Still Psyched Out: And Nobody Is Getting Better

Investigative journalist O’Meara follows up 2005’s Psyched Out with a disappointing diatribe about the evils of psychiatry, psychiatrists, psychotropic drugs, the FDA, and groups she derisively refers to as “the numbskulls at NIMH” and the “psycho-wizards at the APA.” O’Meara reiterates some of the strongest points from the original version and updates them with newer statistics: psychiatry is a muddy and imprecise discipline; the DSM has been the subject of controversy; drugs are often over-prescribed; and pharmaceutical companies frequently act in ways that are less than upstanding. However, the book suffers from O’Meara’s poor grounding in science. For example, the fact that scientists can’t explain the factors underlying mental disorders (or why certain drugs work for some and not others) is not—as she suggests—a matter of ineptitude but a reflection of the ongoing nature of brain research. Her reasoning is also highly selective; she cites pages of psychiatric drug contraindications from the Physicians’ Desk Reference without mentioning that all drugs have adverse effects, and her attempts to link school shootings with the rise in psychiatric drug prescriptions rely on tenuous logic and outright speculation. Psychiatry is a fascinating and rapidly evolving field; it deserves better than this. (Aug.)