A Psychiatrist’s Perspective on Using Drugs

By Kelly Brogan, MD

When I see new patients, I do not prescribe medication for them. Patients who come to me know that I plan to help them understand "why" they are experiencing "what" they are going through.

Once I have tapered patients off of medication, we use alternatives if symptoms crop up again.

Knowing my basic orientation around the issue of psychiatric prescribing doesn't seem to stop some patients from asking for what they believe will be a quick fix in an antidepressant pill. Where did they learn to make these treatment requests of providers?

Perhaps they are a reflection of the 49% of requests for drugs prompted by "direct-to-consumer" (DCA) advertising by pharmaceutical companies.¹ Fully 7 out of 10 times, doctors prescribe based on these requests made by patients who learned from advertising that they have an "imbalance" that must be fixed with a pill.

In a 10-year period from 1999 to 2008, DCA tripled from 1.3 to 4.8 billion dollars devoted to educating patients about their need for psychiatric medication. The "mass provision" of SSRIs to the public is not a reflection of their well-understood mechanism, of their efficacy, or of their safety. In fact, it flies in the face of all three.

As stated by Professor of Neuroscience, Elliot Valenstein:²"What physicians and the public are reading about mental illness is by no means a neutral reflection of all the information that is available."

Continue reading at: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/01/16/dr-br...

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Permalink Reply by mystery on January 16, 2014 at 9:27pm

I applaud DR. Kelly Brogan, there are way to many people taking drugs just because they saw it on television and think it may do them some good.

I have a feeling this is the FDA's way of testing the side effects of these drugs on the general public without the possibility of repercussions. If you ask for something then you can't get mad when it goes really wrong.

A good way for them to turn it back around on ourselves by saying, you asked for the drug we did not make you take it. Its not our fault you cant sleep and you have the runs and dry eye, or that other people seem to be talking to you from inside your own head. You were crazy before you took the drug, that's why its happening. Off to the FEMA camp with you!

Get off the pills or whatever the MSD's give you, go to nature for your cures.