By Don Weitz
Jaffrey Masson was absolutely right when he once described dissident psychiatrist Peter Breggin as a “one-man intellectual SWAT team.” Talking Back to Prozac is a powerful attack on Prozac, its manufacturer Eli Lilly, and the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. The result is a most stimluating, empowering and readable critique.
There are several alarming chunks of information worth digesting in this important work. The first is the fact that psychiatrists and psychiatric researchers have been lying to or misinforming the public and patients about how Prozac works. Breggin claims that Prozac does not just disturb the brain’s serotonergic system, but other brain systems as well.
Second, Prozac is revealed by Breggins as a potent stimulant, not the “miracle anti-depressant” it has been hyped as—indeed, Breggins shows how Prozac’s effects are similar to those of addictive amphetamines.
Third, Breggins documents Prozac as triggering or causing violence such as suicide and homicide with no less than forty case studies. These, Breggins says, are the only tip of the iceberg of cases that the media has failed to report.
The book also exposes the fraudulent claims, conclusions and coverups of the FDA concerning Prozac’s alleged safety and effectiveness. Breggins reveals that several FDA members had conflicting research and funding ties to Eli Lilly when they approved Prozac’s mass release in 1987. The book also deals with the previously-documented connection of George Bush and Dan Quayle to Eli Lilly.
Talking Back to Prozac should be required reading for anybody interested in knowing the truth about Prozac. It is not only a powerful rebuttal to pro-Prozac literature, but it also provides psychiatric and Prozac survivors with ammunition to use in their struggle against psychiatry.
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