Robert Whitaker on Today With Pat Kenny

The acclaimed American investigative journalist Robert Whitaker,  author of several books on mental distress, speaks to Pat Kenny about the research and conclusions in his important new book, Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. Why has the number of adults and children disabled by mental illness skyrocketed over the past 50 years? Why does this epidemic parallel so closely the growth and dominance of psychiatric drugs as treatment? Whitaker documents a history of science and medicine that raises a heretical question: Could the drug-based paradigm of care be fueling this modern-day plague? Whatever the short-term effects of psychiatric drugs, where many trials suggest they can be effective, Whitaker analyses the full history of their use and asks: What about their long-term effects? His new book carefully documents an answer to that question for four major psychiatric disorders and for child and adolescent disorders. The answer is frightening. The drugs worsen long-term outcomes — and recovery from debilitating mental states has become rare. On the 'Today With Pat Kenny' show on RTE Radio 1 on 28 February 2011, Whitaker debates with bio-psychiatrist Patricia Casey, professor of psychiatry at University College Dublin, whether we need to start an open conversation about how to stem the epidemic of disabling mental illness in society and move to a paradigm of care that helps people get well and stay well over the long term.