Pillaged
Psychiatric Medications and Suicide Risk
Ronald William Maris
Foreword by David Healy
It is estimated that 45 to 50 percent of all Americans will suffer a mental disorder at
some time during their lives. Increasingly the treatment for these disorders is management with one or more psychiatric drugs, often prescribed by general practitioners. In
Pillaged, Ronald William Maris evaluates the psychiatric medications commonly used
to treat several major types of psychiatric disorders—including depression and mood
disorders, bipolar disorders, anxiety disorders, and psychotic disorders—asking “do
they work as advertised?” and, more importantly “are they safe?”
Answers to these questions are more ambiguous than we might think, Maris explains,
because drug manufacturers tend to minimize the adverse effects of their products.
Furthermore the underlying neurobiological theories of how psychiatric drugs work
are complex, poorly understood, and often conflicting. Still Americans spend tens of
billions of dollars a year on antidepressants and antipsychotics alone.
While Maris questions the rampant prescribing of psychiatric medications, especially
in young people, Pillaged does not suggest that anyone cavalierly discontinue potentially beneficial psychiatric medications without the advice of a qualified mental health
professional. The book acknowledges that psychiatric medications are often necessary
in treating some psychiatric conditions, but it reminds readers of medication’s potential
for degrading one’s quality of life, contributing to self-destructive behaviors, and even
leading to death in a vulnerable minority of patients. Maris advocates an open and
honest discussion of data on psychiatric drugs, their effects, and their dangers, and he
reminds readers of available alternative, nondrug treatments for psychiatric disorders.
A foreword is provided by David Healy, a professor of psychiatry at Bangor University
in the United Kingdom and former secretary of the British Association for Psychopharmacology. Healy is the author of twenty books, including The Antidepressant Era, The
Creation of Psychopharmacology, The Psychopharmacologists, Let Them Eat Prozac, and
his latest, Pharmageddon.
February 2015, 224 pages, 14 b&w illustrations
Method of payment:
_____ Check or money order (payable to USC Press in United States dollars)
Ronald William Maris is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus of psychiatry, family medicine, and sociology
at the University of South Carolina
(USC). He directed the USC Center
for the Study of Suicide from 1985 to
2001, served as editor of the journal
Suicide and Life Threatening Behavior
from 1981 to 1996, is past-president of
the American Association of Suicidology, and has served as a consultant or
expert witness in more than 250 clinical and legal cases since 1981. Maris
has written or edited twenty books
including Comprehensive Textbook of
Suicidology.
Send me ______ copy/copies
(hc, 978-1-61117-460-1, $49.95 each) ______
Credit Card: ____ American Express ____ Discover ____ Mastercard ____ Visa
Account number: _____________________________________ Exp. date: ________
Signature: ____________________________________________________________
(pb, 978-1-61117-461-8, $22.95 each) ______
Name (please print): ________________________________ Phone: ____________
Shipping address: ______________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
_____________________________________________________________________
TOTAL ______
SC residents add 8% sales tax ______
Shipping* ______
*add $7.50 for first book,
$2.00 for each additional book
CODE AUFR
718 Devine Street, Columbia, South Carolina 29208
800-768-2500 • Fax 800-868-0740 • www.uscpress.com