The Council for Evidence-based Psychiatry invited global leaders in the critical psychiatry movement for a one-day conference which addressed an urgent public health issue: the iatrogenic harm caused by the over-prescription of psychiatric medications.
There is clear evidence that these drugs cause more harm than good over the long term, and can damage patients and even shorten their lives. Yet why are these medications so popular? What harms are they causing? What can be done to address the problem?
This event brought together key experts from both sides of the Atlantic to debate these issues. You can see the slides for the talks by clicking the link on this page. Robert Whitaker's slides start at number 28.
Robert Whitaker is an award-winning science journalist & author, a former fellow of the Safra Center for Ethics at Harvard University in Boston and founder of the influential e-zine madinamerica.com.
He is is the author of five books: Mad in America, The Mapmaker’s Wife, On the Laps of Gods, Anatomy of an Epidemic and most recently Psychiatry Under the Influence (with Lisa Cosgrove).
His newspaper and magazine articles on the mentally ill and the pharmaceutical industry have garnered several national awards, including a George Polk Award for medical writing and a National Association of Science Writers Award for best magazine article.
A series he co-wrote for the Boston Globe on the abuse of mental patients in research settings was named a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.