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| View Larger Image | Prozac Backlash: Overcoming the Dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Other Antidepressants with Safe, Effective Alternatives
by Joseph Glenmullen
| | List Price: | $15.00 | | Price: | $10.20 | | You Save: | $4.80 (32%) |  | | Available: | Usually ships in 24 hours | | | | | Sales Rank: | 41033 | | Studio: | Simon & Schuster | | | Binding: | Paperback | | Number Of Pages: | 384 | | Publication Date: | April 17, 2001 | | Publisher: | Simon & Schuster |
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EDITORIAL REVIEWS |
Product Description
Roughly 28 million Americans -- one in every ten -- have taken Prozac, Zoloft, or Paxil or a similar antidepressant, yet very few patients are aware of the dangers of these drugs, nor are they aware that better, safer alternatives exist. Now Harvard Medical School's Dr. Joseph Glenmullen documents the ominous long-term side effects associated with these and other serotonin-boosting medications. These side effects include neurological disorders, such as disfiguring facial and whole-body tics that can indicate brain damage; sexual dysfunction in up to 60 percent of users; debilitating withdrawal symptoms, including visual hallucinations, electric shock-like sensations in the brain, dizziness, nausea, and anxiety; and a decrease of antidepressant effectiveness in about 35 percent of long-term users. In addition, Dr. Glenmullen's research and riveting case studies shed shocking new light on the direct link between these drugs and suicide and violence.Written by a doctor with impeccable credentials, Prozac Backlash is filled with compelling, sometimes heartrending stories and is thoroughly documented with extensive scientific sources. It is both provocative and hopeful, a sound, reliable guide to the safe treatment of depression and other psychiatric problems. |
Amazon.com
It seems like it was just yesterday that Prozac was a miracle pill, a medication that could not only make sick people well, but "better than well." By the end of the 1990s, Prozac and similar drugs--Paxil, Zoloft, and others--were being prescribed for everything from depression to anxiety to drug addiction to ADD. About 70 percent of prescriptions for these antidepressants were being written by family physicians, rather than psychiatrists. Dr. Joseph Glenmullen, a psychiatrist who has a private practice and also works for Harvard University Health Services, sees this antidepressant mania as dangerous, even reckless. He notes that these drugs can have severe side effects, including uncontrollable facial and body tics, which could be signs of severe and permanent brain damage. About 50 percent of patients suffer often-debilitating withdrawal symptoms from them, and about 60 percent end up with sexual dysfunction. And Prozac may make a small number of people homicidal or suicidal, or both. But there are alternatives: in Germany, for example, St. John's wort outsells Prozac 25 to 1, showing that doctors and patients there understand that the herbal remedy works as well as the synthetic ones for mild to moderate depression. [Editor's note: St. John's wort has been shown to interfere with the actions of the transplant rejection drug cyclosporin and the AIDS drug indinivir.] And diet, exercise, 12-step programs, and good old-fashioned psychotherapy can work well, too. Even for severe depression requiring medication, Dr. Glenmullen shows how the drugs can be used with other treatments and then discontinued after a year or less. Moreover, Prozac Backlash discusses exactly what depression is and isn't; Dr. Glenmullen reviews hundreds of scientific studies, and discusses numerous case studies from his practice and others. Because of that detail, medical professionals may be this book's most likely readers, but anyone who has been on an antidepressant, or is close to someone who is, will also want to give Prozac Backlash a careful read. The brain you save could be your own. --Lou Schuler |
CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.0 based on 60 reviews)
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Be Informed! 
I urge anyone who is taking an SSRI antidepressant (or considering it) to read this book. All the way through. Prozac and it's SSRI cousins are recklessly handed out to us as if they were candy on Halloween. I'll wager your physician will not tell you of the side effects and dangers of these so called miracle pills. Remember that physicians are financially rewarded to get you and other patients in and out of their office as quickly as possible. It is lucrative to prescribe these drugs rather than inform you of supplements as well as dietary and lifestyle changes that work just as well as Prozac!
Dr. Glenmullen is a courageous and incredibly well informed doctor. He presents anecdotal, firsthand and scientific evidence that antidepressants are not the Godsend we are led to believe they are. In fact they can be dangerous and downright debilitating. Even though this book was written in 2000, Dr. Glenmullen tells us of the increased risk of suicide in adults who take SSRIs. Now, in 2006, the FDA are finally acknowledging this! A black box warning is now placed on these drugs.
Please do not mindlessly take antidepressants without being informed of the very possible consequences. Read this book first!
January 24, 2007 | |
Don't Be Fooled. Read This Book.
As a person who has been on antidepressants for over 8 years and developed severe neurological conditions while on them, I can't recommend this book highly enough. It was suggested to me by one of my doctors after constant testing could find no physical cause for my neurological problems. There were no lesions, no tumors, no spinal anomolies yet there I was with severe myoclonus among other things.
First of all, it was explained to me at the outset that depression like mine was cyclic. I should be able to get off the medication after a year and a half and not expect the depression to come back for some time afterwards whereupon I would again have to undergo depression. It was not explained to me that serious side effects could occur such as memory problems, withdrawal symptoms, ticks, twitches and loss of mental acuity.
I've taken three different antidepressants and what I experienced is sort of like a muffler on a car. The medications muffle my anxiety, my depression, my pain at being alive in this world. They don't fix anything however. A muffler on a car will blunt the noise of the engine but if there's something wrong with the engine, it will blunt that sound too.
As I've come down off of antidepressants, each time the dose was lowered, I've experienced a fierce reoccurence of my primary neurological symptoms. Then those symptoms will calm again until the dose is dropped again.
I find this book to contain very well documented information. Dozens of clinical studies and reports are cited as well as the author's own personal observations. The studies and reports are largely available to be read by anyone who requests a copy, not just within the pages of this book. I recommend that anyone who is considering a long term treatment via these sorts of drugs should read this book beforehand, especially if their hmo or general practitioner has suggested it. As the author points out, many unqualified physicians are being pressured to throw a pill at us for the least sign of even normal anxiety or melancholy.
Don't let a pill muffle you.
July 09, 2006 | |
Good book 
Good review of the negative aspects of SSRIs (and there are many). Would have given it five stars, but he leaves out the very important fact that SSRIs can sometimes cause permanent sexual dysfunction after the drugs are stopped. This has long been overlooked by the medical community and should be included here. Do a goolge search for details.
October 04, 2005 | |
Open Mind
I thought this book was interesting. If one is willing to listen to and/or believe the claims and promises set forth by the drug companies/makers of these anti-depressants, then surely one should be open and willing to learn about these same drugs from a different point of view.
I think many people would agree that we spend more time researching our next car or vacation than we do finding out about the things we put into our bodies, especially when it comes to chemicals and drugs. I think we must admit that the FDA, HMO systems and our own GP's are not infallible. This book is another tool for learning ways to take responsibility for, and manage our own health and well-being.
February 21, 2005 | |
My son has been taking prozac for 2 years.
My son was prescribed prozac for anxiety and add along with anphetamines. I told the doctor that my son had facial tics and he prescribed these drugs anyway. When his tics got worse, the psychiatrist took him off the amphetamines. I did not know that prozac was a brain stimulant until I started reading this book. A year ago, the dr. started my son on Strattera, a new medication approved for treating ADD. The doctor also increased the dose of prozac from 10 mg to 20 mg. Now after reading this book, I wonder if these drugs will cause irreversible brain damage to my son who is 11 years old. Although the doctor who wrote this book does not treat children, and the book was written before Strattera was approved for ADD it has made me question my decision to put my young son on these powerful drugs. I want to read more about these drugs, and would like to get my son off of them because they don't seem to be helping him that much. I decided not to increase my son's dose of prozac to 20mg because it would be that much harder to taper off the medication in the future. The psychiatrist also wanted to increase the dose of strattera from 40 mg daily but I told him no. I only put my son on these drugs because his school pressured me to put him on them because of social problems he was having in school. Now I regret having put him on these drugs because I worry about permanent brain damage. Maybe if the insurance companies promoted getting psychotherapy and social skills training there would be less use of these drugs. But psychotherapy is more expensive than giving pills to children, therefore they discourage psycotherapy and limit the amount they will pay for it.
January 06, 2005 | |
SIMILAR PRODUCTS |
| | The Antidepressant Solution : A Step-by-Step Guide to Safely Overcoming Antidepressant Withdrawal, Dependence, and "Addiction"
by Joseph Glenmullen
| | The Anti-Depressant Fact Book: What Your Doctor Won't Tell You About Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, and Luvox
by Peter R. Breggin
| | Your Drug May Be Your Problem: How and Why to Stop Taking Psychiatric Drugs
by Peter R. Breggin, David Cohen
| | Toxic Psychiatry: Why Therapy, Empathy and Love Must Replace the Drugs, Electroshock, and Biochemical Theories of the "New Psychiatry"
by Peter Breggin
| | Let Them Eat Prozac: The Unhealthy Relationship Between the Pharmaceutical Industry and Depression (Medicine, Culture, and History)
by David Healy
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