The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 03.29.17

The best talk I have ever given about the harms of antidepressant drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, and Wellbutrin. Impassioned and yet full of devastating facts and truths about the damage done to many, and perhaps most, of people who take them. Not only children but also adults develop suicidal thoughts and behaviors on antidepressants. All ages can develop symptoms of mania and some experience a full-blown manic episode with dangerously uncontrolled, impulsive, grandiose behavior. Others become chronically depressed by these drugs called antidepressants. Many become easily frustrated (irritable) and or even violent, including many mass murders who were taking antidepressants. Ethical people become unethical. Kind people become callous and hateful. Without knowing what has happened to them, almost everyone becomes less caring and less engaged with friends, loved ones, work, recreational activities and life in general. With all that, genuinely scientific studies show that antidepressants are not even helpful, while the FDA defies commonsense and science in how it allows the drug companies to test them! I call for a ban on giving these and other psychiatric drugs to children and ask if any adults, if fully informed, would ever take them.

INSIGHT – BREAK-UP BOOT CAMP (REALLY) – MEN & MENTAL HEALTH – DANCING AT DAWN PRE WORK ACROSS THE GLOBE – 02.23.17

What helps you get over someone…endless Ben & Jerry’s, wine, yoga, wine, frolicking with puppies???  Renew, an upstate N.Y. retreat for those in need of an escape and help mending their shattered heart can help.  Plus, there’s nothing like getting over someone with another someone! When I gave a talk on mental illness to N.J. State health professionals recently, I …

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 03.01.17

When I found myself without a guest, I delivered a spontaneous hour on my latest thinking about psychiatric drugs. I start out talking about antipsychotic drugs and tardive dyskinesia, and how the “miraculous revolution” in psychopharmacology began with psychiatrists and drug companies promoting neurotoxins as cures. Then I go on to examine the common neurotoxic effects of all psychiatric drugs, finally declaring that all psychiatric drugs are “not caring drugs.” With some subtle variations, psychiatric drugs as a group “work” by causing apathy, loss of interest, reduced spontaneity, and lack of caring. Because of medication spellbinding, individuals often do not realize how their personalities and experience of life have been transformed for the worse, but they feel the relief of no longer caring as much about their emotional suffering, and about the people and activities in their lives. Sometimes the personality changes are subtle in the form of mild indifference and at other times very gross in the form of apathy, catatonia, and withdrawal. Because the medicated individuals no longer care about anything as much as they once did, they often become more docile and “easier to be with.” When their families, teachers, doctors or hospital caretakers find them “improved,” it is often because the drugged patients have become disengaged from themselves and their lives, hence displaying less suffering, and causing less conflict and difficulty. Psychiatry and drug companies, now with the cooperation of all medicine, and many societal institutions, are producing an epidemic of chemical encephalitis with disastrous effects on individuals and society.

BRUCE E. LEVINE – Killing “Schizophrenics”: Contemporary U.S. Psychiatry Versus Nazi Psychiatry

In any society that prioritizes economic efficiency, productivity and order above life and all of life’s varieties, people experiencing altered and extreme emotional states will be seen as defective and as burdens—monkey wrenches that disturb the societal assembly line. To be clear, contemporary American society is not Nazi-German society when it comes to treating people labeled with “serious mental illness,” …

INSIGHT – THE WORLD OF SPIES AND HACKS – HOW ADDING A TWIST TO YOUR PROFESSION CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE – 01.26.17

The POTUS refuses to acknowledge Russia’s involvement in the 2016 presidential election though my guest, T.L. Williams, a former CIA operative shares how cyber warfare will continue to escalate and the ramifications on the U.S. and the world.  Learn why Tim Fitzgerald is taking his social worker practice to Thailand where elephant rides, meditation and calming the mind will redefine …

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. – Mounting Evidence Links Lead, Mercury and Arsenic to Autism

In November 2016, I reported on six studies that found strong relationships between biomarkers for mercury toxicity in children with autism including a direct correlation between the levels of mercury toxicity and the severity of autism symptoms. Those findings are supported by recent research that links industrial exposures of lead, mercury and arsenic to the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder …

Sharna Oldman, Ph.D. – The Science and Pseudoscience of Children’s Mental Health

Over the past two decades, there has been a meteoric rise in the number of children – now estimated to be 1 in 6 – diagnosed and treated for a range of psychological disturbances including ADHD, autism, mood disorders, and learning disabilities. Explanations in the popular media tend to polarize around two viewpoints: 1)    Childhood mental illnesses are caused by …

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 12.28.16

Peter Gøtzsche, MD, an extraordinary physician and researcher, talks with me about the self-deception and denial rampant in psychiatry as we ask, “How can our colleagues behave in this way?” We look at the mountain of money, power and authority looming over our reform efforts and ask, “How can we succeed?” A heartfelt conversation about the disaster of modern psychiatry and our personal and professional efforts to come to grips with it. We look at the plight of patients whose doctors do not listen to them and indeed the plight of psychiatrists seemingly compelled to do harm regardless of the truth and any efforts to stop them. This is the final in a marvelous series of four consecutive conversations with Peter about the state of psychiatry and what can be done about it, available on prn.fm and on breggin.com. I can think of no better introduction to psychiatric reform than listening to these four dialogues.

Rare look at youth post detention is bleak

A new Northwestern Medicine study offers a bleak assessment in a rare look at the outcomes of delinquent youth five and 12 years after juvenile detention. Central to poor outcomes for the youth post detention are stark and persistent racial, ethnic and gender disparities, according to the massive study that began in the mid-1990s. African-American males fared the worst, with …

Wes Annac – Psychological And Spiritual Benefits Of Psilocybin

Psilocybin, the natural hallucinogenic compound found in various species of psilocybin mushrooms, has been found to treat depression, anxiety, and other serious mental illnesses. As we’ll learn, extensive research into its benefits was lost by the 70s due to its classification as an illegal drug. Research on the benefits of LSD and other psychedelics was lost for the same reason. …