Do you want to get off antidepressants and move toward a more full and balanced life? Have you tried several times to get off antidepressants, only to end up right back on them? If so, this book is for you. In The Antidepressant Antidote: Five Steps to Get Off Antidepressants Safely and Effectively, Bethany Butzer, Ph.D. provides practical and proven techniques to help you get off antidepressants once and for all. This life-enhancing 5-step program will teach you: How to get the support you need as you taper off antidepressants. Tips to deal with the withdrawal effects that can arise when reducing your antidepressant dose. Techniques to let go of stress, anxiety, sadness, and depression. Smart choices to move you toward the type of life you desire. Strategies to stay off antidepressants over the long term. In this book, Dr. Butzer doesnt stand up on an ivory tower and tell you what to do. She took antidepressants for 6 years, and after several failed attempts she finally managed to get off the medication for good. She offers moving, real-life stories from her own experiences to show you how to bring the principles in this book to life. Written by an expert in psychology who understands antidepressants both personally and professionally, The Antidepressant Antidote provides a holistic 5-step program to help you kick your antidepressant habit for good.

"The Evidence-Based Guide to Antipsychotic Medications" is a table-rich, comprehensive overview of current knowledge regarding the use of antipsychotic medications to treat a broad range of psychiatric conditions, from anxiety disorders to schizophrenia.

Do antidepressants work? Of course -- everyone knows it. Like his colleagues, Irving Kirsch, a researcher and clinical psychologist, for years referred patients to psychiatrists to have their depression treated with drugs before deciding to investigate for himself just how effective the drugs actually were. Over the course of the past fifteen years, however, Kirsch's research -- a thorough analysis of decades of Food and Drug Administration data -- has demonstrated that what everyone knew about antidepressants was wrong. Instead of treating depression with drugs, we've been treating it with suggestion. The Emperor's New Drugs makes an overwhelming case that what had seemed a cornerstone of psychiatric treatment is little more than a faulty consensus. But Kirsch does more than just criticize: he offers a path society can follow so that we stop popping pills and start proper treatment for depression.

In 1998, over 120 million prescriptions were written for antidepressants. That number is projected to rise by almost thirty million by the end of 2000. Despite this growing trend, many patients find that their doctors do not tell them all they need to know about the medications to make their treatments as successful as possible. The Antidepressant Sourcebook is the first place to turn for people taking antidepressants for the first time and for the millions who have already taken them. Here, in one concise reference, is all the reader needs to know, including what to talk about with the doctor, how to start and stop medications, and what to expect in the course of treatment. It is a written complement to what the doctor tells you. It answers every question a patient might have: How do I know if I'm on the right medication? Will my antidepressant interact with other medications I'm taking? Can I take it while pregnant? Will it change my personality? Do I need psychotherapy? If you or someone you love is taking antidepressants for depression, an anxiety disorder, or any other reason, your concerns will be addressed here. The Antidepressant Sourcebook is the most comprehensive primer you can own, offering hands-on advice and clear information. It's required reading for anyone who is taking or thinking about taking antidepressants.

Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified dummy pills? How can we tell? In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist and author Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients’ dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light. Kramer homes in on the moment of clinical decision making: Prescribe or not? What evidence should doctors bring to bear? Using the wide range of reference that readers have come to expect in his books, he traces and critiques the growth of skepticism toward antidepressants. He examines industry-sponsored research, highlighting its shortcomings. He unpacks the “inside baseball” of psychiatry—statistics—and shows how findings can be skewed toward desired conclusions. Kramer never loses sight of patients. He writes with empathy about his clinical encounters over decades as he weighed treatments, analyzed trial results, and observed medications’ influence on his patients’ symptoms, behavior, careers, families, and quality of life. He updates his prior writing about the nature of depression as a destructive illness and the effect of antidepressants on traits like low self-worth. Crucially, he shows how antidepressants act in practice: less often as miracle cures than as useful, and welcome, tools for helping troubled people achieve an underrated goal—becoming ordinarily well.

With the FDA's warning that antidepressants may cause agitation, anxiety, hostility, and even violent or suicidal tendencies, these medications are at the forefront of national legal news. Harvard physician Joseph Glenmullen has led the charge to warn the public that antidepressants are overprescribed, underregulated, and, especially, misunderstood in their side and withdrawal effects. Now he offers a solution! More than twenty million Americans -- including over one million teens and children -- take one of today's popular antidepressants, such as Paxil, Zoloft, or Effexor. Dr. Glenmullen recognizes the many benefits of antidepressants and prescribes them to his patients, but he is also committed to warning the public of the dangers associated with overprescription. Dr. Glenmullen's last book, Prozac Backlash, sounded the alarm about possible dangers. The Antidepressant Solution provides the remedy. It is the first book to call attention to the drugs' catch-22: Although many people are ready to go off these drugs, they continue to take them because either the patient or the doctor mistakes antidepressant withdrawal for depressive relapse. The Antidepressant Solution offers an easy, step-by-step guide for patients and their doctors. Written by the premier authority in the field, The Antidepressant Solution is an invaluable book for all those concerned with going through the process -- from friends and family members to doctors and patients themselves.

Do you find that you don't handle stress well and are frequently irritable? Did you know the much-publicized low-fat/high-carbohydrate diet of recent years may actually be making you depressed and overweight? And what are the hidden dangers of sleep loss and irregular schedules? In Beyond Prozac, Dr. Michael Norden, a psychiatrist and pioneer in developing new applications of Prozac, explains how the toll of modern-day life has undermined our health and led to a national epidemic of depression, anxiety and weight problems. But there is hope. Based on seven years of groundbreaking research and clinical work, Beyond Prozac offers solutions to these chronic health problems that go beyond simply prescribing Prozac from incredibly effective alternative treatments such as light therapy, regulation of sleeping habits, and specialized diets to the next generation of safer and more effective depression medications. A decisive voice in the debate about depression, Beyond Prozac is a provocative and enduring classic in the modern literature about mental health. Now revised and expanded to include the latest new information and research, Beyond Prozac gives you the inside scoop on: Powerful new antidepressants: Serzone, Wellbutrin and Remeron The surprising relationship between weather, brain chemistry and behavior New studies hinting that low serotonin is the norm, not the exception, and what this means for those seeking treatment What melatonin really can and can't do Depression, health and "The Zone" diet The latest all-natural treatments for depression: DHEA and St. John's wort Updates on Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Luvox and more!