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Book Cover
E-book
Author Maris, Ronald W., author

Title Pillaged : psychiatric medications and suicide risk / Ronald William Maris ; foreword by David Healy
Published Columbia, South Carolina : University of South Carolina Press, [2015]

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Description 1 online resource
Contents The suicide risks of psychiatric medications -- Resolving suicidogenic claims -- Antidepressants -- Mood stabilizers and antiepileptics -- Anxiolytics -- Antipsychotics -- Residual suicidogenic drugs -- Conclusions, resolutions, and alternatives
Summary It is estimated that 45 to 50 percent of all Americans will suffer a mental disorder at some time during their lives. Increasingly, the treatment for these disorders is management with one or more psychiatric drugs, often prescribed by general practitioners. In Pillaged, Ronald William Maris evaluates the psychiatric medications commonly used to treat several major types of psychiatric disorders -- including depression and mood disorders, bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders and psychotic disorders -- asking "do they work as advertised?" and, more importantly, "are they safe?" Answers to these questions are more ambiguous than we might think, Maris explains, because drug manufacturers tend to minimize the adverse effects of their products. Furthermore, the underlying neurobiological theories of how psychiatric drugs work are complex, poorly understood and often conflicting. Still, Americans spend tens of billions of dollars a year on antidepressants and antipsychotics alone. While Maris questions the rampant prescribing of psychiatric medications especially in young people, Pillaged does not suggest that anyone cavalierly discontinue potentially beneficial psychiatric medications without the advice of a qualified mental health professional. The book acknowledges that psychiatric medications are often necessary in treating some psychiatric conditions, but it reminds readers of medication's potential for degrading one's quality of life, contributing to self-destructive behaviors and even leading to death in a vulnerable minority of patients. Maris advocates an open and honest discussion of data on psychiatric drugs, their effects and their dangers, and he reminds readers of available alternative, non-drug treatments for psychiatric disorders. By reviewing the history and effects of medications for mental disorders, Maris hopes to educate health care consumers and prescribers to make careful, informed decisions about the treatment of psychiatric disorders
Analysis MEDICAL / General
Medicine
PSYCHOLOGY / General
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Psychopharmacology.
Suicide -- Risk factors.
Suicide -- Prevention.
Risk.
Psychotropic Drugs -- adverse effects -- Case Reports
Suicide -- psychology -- Case Reports
Suicide -- prevention & control -- Case Reports
Risk -- Case Reports
Mental Disorders -- drug therapy -- Case Reports
Psychotropic Drugs -- therapeutic use -- Case Reports
Psychotropic Drugs -- therapeutic use
Psychotropic Drugs -- adverse effects
Suicide -- psychology
Suicide Prevention
Risk
Mental Disorders -- drug therapy
Psychopharmacology
MEDICAL -- Pharmacology.
MEDICAL / Pharmacology
Suicide -- Prevention
Risk
Psychopharmacology
Suicide -- Risk factors
Genre/Form Case studies
Case studies.
Études de cas.
Form Electronic book
LC no. 2015003056
ISBN 9781611174625
1611174627
Other Titles Psychiatric medications and suicide risk