The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 05.24.17

“The FDA does more to legitimize drugs than to monitor them!”  That’s what I conclude while talking with my guest, courageous Kim Witczak, who lost her husband to a Zoloft suicide, and who has gone on to be a Consumer Representative on FDA Advisory Committees.  Kim is your eyes inside the FDA and every show with her is enlightening.   

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 05.17.17

Did you know that ADHD kids have smaller brains?  The esteemed British journal Lancet and 80 plus authors say so, and the media has spread the news.   We must be grateful to my guest, Michael Corrigan, EdD, an educator and researcher, for debunking the study, and looking at what is really going on with this fraudulent diagnosis.  Claiming that ADHD children have smaller brains fits into a long history of racist and misogynistic claims about white men have larger brains.   It is ironic that the article claims to de-stigmatize ADHD by reassuring young people that they have smaller brains causing their problems in school.  If you were a child, wouldn’t that make you feel dreadfully stigmatized and even cheated by life?  As for me, as I confessed on the show, I have a smaller head, and therefore probably a smaller brain, than most people. My guest tells me on the air that he had the biggest head on his high school football team and hence probably the biggest brain, while when I played football in high school they could not find a helmet small enough to fit me.   My helmet was always falling over my eyes, blocking my vision while I ran with the ball.  I had to run with my head held up high to keep the helmet from sliding down, which was hazardous to say the least.  Well, at least no one told me that my small head, and presumably smaller brain, meant I had a disorder.  

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 05.10.17

Kevin Miller is the filmmaker of Generation Rx and now Letters from Generation Rx.   He and I enjoy our tour of common falsehoods sold to us by psychiatry, medicine and nutrition in our world.   For the first time in public, I talk more about my own enlightenment about nutrition, and my glorious first six weeks of plant-based eating.  Kevin and I achieve a degree of eloquence as we describe the vast web  of misinformation created by huge, financially powerful interest groups that push all the many medicines and foods that are more likely to make us sicker than to make us healthier.   Good conversation between two old friends and colleagues, and value of continuing to learn.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 05.03.17

My guest, British psychologist Peter Kinderman PhD and I agreed to do a show that examines the politics of mental health including the overall politics of human life, society, and government.  This is the first time I have aired my own political principles in such detail on my radio talk show.   I believe in Founding Principles of America, including personal freedom and responsibility, and small government. Peter views himself as a socialist who promotes the common good through government services and solutions.  Yet we have so much in common in how we criticize biological psychiatry for obscuring and covering up the real sources of human suffering in our personal, family, and societal experiences.  Peter and I certainly found this conversation interesting if not unique.  We confront some of the most important issues in life, ones that bring us together, and ones that divide us.  We illustrate how two people can talk together about their differences and their common viewpoints, reaching toward new and better ways to think about and to organize our lives on a personal and a political level.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 05.01.17

A positive, loving approach to helping children and adults in therapy, education and everyday life. Howard Glasser and his Nurtured Heart Approach are transforming thousands of lives around the world.  Hear us talk about how you can bring out the best in yourself and others.   Replayed from 9.23.15.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 04.19.17

James Davies PhD is a British academic, researcher, therapist, author and political activist in the psychology and mental health arenas.  He does it all.  To my delight, his activism began when a patient brought him a copy of Toxic Psychiatry!  This quickly flowing hour focuses on the politics of psychiatry in Great Britain and the US, its changes over the years, and where it is going now.  James is enthusiastic, perceptive and patient-centered in his observations on the mental health field, and his life and work will inspire you.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 04.12.17

Robert Whitaker calls himself a journalist but I believe he is one of the most important scientists in the world today based on his scientific analyses of the flaws in what passes for research in psychiatry. He is also an insightful social critic.  More than that, he is a major figure in the promotion of genuinely therapeutic approaches.  For this hour, Bob and I especially examine the larger psychological, moral and social damage done to individuals and institutions, and to society itself, by what Bob calls “the psychiatric narrative.”   

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 04.05.17

The 300^th airing of my PRN radio shows, and it’s a stunner.  Jeanne Stolzer PhD and I draw a holistic picture of how human evolution relates to understanding good nutrition, successful early child development, the health of mothers, the sources of physical and emotional disorders in later life, and what all this means for psychotherapy and medical treatment.   For me, the conversation is a high-water mark in becoming more holistic in my orientation and my career.    This is one of the most important interviews for me in my career, part of a turning point in my orientation toward my work in the world.  Some of the ideas may seem startling, but giving them a chance may enhance your life, too.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 03.29.17

The best talk I have ever given about the harms of antidepressant drugs such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, Celexa, Lexapro, Effexor, and Wellbutrin. Impassioned and yet full of devastating facts and truths about the damage done to many, and perhaps most, of people who take them.  Not only children but also adults develop suicidal thoughts and behaviors on antidepressants. All ages can develop symptoms of mania and some experience a full-blown manic episode with dangerously uncontrolled, impulsive, grandiose behavior.  Others become chronically depressed by these drugs called antidepressants.  Many become easily frustrated (irritable) and or even violent, including many mass murders who were taking antidepressants.  Ethical people become unethical.  Kind people become callous and hateful. Without knowing what has happened to them, almost everyone becomes less caring and less engaged with friends, loved ones, work, recreational activities and life in general.  With all that, genuinely scientific studies show that antidepressants are not even helpful, while the FDA defies commonsense and science in how it allows the drug companies to test them! I call for a ban on giving these and other psychiatric drugs to children and ask if any adults, if fully informed, would ever take them.    

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour – 03.21.17

One of my best hours!  With British psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, this is a must-listen-to show.  It is thoughtful from beginning to end about how psychiatric drugs really work by disrupting brain function and how they impair our ability to be “sensitive to complex aspects of the environment, such as other people.”  I describe how, in my opinion, they are neurotoxins that reduce the individual’s capacity to care about anything including themselves and other people.  Joanna and I do not fully agree on all the nuances of these issues, such as should antipsychotic drugs ever be used, and how common and severe are the long-term effects. These differences provide the listener with a unique opportunity to hear a genuine, informed, scientific, and caring discussion covering broad aspects and concerns pertaining to the whole range of psychiatric drugs.