Rating: 
Summary: An enlightning read
Review: I was one of the many who almost died to Prozac. I am glad I read this book when I did because it was a definite help in making the desicion not to swallow another one on Eli Lilly's wonder mood-enhancer pills. The last pill I took was the day I attempted suicide by swallowing 28 sleeping pills, much good Prozac did for my depresion!! Thank you for all the information, I wish all those people out there who are being subjected to this medication would read your book. There are other ways. Seek and you shall find.
Rating: 
Summary: Alarmist propaganda
Review: I'm a psychiatric nurse. Peter Breggin is well known in the field of psychiatric medicine as being anti-all drugs. Has prozac been overprescribed or mis-prescribed? sure. but this drug and the class it belongs to have helped WAY more people than they hurt. penicillin and other antibiotics can kill you too if you're allergic and don't know it. and antibiotics are WAY over prescribed if you ask me and other professionals. i've worked in state psychiatric hospitals and i've seen a LOT of people who only got out and back to the world because of medication. i would hate to think that a book like this would turn back the clock to the old days when there was no medication and people wasted their whole lives in the hospital. GET A GRIP: ANYthing you put in your body has side effects and you can die from taking too much Tylenol, too. picking on this drug is a cheap trick
Rating:
Summary: Alarmist propaganda
Review: I'm a psychiatric nurse. Peter Breggin is well known in the field of psychiatric medicine as being anti-all drugs. Has prozac been overprescribed or mis-prescribed? sure. but this drug and the class it belongs to have helped WAY more people than they hurt. penicillin and other antibiotics can kill you too if you're allergic and don't know it. and antibiotics are WAY over prescribed if you ask me and other professionals. i've worked in state psychiatric hospitals and i've seen a LOT of people who only got out and back to the world because of medication. i would hate to think that a book like this would turn back the clock to the old days when there was no medication and people wasted their whole lives in the hospital. GET A GRIP: ANYthing you put in your body has side effects and you can die from taking too much Tylenol, too. picking on this drug is a cheap trick
Rating:
Summary: This book is an eye opener!
Review: I've been keeping up on the subject of psychology since my college days 20 years ago, and Peter Breggin was the first author I discovered who had the courage to speak out against the powerful psychiatric and drug industries. This book will give you an entirely new perspective on the subject--you will be amazed (and angry) at what is presented as scientific fact by the medical profession and the media. Most people are unaware that there is a growing backlash against biological psychiatry, even by some of those in the field (Peter Breggin is a psychiatrist!) You owe it to yourself to read this opposing opinion.
Rating:
Summary: You may not like the message, but it is has validity
Review: If you are taking Prozac because you have a 'chemical imbalance' that causes your depression, you need to read this book. Many people don't like it or get upset; but there is much in this book that is simply unpleasant but TRUE. I work in a Psychiatric hospital and I've seen the 'Prozac-Violence' syndrome he talks about. You can call this 'scare tactics' or you can ask your Psychiatrist what his response to the arguments in this book are- chances are, there won't be a decent response! A good book for anyone who is taking Prozac (or Paxil, Effexor, etc) or who works around people who do.
Rating: 
Summary: For the highly gullible, "anti pill", non-depressed only!
Review: In my opinion, this book really deserves a review of a negative number, but there were none to choose from. What an odious bunch of REACTIONARY, DANGEROUS trype, the entire book!Think twice and PLEASE READ CURRENT RESEARCH before believing more than 1 or 2 "facts" from this ill-informed,poorly researched, self-serving author's work (this goes for his other book, Toxic Psychiatry, as well). Hey, I believed the ... this guy wrote too, until my depression became so severe I but for the grace of God, and an antidepressant prescribed MONTHS too late, would have committed suicide. I notice only one person who wrote the above unbelievably positive reviews ACTUALLY ADMITTED TO HAVING SUFFERED FROM DEPRESSION. Listen, I just received a masters in clinical psychology, and this man completely ignored or worse, clearly misrepresented the research of his day, and you must also remember, his book is also already grossly out of date! So there is now tons more current research that affirms, over and over again, how erroneous Breggin's absurd conclusions were. Very unfortunately for me, I discovered only later, after my depression became very severe, how biased and inaccurate his opinions are. In fact, NOW THERAPISTS GENERALLY ARE CONSIDERED UNETHICAL IF THEY DO NOT RECOMMEND A PSYCHIATRIC WORK UP AFTER A FEW WEEKS INTO A CLINICAL DEPRESSION. WHY? BECAUSE, IT IS NOW KNOWN THAT IF A DEPRESSION GETS WORSE, IT IS HARDER TO TREAT AND LASTS LONGER, AND CAN LEAD TO MORE SEVERE, RECURRENT DEPRESSIONS, AND EVEN PERMANENT CHANGES IN BRAIN CHEMISTRY (basically, damage to the brain, folks). Unfortunately for me, I waited longer than I should have. Therefore, it was a harder depression to treat, or get over. This man's work is dangerous. My, it is sobering to see the ignorance and gullibility of many people out there. Sorry, friends, it is now clearly known that antidepressants coupled with psychotherapy has a significantly greater effect on alleviating clinical depression than therapy alone. Depression is not just the blues. Maybe the reviewers who liked this book think that is what depression is. Maybe they are polyannas who just don't like pills. Yeah, well, please get informed first. I shudder to think how many people committed suicide because they took this fool's work to heart and so did not get the medical treatment their depression required. This is why this author should be sanctioned, if not shot. Or at least a warning should be put on his book, like on cigarettes: "this book may cause your death, so please don't take it seriously". I believe that at bottom, the author was motivated mostly by his own apparently quite sizeable ego needs. His ego and ignorant, ill-informed views add up to a book that is so scary, it should have never been written, much less published (do people out there know how commonly people suffering from un- or undertreated depression COMMIT SUICIDE?) This is not a joke. This book should not have even been a novel. (SUMMARY: the book is invalid, biased and out of date. The author is highly unethical, to the point of endangering the lives of people who suffer from moderate to severe forms of depression. Please instead read less or un-biased, current research.
Rating:
Summary: THE BOOK TO READ BEFORE TAKING PROZAC
Review: MY WIFE IS ON PROZAC AND HAS BEEN FOR TWO YRS
THIS BOOK COULD HAVE BEEN WRITTEN ABOUT HER
MY WIFE IS NOW, MANIC, PARONOID, AGGRESSIVE,
VIOLENT, HYPER ACTIVE, THINKS I WILL KILL HER,
HAS CUT OFF ALL CONTACT WITH FATHER, MOTHER,
DAUGHTER, BROTHER AND SISTER, OLD FRIENDS,
AND ME. SHE HAS FILED FOR DIVORCE AFTER 31 YRS
OF MARRIAGE. THIS BOOK IS ALL ABOUT HER!!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Breggin, P.R. (1994). Talking back to Prozac. New York: St.
Review: Psychiatrist Peter Breggin is known for his outspoken stance against psychiatric medications. Talking Back to Prozac is in effect a response to Peter Kramer's Listening to Prozac, a book that argues Prozac is safe, relatively free of side effects, and effective in relieving mild, chronic depression as well as what may be called "personality flaws." Breggin contends that psychiatrists and pharmaceutical companies are hiding the scary facts about Prozac. He makes the same point about newer psychiatric drugs in more recent works. Breggin's book offers a one-sided rather than a fair, balanced judgment of antidepressants like Prozac. About fourteen years have passed since Prozac became available in the U.S., and the drug has been taken by over 20 million people worldwide. It has proven safe for the overwhelming majority of these people, although it is no longer the "hot," popular drug that it was in the late 1980s and early 90s. Countless studies have shown Prozac to be safe and effective in a range of conditions such as depression, social phobia, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. In this light, Breggin's book seems alarmist. Most mental health professionals in the U.S. and Europe believe that medications, along with psychotherapy, are an important part of treating mental disorders. With his rigid stance, Breggin is denying patients an effective means of relieving their anxiety, depression, etc.
On the other hand, Breggin's arguments are not all completely false. Antidepressants like Prozac are not bogus pills, as he suggests, but their effectiveness has probably been exaggerated. New antidepressants constantly enter the market and are prescribed in the hope that they would be effective in patients that did not respond to Prozac or other older drugs. Also, studies usually report an efficacy rate of 60-80% for these drugs, but it is not clear why the 20-40% who respond to placebo are not subtracted from those larger figures to report an actual efficacy rate of 20-60%. Another valid point is that the rate of side effects for Prozac and similar drugs has been under-reported. Sexual side effects are far more widespread in patients taking selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) including Prozac than previously thought. One possible reason is that patients in clinical trials did not readily express sexual complaints about the drug they were given. Another plausible point is that pharmaceutical companies are sometimes less than fully ethical in reporting all the facts. If we consider the entire drug industry, there have been many cases in which these companies have apparently exaggerated the benefits and hidden the problems related to drugs they were marketing. These companies also mount very effective advertising campaigns to encourage both psychiatrists and ordinary people to take certain drugs rather than older and cheaper alternatives. For example, Prozac is now available in its generic form as fluoxetine, but it has lost popularity to newer drugs introduced in the past few years. All of this suggests that patients must consider both the pros and cons of antidepressants. Breggin only offers the cons in his book.
Rating:
Summary: More people should read this
Review: Reading this book may have saved my life. I had no idea some of the things that were happening to me might have to do with the Prozac. The book is easy to read and vital for anyone considering taking or getting off antidepressants. I wish the doctors who told me it was "hopeless" to get off Prozac would buy this book.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely EYE-OPENING!
Review: Talking back to Prozac by Peter R. Breggin is an absolutely eye-opening and awesome book. As the covers suggests, "If you've been listening to Prozac, you haven't heard the real story...", and that is no lie. People are crying out to hear the truth about antidepressants. Peter and Ginger Breggin are unashamed to tell the readers what most physicians are unwilling or unknowledgeable to tell their pateints about Prozac and other similar antidepressants. This common-sense book regards the readers as intelligent people who can understand medical studies and medical terminology. The intensive bibliography proves that in-depth research was taken to bring the most accurate information available to the readers. If you are currently taking Prozac, know someone who is taking Prozac, considering taking Prozac yourself, or just have an interest in psychiatry, doctor-patient relationships, and/or the drug industry, this book is a must for you.In addition, if this book interests you, the following books will give additional insights on the subject: Prozac Panacea or Pandora by Ann B. Tracy; Toxic Psychiatry: Why therapy, empathy, and love must replace the drugs, electroshock, and biochemical theories of the new psychiatry by Peter R. Breggin; Prozac Backlash: Overcoming the dangers of Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil and other antidepressants with safe, effective alternatives by Joseph Glenmullen.
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