Posted: Friday 21 August 2009
Today leading mental health charity Mind has helped to redraw the boundaries in our understanding of psychiatric medication, with the launch of new book Psychiatric Drugs (1). Drawing heavily on individuals' experiences, it is the first book of its kind to explore what it is like to take antidepressants and other drugs from the viewpoint of the patient, and it contains new and provocative material about people's relationships with some of the most debated and controversial medications around.
From the launch of 'wonder drug' Prozac in the 1980s to the scandals around side-effects and drug trials in recent times, psychiatric drugs have been surrounded in controversy since they first came on the market. Over 60 million prescriptions are written for mental health medications every year (2), a figure that is rising year on year, with over 36 million prescriptions for antidepressants issued in 2008 alone (3). Despite their popularity with prescribers, weighing up benefits versus side effects can be a constant battle for patients - shockingly, it's estimated that 1.9 million people get no benefit from medication at all (4). Psychiatric Drugs aims to give professionals and patients alike an insider's view to the issues people face on a daily basis.
The author, Jim Read, whose work is informed by his own experiences of medication, said:
For every person who says their lives have been ruined by psychiatric drugs there is someone who believes they have been saved by them, and many more who just don't know, and wonder what their lives would have been like without them. The prescribing and taking of psychiatric drugs is always about more than a chemical and a brain. Everyone's relationship with their medication is unique and personal, and is affected by their beliefs and modified by their experience.
The inspiration for Psychiatric Drugs came after research by Mind found that many people struggle to come off medication, and can find their doctors unhelpful and unsupportive in the withdrawal process (5). This prompted debate over how much is really known about the patient experience, and the need for an inside view of how people's lives are really affected by drug treatments.
Mind's chief executive, Paul Farmer, said:
Psychiatric medication and the impact it has on people's lives is a vitally important issue for anyone who has been prescribed drug treatments, or knows someone on medication. Even within this one book there are themes that crop up again and again - hope, fear, indifference, adverse affects, ignorance about coming off them, and insecurity about managing without them.
Although we know a lot about the effects of psychiatric medication, the lists of benefits and adverse effects do not describe what it is actually like to take them. This book is designed to give that insight, so patients know they are not alone, and professionals realise that for patients, coming off medication can be a tough process that is also about taking control of their own destiny.
***ENDS***
Review copies of Psychiatric Drugs are available from the Mind media office. Author Jim Read is available for interview.
For more information, interviews and a range of case studies please contact Mind media office on T: 020 8522 1743 M: 07850 788514 E: media@mind.org.uk ISDN line available: 020 8221 0817.
Please note that Mind is not an acronym and should be set in title case.