You can't imagine people arguing with long term outcomes from psychiatric medications and yet they do. Is the evidence overwhelming and compelling as you say? I speed read Whitaker's book and I did not find that to be the case.

I could write pages and pages addressing that question. I will share some anecdote first with my own profession. I remember starting out as a personal trainer and a massage therapist. I now cringe at a lot of what I said and did 8 years ago. I discovered that much of what I do has no research. So when I went looking I was very disappointed to discover that I had nothing to guide me. What can I do? Well the next best thing is to find out what some of the best amongst my profession are doing. I worked my guts out and paid for and got myself mentors to learn from.

Psychiatry has more research but its not so great when compared with the other medical sciences. Among my clients is a lawyer that actually works with the drug companies, a supreme court judge and a psychiatrist. As a massage therapist I have met a lot of people. When I broach the subject I can see them almost rolling their eyes.

Take Patient A.: he has no family or other support, he has unstable accommodation, he is often in trouble with the law and he has no occupation or education. He then gets diagnosed and put on medication for the first time at age 22. He stays out of trouble with the police, he gets part time employment and part time education and stable housing and his mental state stabilizes. He returns to see his psychiatrist every 6 months for the next 10 years and remains stable. This is not that uncommon, no doubt they need some medication changes and they still experience difficulties, they probably do not like taking medications but would prefer that than the alternative. If medications had a poor outcome like you believe then it would be the reverse and the lawyer, doctor and judge would know that. That's exactly what they would be able to tell me don't you think? They would have increasing numbers of clients as they wreck more lives their workload will just go up and up. More patients to treat and then for the others that never used any medications they just go on with their lives because hey they aren't really mentally ill LOL

I find it amusing that Whitaker comes along in 1998 and 'discovers' what the rest of the mental health community had known for years. We already know about the drug companies faking data and the ghost writing and on and on. Its been documented and most of community is outraged and wants changes; it is a case of Johnny come lately preaching to the converted.

Whitaker is a journalist. He has:
a) never practiced as a mental health professional and therefore has no clinical experience
b) has not conducted any research apart from his book
c) has to my knowledge no personal experience with mental illness

Do you really think a journalist is going to reveal things to experts in mental health? Really? Nobody else knows these things? Whitaker is smarter and has looked at what nobody else has? LOL a lol lol a alol lol.

I agree we need more longitudinal studies and since your interested I will link to one. If you have an open mind (that is if you haven't made up your mind already) and are actually interested in it I am sure you will read it. Maybe governments should fund more longitudinal studies.
http://ajp.psychiatryonline.org/doi/....ajp.157.6.931

If you assert there is overprescribing then first you need to know how much compliance there is with medication. Getting people to take medication in the first place is not that easy. They don't need vital to come in here and discourage them. I could post studies about medication compliance but will leave that for now. Maybe there is over prescribing in America but there is not much here. Governments subsidise our medicines and there is no direct to consumer marketing.

I hear people saying that it is all just placebo, antidepressants do not do anything apart from cause side effects. Then they want to withdraw them from the market? At least restrict them for the most severe cases? Bang! Overnight a black market for psychotropic medications. I would be forced to try to get them illegally because under your standards I would struggle to qualify unless I fake my symptoms or get a psychiatrist to say I am amongst the most severe. Its easy to sit there and criticize but much harder to come up with a solution.

I had depression for 10 years at least before I got an antidepressant. So it is not iatrogenic. I took Prozac until 2002 and then I went medication free. I gave it everything I had with exercise, diet, fish oil, meditation and cognitive behaviour therapy, I had a social group going and full time employment. Looking back I was never free of dysthymia, my mood never stabilized and although I achieved a lot I wrecked a lot of it and by 2010 was back into severe depression. I can't qualify for hospital because I am not planning my end so how do I get help if there is no medications? It is the only thing that has worked for me.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2781031