The Skeptical Professional’s Guide to Psychiatry: On the Risks and Benefits of Antipsychotics, Antidepressants, Psychiatric Diagnoses, and Neuromania - Softcover

Dean, Charles E.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0367469200 ISBN 13: 9780367469207

Publisher: Routledge, 2020

Synopsis

This text critically examines the shortcomings of psychiatry; the flawed development of the diagnostic system, including the DSM-5; and the failure to advance the effectiveness of antipsychotics and antidepressants.

Starting with an overview of the evolution of psychiatry, Dean explores the creation, use, and misuse of medications, a process largely driven by drug companies. Other chapters describe the benefits and risks of medications, the problems associated with rational prescribing, and the embrace of so-called novel therapies including hallucinogenic drugs and opioids. Chapters end with a set of clinical notes that provide specific recommendations to clinicians, families, patients, and other providers, emphasizing the risks and benefits of treatment with medications but also stressing alternative approaches.

This book will challenge clinicians to think critically about the DSM-5 and the current systems of diagnosis and treatment of mental illnesses in the hopes of ultimately improving the lives of people with mental illnesses.

About this title

About the Author

Charles E. Dean, M.D., has 47 years of clinical, educational, and research experience. He has taught psychopharmacology and clinical neuroscience at the Minneapolis VA Medical Center and the University of Minnesota.

Edition details

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2020
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0367469200
• ISBN 13: 9780367469207
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 348