The bitterest pills : the troubling story of antipsychotic drugs / Joanna Moncrieff, University College London, UK.

  • Moncrieff, Joanna, 1966-
Date:
2013
  • Books

About this work

Description

"Antipsychotic (neuroleptic) drugs have become some of the biggest blockbusters of the early 21st century, increasingly prescribed not just to people with 'schizophrenia' or other severe forms of mental disturbance but for a range of more common psychological complaints. This book challenges the accepted account that portrays antipsychotics as specific treatments that target an underlying brain disease and explores early views that suggested, in contrast, that antipsychotics achieve their effects by inducing a state of neurological suppression. Professional enthusiasm for antipsychotics eclipsed this understanding, exaggerated the benefits of antipsychotics and minimized or ignored evidence of their toxic effects. The pharmaceutical industry has been involved in expanding the use of antipsychotics into territory where it is likely that their dangers far outweigh their advantages"-- Provided by publisher.

Publication/Creation

Basingstoke, Hampshire ; New York, NY : Palgrave Macmillan, imprint of Macmillan Publishing Limited, 2013.

Physical description

xiv, 278 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references (pages 229-268) and index.

Contents

Cure or curse : what are antipsychotics? -- Chlorpromazine : the first wonder drug -- Magic bullets : the development of ideas on drug action -- Building a house of cards : the dopamine theory of schizophrenia and drug action -- The phoenix rises : from tardive dyskinesia to the introduction of the 'atypicals' -- Looking where the light is : randomised controlled trials of antipsychotics -- The patient's dilemma : other evidence on the effects of antipsychotics -- Chemical cosh : antipsychotics and chemical restraint -- Old and new drug-induced problems -- The first tentacles : the 'early intervention in psychosis' movement -- The antipsychotic epidemic : prescribing in the twenty-first century -- All is not as it seems -- Appendix 1: Common antipsychotic drugs -- Appendix 2: Accounts of schizophrenia and psychosis.

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    IJI /MON
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 9781137277428
  • 1137277424
  • 9781137277435
  • 1137277432