Psychiatric drugs: key issues and service user perspectives

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This provocative book is for anyone interested in psychiatric drugs and is both a lively introduction to the topic, and a stimulating read for the expert. It draws on the principal UK research into experiences of taking psychiatric drugs to bring service user voices into key debates on:

• adverse effects
• choice and compulsion
• the different experiences of people from black and minority ethnic communities in relation to psychiatric drugs
• the rise and possible fall of SSRI antidepressants
• the debate over effectiveness

A major part of the book looks at what happens when people try to come off psychiatric drugs. It brings together policy, practice and research into withdrawal and describes, in depth, Mind’s quantitative and qualitative research into people’s experiences of this. It is an invaluable source for learning about what the effects of withdrawal are like, what support people need and how the tensions between patients and doctors over decisions about medication can be constructively resolved.

• Author:

  Jim Read

• Publisher:

  Palgrave Macmillan

• Year:

  2009

• Pages:

  208

• ISBN:

  9780230549401