Horatio Clare

The problem with pills: The Octopus Man, by Jasper Gibson, reviewed

Gibson’s novel contains an important message about the dangerous over-prescription of medication to the mentally ill

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issue 16 January 2021

Having a breakdown? Try this pill, or that — or these? Built on the 1950s myth of a chemical imbalance in the brain, long since debunked, modern psychiatry still pours pills on trauma. While their general mechanisms are hypothesised, the specific consequences of different psychotropic drugs for individual brains remain haphazard.

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