Withdrawal from Prescribed Psychotropic Drugs (New and updated edition)

Doctors, including psychiatrists, prescribe antidepressants, neuroleptics («antipsychotics»), mood stabilizers, tranquilizers and psychostimulants all over the world, and, in most cases, without providing information about the risks of taking them and problems when stopping, for example, adverse effects, tolerance formation, bodily and psychological dependence and withdrawal symptoms. Nor they tell people about ways to avoid or minimize the risks. +++ This volume presents a collaboration of users and survivors of psychiatry (ex-patients), professionals, researchers, lawyers, and academics around the world committed to helping people understand the potential harm (including drug dependence) that prescribed psychotropic drugs can cause and how to safely reduce or stop taking them. The chapters include individual accounts of people who discontinued their prescribed psychotropic drugs, information about withdrawal groups, research data (especially about antidepressants and neuroleptics) and a commitment to safe withdrawal that will offer hope to many people; those who want to help and those who want to withdraw. +++ Contributions by Volkmar Aderhold, Paulo Amarante, Peter Breggin, Tatiana Castillo-Parada, Mary Ellen Copeland, Anna Emmanouelidou, Fernando Freitas, Jim Gottstein, Peter Groot, Swapnil Gupta, Marina Langfeldt, David Richman, Olga Runciman, Jann Schlimme, Trudy Slaght, Jim van Os, Robert Whitaker, Martin Zinkler and many more.