Psychologist Dr. Cindy Baum-Baicker recently reported (on the APA DIV 42 List Serv) that she wrote a comment that appeared in the Public Policy Section of the Section on Family and Couples Therapy (Section VIII) of APA Division 39, about Journalist and author Robert Whitaker’s book, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. She stated that journalist and author Whitaker has been able to break-through and get an important message out through his book, which she described as the next Silent Spring, the Rachel Carson book that was ground breaking back in the 60's. Here is her comment:

Did you know that in 1955 before the advent of the neuroleptics/antipsychotics, when the best possible practices in psychiatry were based on "compassionate care," 1 in 468 Americans was hospitalized due to a mental illness. In 1987, after the common adoption of these medications as the standard "best practice," 1 in 184 Americans were receiving SSI or SSDI because they were disabled by mental illness. In 1987 the FDA approved Prozac, the first of the SSRI meds. This class of medicines has not only become accepted by mental health practitioners and patients, but is also seen as the first stop in treatment by many who are not psychotherapy savvy. In 2007, the disability rate for mental illness was 1 in every 76 Americans. That's more than double the rate in 1987, and six times the rate in 1955. Furthermore, you will learn that relapses are greater in severity and far more frequent when patients are treated with drugs than with no drugs--this is for the psychoses as well as depressions and anxiety. And, that psychiatric drugs don't fix abnormal brain chemistry-- in fact, they create it. It is not, as many of us were taught, "insulin for a diabetic." Short-term use can be helpful; long-term use worsens long-term outcomes.