The Myth of the Chemical Cure (What Psychiatric Drugs Really Do)

What are psychiatric drugs (e.g. antidepressants, anxiolytics, ‘mood stabilisers’ and antipsychotics) really doing to people? Are they correcting chemical imbalances or other biological abnormalities, or are they doing something different and just how much do we really know about them? In this talk, Dr Moncrieff will examine common assumptions about drug treatment and how it works, and suggest that far from correcting underling abnormalities, drug treatment creates them. This means we need to pay more attention to the brain and mind-altering effects of the drugs we prescribe, and think more carefully about their numerous and sometimes serious adverse effects. She will argue that we need to radically reduce the use of psychiatric drugs if we want to maximise people’s physical and mental health.