A Rorschach Test for Psych Drugs
On October 23, the New York Times ran a very nice feature story about a Los Angeles woman, Keris Myrick, who, even though she...
Anatomy of an Epidemic Down Under: Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Disabling...
During the past six months, I have traveled to a number of English speaking countries to speak about my book Anatomy of an Epidemic,...
September 15, 2011
Dear Bob--
As I share with patients my new perspectives on the ineffectiveness and potential harm of psychotropic drugs, I have found that many, even...
Chapter Seventeen: Commencing to Self-Destruct
While my fellow ‘Class of 2006’ graduates celebrated with embraces and high-fives on Commencement Day, jumping excitedly into group photos with caps and gowns,...
Chapter Sixteen: Inside a House of Cards
Dazed and confused, I was discharged from ‘The Haven’ in September of 2004 and entered an intensive outpatient day program (IOP) on the grounds...
August 4, 2011
Dear Bob--
I saw a very nurturing woman a few months ago, quite obese, for the symptoms of chest pain and fatigue.
She had been admitted...
In Defense of Psychiatric Medications, Part Two
Marcia Angell’s two-part essay in the New York Review of Books, which appeared in the June and July issues, has helped trigger a much-needed...
Chapter Fifteen: A Haven from Self
A Note to the Reader: Thorough searches of my memory reserves have failed to provide me with a complete and detailed account of my...
July 12, 2011
Dear Bob--
I want to share a case from this past week the reveals a disturbing misuse of stimulants in treating a poorly diagnosed case...
The New York Times’ Defense of Antidepressants
The New York Times' Defense of Antidepressants
Today, the New York Times published an op-ed essay by Peter Kramer titled "In Defense of Antidepressants" on...
Now Antidepressant-Induced Chronic Depression Has a Name: Tardive Dysphoria
Three recently published papers, along with a report by a Minnesota group on health outcomes in that state, provide new reason to mull over...
Chapter Fourteen: Crossing the Threshold
Although the drive to the psychiatric hospital in White Plains, New York, in September 2004 was a mere fifteen minutes from home, the trip...
Drug Companies ‘Just Say No’ to Psych Drugs
The market for psychiatric drugs is, of course, booming. In 2011, spending on psychiatric medications can expect to top $40 billion. Yet, in spite...
June 27, 2011
Dear Bob--
I have been working again, taking temporary assignments filling in for other physicians and working in urgent cares while I get my practice...
June 17, 2011
Bob--
Here is a letter that I wrote several months ago in response to an early reader of my blog here. She expressed concern about...
Chapter Thirteen: In the Muck and The Mire
There I was on my first night of Outward Bound, lying under the big Texas sky in a little town called Redford, amidst waxy...
Summing Up the NIMH Trials: Evidence of an Effective Paradigm of Care?
In the past 15 years, the NIMH has funded a number of major, multicenter trials of drug treatments for mental disorders in adults and...
Chapter Twelve: A Gift of Desperation
By January of my junior year in college, I had reached my first true emotional bottom. Though surrounded by people on a daily basis...
After 25 Posts on this Website, Dr. Mark Foster is Terminated by his Employer
On September 18, 2010, Mark Foster, a family physician in Littleton, Colorado, began his “Letters From the Front Lines” blog for this website. In...
Chapter Eleven: Teetering on the Edge
Frantic, fearful, and desperate to get my life together, I returned to Cambridge in the middle of August to move into my off-campus apartment....
Should the Medical Literature Be Cleansed of All STAR*D Articles?
For some time now, the medical community—and to a certain extent, the general public—has understood that the reports in the medical literature of industry-funded...
April 30, 2011
Bob--
I have found that many patients, and even many physicians, don't appreciate the basic differences between psychology and psychiatry. For most of your readers,...
Anatomy of an Epidemic wins investigative journalism award
Investigative Reporters and Editors recently named Anatomy of an Epidemic as the winner of its 2010 best “investigative journalism” award in the books category. Here...
Chapter Ten: A ‘Victim of Circumstance’
Upon arriving home at the end of sophomore year in college, which had been devoted to hyper-control and a carefully maintained, entirely black-and-white existence,...
April 11, 2011
Dear Bob--
I want to share an email I received from a physician friend, who practices in a hospital-based specialty. He is highly intelligent, naturally...
