Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good

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Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good

Cracked: Why Psychiatry is Doing More Harm Than Good

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James Davies, with a PhD in social and medical anthropology from Oxford, begins with a history of psychiatry starting in the 1970s and a crisis of confidence it faced. A series of experiments questioned the validity and reliability of psychiatric diagnosis. On a personal level, I have to say that I encountered this particular issue in the early 1970s, where I was given the relevant medication for "anxiety" which made it almost impossible for me to function. The doctor who prescribed these, who I respected and still do, also said quite directly, in Scottish English "you don't like your job, do ya?" thus bringing that issue into full consciousness. When I left that employment to be a full-time student, I knew that I wouldn't need the medication anymore, and so it was. One of the points Davies makes is that the social aspects causing distress, hyperactivity etc are discounted by the medical model, even the neurological model and how research into genes is presented.

Cracked: The Unhappy Truth about Psychiatry by James Davies Cracked: The Unhappy Truth about Psychiatry by James Davies

Atlantic have bought UK & Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) in Dr James Davies’s The New Opium:Capitalism, Mental Health and the Sedation of a Nation. The book argues governments now are more preoccupied with sedating us, depoliticising our discontent and keeping us productive and subservient to the economic status quo, than with understanding and solving the real roots of our emotional despair. Despite pseudoscientific terms like “chemical imbalance”, nobody really knows what causes mental illness. There’s no blood test or brain scan for major depression.’ (Dr Darshak Sanghavi, clinical fellow at Harvard Medical School) In fact, although not mentioned by the author here; regular vigorous exercise can be as (or more) effective in reducing depressive episodes as pharmaceutical intervention, without any of the accompanying side effects. Exercise regulates hormones and neurotransmitters, reduces inflammation, increases BDNF; among many other benefits and harm reductions.The book begins with a discussion of the DSM and its plausibility. Davies speaks with Robert Spitzer (a key figure in earlier versions) and others about the meaning and purpose of this diagnostic text and establishes that the categories within were not arrived at by research, but what seems to be a consensus of practitioners. Later he talks with a prominent critic of the current DSM (5) with Allen Frances, who expresses his view that many normal behaviours are now being pathologised. I've read Frances' book Saving Normal, on this topic, and it appears in both instances that, for all the valid points he makes, Frances is unable to put himself outside the thought of his profession.

James Davies publishes new book “Sedated: How Modern Dr James Davies publishes new book “Sedated: How Modern

As a scientific venture, the theory that low serotonin causes depression appears to be on the verge of collapse. This is as it should be; the nature of science is ultimately to be selfcorrecting. This is important on a number of levels, because the claim of medication (my doctor's term) or drugs (mine, which I use for diabetes pills) is crucial to the claims of the various anti-depressants. Davies points out that published research shows that effectiveness of these products isn't all that much different from a placebo, which invites an interesting discussion on how people might be "cured" and that these drugs can have dangerous side-effects. He also points to the selective publication of research in that unfavourable studies are excluded. None of this is new, really, but it's very well presented. Medical naming encourages thinking about human beings in all their complexity as broken, and needing mending – and opens the door to the over-prescription. In fact, as one astute expert (among the many) Davies consults, points out tersely, this thinking of these drugs as ‘cures’ is erroneous, as unlike most physiological disease there just is no hard evidence to support the biology of a lot of what is now being treated as ‘disease’ through these medications – which alter mood. They do not ‘cure’ shyness, (or, lets medicalise it as social phobia) any more than a glass of wine ‘cures’ shyness – both change ways of perceiving the world, that is all. This citation seems academically sloppy and perhaps shows that Davies seeks to oversimplify a complex and murky issue into a one-sided story (though this also might reflect my innate bias against pop-science books). Filled with sensationalist statements and hyperbole, Davies tries to expose the darker side of psychiatry and big pharma. Although he frequently references the literature, he only very briefly mentions their findings. The structure of the book is also somewhat confusing, as it is repetitive at times. The book is littered with several spelling and grammar errors.

I surely cannot recommend this book. To read books that take down psychiatry, I would instead read something more like the following:



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