Withdrawal from Prescribed Psychotopic Drugs

Drug withdrawal is an important topic today.  This new book is an international collaboration that includes users, psychiatrists, researchers, and academics committed to helping people understand the potential harm that prescribed psychotropic drugs can cause and how to safely reduce or stop taking them.

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 do they tell people about ways to avoid or minimize the risks.

The chapters include individual accounts of people who discontinued their prescribed psychotropic drugs, information about withdrawal groups, the most up-to-date 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.

Contributing Authors-Experts Speak About Drug Withdrawal:

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.

Some Contents

About the editors | Contributors | Content list | Editors’ foreword | Preface by David L. Richman | Coming off in a Global South Country (Paulo Amarante) | Name index | Subject index | Recommendations | German edition |    Home

Editors

Peter Lehmann, D. Phil. h.c., is a certified pedagogue, independent publisher, author, freelance activist in Berlin, and Associate of the International Institute for Psychiatric Drug Withdrawal. Since 1979, he regularly speaks on and publishes in the field of alternatives beyond psychiatry, support in coming off psychiatric drugs, and safeguarding human rights of people with psychiatric diagnoses. He was co-founder and, until 2010, for many years board-member or Chair of the European Network of (ex-) Users and Survivors of Psychiatry. In 2010, he was awarded an Honorary Doctorate by the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, and in 2011, the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany by the President of Germany. English publications include, Coming off Psychiatric Drugs: Successful withdrawal from neuroleptics, antidepressants, mood stabilizers, Ritalin and tranquilizers, edited in 2004; ebook in 2022); Alternatives beyond Psychiatry, edited together with Peter Stastny in 2007; ebook in 2022

Craig Newnes: Critical psychologist, editor, historian, publisher, musician and author. He has published numerous books, book chapters and academic articles and edits The Journal of Critical Psychology, Counselling and Psychotherapy. In 2003, he was Chair of the British Psychological Society’s Psychotherapy Section. Until 2007, he directed one of the largest NHS psychological therapies services in the UK. His latest books are Racism in Psychology: Challenging theory, practice and institutions; A Critical A-Z of Electroshock; and, with Cemil Egeli, Psychomusicology.

Reviews

Millions of individuals have been prescribed psychiatric drugs, but many discover that these drugs – physically and psychologically – do more harm than good, and then, seeking strategies for safe withdrawal, they discover that shockingly few doctors understand the science behind these drugs’ actions. In a sane world, Withdrawal from Prescribed Psychotropic Drugs would be required reading for medical school students and prescribing physicians, but nonprofessionals need not wait for a saner world, as comprehending this book requires no advanced degree.
– Bruce E. Levine, author of Resisting Illegitimate Authority

Lehmann & Newnes’ excellent anthology looks at the real evidence and brings vital knowledge to where pharma’s profit-driven healthcare research refuses to go. People can and do live better lives without psychiatric medication: here’s why and how to withdraw.
                  – Will Hall, author of the Harm Reduction Guide to Coming Off Psychiatric Drugs and schizophrenia diagnosis survivor

Free of industry bias, this book is a clarion call for informed medical decision making for starting and stopping psychiatric medications.
– Pat Deegan

Buying: Withdrawal from Prescribed Psychotropic Drugs. 

Print edition (available since May 2023)

The ebook edition is available directly from the editors – but also at the usual ebook sales platforms, like Amazon. To order directly from the publisher: send an informal mail to [email protected]

IMHU.org promotes informed choice regarding healthcare decisions.  We believe that in some circumstances psychotropics can be very useful in the short term.  We know they are extremely powerful and need to be used with caution.