From FAQ: Side Effects

March 16, 2008
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Psychiatric drug side effects and adverse reactions

The following brief summaries of adverse drug reactions are very abbreviated and merely hint at the widespread and potentially devastating side effects associated with all psychiatric medications. For a more thorough examination of neurological and psychological side effects, please consult Dr. Breggin's books, listed below.

Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors

(SSRIs) and Other Antidepressants

(Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa)

Agitation

Akathisia (extreme restlessness)

Hypomania and mania

Suicidal ideation

Loss of impulse control and inhibitions

Violence toward self or others

Increased risk of birth defects

Manic psychoses

Obsessive tendencies

Benzodiazepines

(Xanax, Valium, Librium, Halcion and others)

Impaired mental alertness and physical coordination.
Potential for abuse and addiction
Anxiety
Insomnia
Paranoia
Short-term memory impairment
Severe withdrawal syndromes
Violence
Antisocial acts
Depression
Suicide

Neuroleptics

(Thorazine, Mellaril, Acuphase, Risperdal, Abilify)

Twitches, spasms, and other abnormal movements (tardive dyskinesia, or TD)

Painful feelings of inner tension and anxiety and a compulsive drive to move the body (tardive akathisia)

Dementia

Persistent cognitive dysfunction

Neuroleptic malignant syndrome (fever, spasms or rigidity, unstable vital signs, impaired mental function)

Sudden death

Shortened lifespan

Worsening of psychosis

Stimulants

(Ritalin, Adderall, Concerta and others)

Flattening of emotional response
Addiction and abuse potential
Appetite suppression
Growth inhibition
Depression
Obsessive over-focusing on rote tasks
Tics and disfiguring facial spasms
Impaired learning

The side effects of psychiatric drugs are treated in more detail in the following books:

The majority of Dr. Breggin's books focus on harmful medication effects on the brain, mind and behavior. Of them, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry is the most thorough presentation of his overall views on the dangers associated with psychiatric medication, describing how the supposed positive effects of psychiatric drugs are in fact the result of drug-induced mental disabilities. Antidepressants, for example, cause emotional anesthesia and numbing or euphoria, both of which may mistakenly be interpreted as improvements. Neuroleptics or or antipsychotic drugs disrupt frontal lobe function, producing apathy and indifference. Stimulants blunt spontaneity and enforce obsessive behaviors, leading to a mistaken impression of improvement in "hyperactive" children, expecially in boring classrooms. The benzodiazepines, like alcohol, suppress overall brain function, temporarily taking the edge off anxiety, while worsening it in the long run.

From detailed discussion of the tardive dyskinesia caused by antipsychotic drugs to treatises on memory dysfunction caused by mood stabilizers like lithium and by benzodiazepine tranquilizers, Brain-Disabling Treatments in Psychiatry offers the most comprehensive and detailed analysis now available anywhere concerning the adverse neurological and mental effects of psychiatric drugs. It also provides the most detailed analyses currently available of of drug-induced destructive behavior, from the apathy caused by neuroleptics to violence and suicide caused by antidepressants, stimulants, and tranquilizers. It draws on hundreds of scientific studies and provides guidelines for how to more safely withdraw from psychiatric drugs.

Medication Madness presents a collection of vivid clinical case studies of patients driven to act bizzarrely and even violently by psychiatric drugs of every class. Its final chapters are devoted to safely withdrawing from psychiatric medications.

Your Drug May Be Your Problem (co-written with David Cohen), offers a more popular and accessible discussion of the adverse effects of each class of psychiatric medication and outlines principles for safe withdrawal. It provides the non-specialist with a medically and psychologically sound program for freeing themselves from psychiatric drugs, emphasizing throughout the importance for patients to keep control over the withdrawal process. .

The Antidepressant Fact Book , The Ritalin Fact Book , Talking Back to Ritalin, and Talking Back to Prozac focus on individual drugs and classes of drugs.

Selected peer-reviewed papers on:

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