Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and their Families 

Dr. Peter Breggin’s book Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Families is meant for prescribers, therapists, patients and their families who want guidance in tapering off drugs. The book instructs therapists and professionals on how to provide a Person-Centered Collaborative Partnership approach, focusing on patients’ feelings and needs throughout the withdrawal process. Dr. Breggin offers a roadmap for prescribers to welcome greater participation of therapists, patients and their families in the decision-making process about psychiatric drugs, as well as guidance for therapists in forging a more collaborative relationship with clients, family members and prescribers.

Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal: A Guide for Prescribers, Therapists, Patients and Families provides extensive scientific information, practical advice and illustrative case studies that will enable prescribers, therapists and other health professionals to:

  • Establish a collaborative, trusting and empathic team approach to psychiatric drug withdrawal
  • Recognize common, serious and sometimes overlooked adverse drug effects that may require drug withdrawal
  • Treat emergencies during drug therapy and during withdrawal
  • Identify common withdrawal reactions for every type of psychiatric drug
  • Determine the first drugs to withdraw during multi-drug therapy
  • Distinguish between withdrawal reactions, newly occurring emotional problems, and the recurrence of pre-medication problems
  • Estimate the length of withdrawal
  • Prescribe very small doses of medication when necessary
  • Understand how “medication spellbinding” (intoxication anosognosia) makes patients unaware of the adverse mental and emotional effects of their drugs during treatment and withdrawal
  • Identify and handle Medication-induced Chronic Brain Impairment (CBI)-a common but easily missed need for psychiatric drug withdrawal
  • Modify the withdrawal program for children, the elderly, and severely emotionally disturbed patients
  • Decide when and how to provide individual, couples or family therapy appropriate to the specific stages of medication withdrawal

This 352-page book is available for $60.

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Mad in America hosts blogs by a diverse group of writers. These posts are designed to serve as a public forum for a discussion—broadly speaking—of psychiatry and its treatments. The opinions expressed are the writers’ own.

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1 COMMENT

  1. Re: “It’s time for therapists—psychologists, nurses, social workers, family therapists, and counselors—to stop pushing their clients and patients to take psychiatric drugs that cause brain damage, harm the body, and shorten their patients’ lives.”

    Comment: AMEN!

    Duane

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