and it's 5 am in the morning to sit down and write a review worthy of the New York Times Book Review. Let's just say this. 

In the book he interviews many, many people, especially in the last page. I am fortunate thanks to Facebook, to have emailed  some of them and they inspire me.  

And I think about the ones in the book as true cases, especially the children, who were also hurt and maimed. Including the one I love the most- ME. In the fact that we were not killed outright but, as a friend said in a phone call, - "our brains were raped".

I don't know who is pro-Big Pharma or against it, and frankly it isn't salient here. What I want everyone who sees this is to arm themselves with knowledge, every time they get a script from the doctor. The doctor can be your GP, Gynecologist, Dentist, or Shrink. You get a script, ask what this is. What are the side effects. Please ask. Go home and look up the drug on the Internet. Knowledge is important. Don't be a sheeple. This can save your life. 

 I was brought up by a father who worked for Big Pharma, and believed in Whitaker's "Magic Bullets". You take the script from the doctor, and take it. No questions asked. Doctors are just a fraction below G-d. If you don't question , you really are taking Blue and Red Pills. Within ten miles from where I grew up, and about 3 miles from where I am now, is a town called "Milltown". My mother always beamed with pride as she reminded her girls in the back seat of the car this town we were driving through was named after a wonderful drug from the 50s. (Whitaker describes the town and the drug in detail in the book as well). 

I had only one doctor who, upon giving me a script for Lamictal back in 2001, told me about the rash. If I get any kind of rash, call him immediately. If I cannot reach him, go to the emergency room. No other doctor, from childhood on, ever did this. 

The first drug I ever had a problem with was Prozac, which I started in 87, about 12 months after I was diagnosed. Prozac was was the wonder drug of that age- on the cover of Newsweek and The New York Magazine at the same time.  The side effects were awful.  I couldn't sleep, I had nightmares. Then the fevers, ringing in my ears, and the sensation my skin was moulting and I couldn't stop scratching. My whole personality changed, I went from being a mild Casper Milquetoast type person to someone looking for a girl fight. Then I was told to quit the drug cold turkey, and fortunately, for me, I was put on both Zoloft, and later, Paxil, and fortunately, no side effects. Not like the Prozac. 

It wasn't until I was reading this book I saw i was not alone with side effects from Prozac that I experienced. And when I told the doctor how I was feeling on it, he told me to keep staying on it, and ride it out. Two psychiatrists later, I was finally moved off Prozac to something else. 

And now I sit, 2 years ago almost dying from Haldol, where every muscle in my body fell asleep and I had to re-learn how to do everything. Walk, talk,eat, even go to the bathroom. Yet in the book, over and over again- Haldol- muscle fatigue. I was as bad a case from this as possible, the worst would have been dying. I survived. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy. To this day I am haunted by something a nurse told me when my muscles started to wake, that my screams from the pain were exactly like the ones from burn victims. 

Three years ago, one P-doc put me on Remeron. After about two weeks on that I got so suicidal I checked myself into the hospital, because I reckoned, I would rather be shot up with Thorazine and be alive and get off this drug then stay home and I know I would suicide. While I was detoxing off Remeron, the same pdoc wanted to put me into Trenton Psychiatric Hospital due to the side effects I was experiencing with the meds. I fired him, and left the hospital against doctors orders. Alive. If I was put in Trenton Psych, I fear I would still be there, like a scene from "Cuckoo's nest" 

And being on lithium, since 87- with small respites on Depakote and Lamictal- well, I just wrote about loosing my hair. I am constantly sick to my stomach, and can only eat bland food. Anything spicy- no. Nexium has become a magic pill for me to be able to eat anything.  But the worst- is knowing that sometime between now and September I have to go for another bone marrow biopsy, and it's just a matter of time before I have leukemia unless by some miracle my white blood count should stop duplicating and go DOWN. Which it hasn't since 2003, it's been going up in some kind of Mathusian equation I haven't been able to crack.

I said this book belongs on every one's bookshelf. It does.This book deserves to be on the Times Top Ten list. But no matter your stance- pro pharma, anti pharma know this.  But please, question the doctor for everything. Don't be blind trust, there are good ones and bad ones out there- but you are the most important person in the world, and you must know every option out there, and question. Likewise, there are good drugs out there- Penicillin, for example has saved lives. But question. Question everything. Question authority like you haven't done since you are 18-19.  The life you save will be your own, your husbands, child's or parents. You owe them and yourself the chance to live long and prosper. 

ETA: After I posted this, Pharma Gossip put this book review on it's site as the book of the month. It's an article also worth reading.