Robert Whitakeris the author of Mad in America, The Mapmaker's Wife, and On the Laps of Gods, all of which won recognition as "notable books" of the year. His newspaper and magazine articles on the mentally ill and the pharmaceutical industry have garnered several national awards, including a George Polk Award for medical writing and a National Association of Science Writers Award for best magazine article. A series he cowrote for the Boston Globe on the abuse of mental patients in research settings was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.
“Why are so many more people disabled by mental illness than ever
before? Why are those so diagnosed dying 10-25 years earlier than
others? In Anatomy of an Epidemic investigative reporter Robert
Whitaker cuts through flawed science, greed and outright lies to
reveal that the drugs hailed as the cure for mental disorders
instead worsen them over the long term. But Whitaker’s
investigation also offers hope for the future: solid science backs
nature’s way of healing our mental ills through time and human
relationships. Whitaker tenderly interviews children and adults who
bear witness to the ravages of mental illness, and testify to their
newly found “aliveness” when freed from the prison of mind-numbing
drugs.” —Daniel Dorman, M.D., Clinical Assistant Professor of
Psychiatry, UCLA School of Medicine and author of Dante’s Cure: A
Journey Out of Madness
“This is the most alarming book I’ve read in years. The approach is
neither polemical nor ideologically slanted. Relying on medical
evidence and historical documentation, Whitaker builds his case
like a prosecuting attorney.” —Carl Elliott, M.D., Ph.D.,
Professor, Center for Bioethics, University of Minnesota and author
of Better than Well: American Medicine Meets the American Dream
“Anatomy of an Epidemic investigates a profoundly troubling
question: do psychiatric medications increase the likelihood that
people taking them, far from being helped, are more likely to
become chronically ill? In making a compelling case that our
current psychotropic drugs are causing as much—if not more—harm
than good, Robert Whitaker reviews the scientific literature
thoroughly, demonstrating how much of the evidence is on his side.
There is nothing unorthodox here—this case is solid and
evidence-backed. If psychiatry wants to retain its credibility with
the public, it will now have to engage with the scientific argument
at the core of this cogently and elegantly written book.” —David
Healy, M.D., Professor of Psychiatry, Cardiff University and author
of The Antidepressant Era and Let Them Eat Prozac
“Anatomy of an Epidemic is a splendidly informed, wonderfully
readable corrective to the conventional wisdom about the biological
bases—and biological cures—for mental illness. This is itself a
wise and necessary book—essential reading for all those who have
experienced, or care for those who have experienced, mental
illness—which means all of us! Robert Whitaker is a reliable,
sensible, and persuasive, guide to the paradoxes and complexities
of what we know about mental illness, and what we might be able to
do to lessen the suffering it brings.” —Jay Neugeboren, author of
Imagining Robert and Transforming Madness
“Every so often a book comes along that exposes a vast deceit.
Robert Whitaker has written that sort of book. Drawing on a
prodigious quantity of psychiatric literature as well as
heart-rending stories of individual patients, he exposes a deeply
disturbing fraud perpetrated by the drug industry and much of
modern psychiatry—at horrendous human and financial cost to
patients, their families, and society as a whole. Scrupulously
reported and written in compelling but unemotional style, this book
shreds the myth woven around today’s psychiatric drugs.” —Nils
Bruzelius, former science editor for the Boston Globe and the
Washington Post
“A devastating critique. . . . One day, we will look back at the
way we think about and treat mental illness and wonder if we were
all mad. Anatomy of an Epidemic should be required reading for both
patients and physicians.” —Shannon Brownlee, senior research
fellow, New America Foundation and author of Overtreated
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