The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

A psychiatrist convinces you to put your marvelously intelligent, delightful, artistic and athletic 11-year-old child on Zoloft to treat her test anxiety. In less than a year, she dies by suicide. Mathy Downing tells the unforgettable story of the death of her daughter, Candace. I provide commentary about antidepressants and about the Downing's malpractice case in which I was a medical expert. Play this hour for anyone who thinks that antidepressants are good for children.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Could Paxil drive a young college student to commit 9 bizarre armed robberies—at local stores where people knew him and his family? Could 8 years in jail become an equally astonishing period of personal growth? I first met Kevin McShane as an expert in his criminal case and now he’s been out of jail for four months. It’s his first appearance as a psychiatric reformer. You will never forget what Kevin has to teach us.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Imagine that your life becomes so desperate that NYC doctors try to push you into a lobotomy. Imagine that you finally meet a therapist who confronts you with personal responsibility, that you get it, and that you go on to graduate school to become a self-determined and enlightened psychotherapist. That's Dr. Faye Snyder's story, and her honesty on my show influenced me to talk about my own childhood in a way I've never done before in public.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Practical, straightforward advice on how to raise peaceful and respectful children with my very experienced and clear-thinking guest, Gary Unruh, LCSW. Any parent, as well as anyone who relates to or works with children, may benefit from this lively and passionate discussion.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

If you come upon the unconscious victim of a car wreck who suddenly awakens in a panic, what should you do? If you're sitting beside a loved one or patient coming out of anesthesia and he or she becomes violent... or if your friend, parishioner or patient threatens suicide... how should you respond? What can any of us do if someone we care about starts acting very disturbed or "crazy" in our presence? My guest Doug Bower is well-qualified to talk about this with me. He's a PhD counselor, an ordained Methodist minister and a registered nurse. We focus on how to handle emergencies without resort to psychiatric drugs.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

My guest is Dr. Gerald Porter, Dean of the School of Natural Arts and Sciences at the renowned Bastyr University. Dr. Porter is one of the most thoughtful persons I know. Join the two of us as we talk about "what helps us to heal ourselves and others," "embracing human spiritual diversity," and encouraging alternative or complementary health practices. As these radio discussions often do, we move easily from the theoretical to the practical in regard to living life to the fullest.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

My guest Jon Rappoport and I start out talking about how psychiatric diagnoses and drugs suppress human beings, and then we look deeper into what’s essentially good and important about all of us—our spiritual nature, individuality, imagination, free will and personal freedom. These are not existential abstractions; they are the essential stuff of our lives, to be protected, nurtured and shared with others. 

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Descend into mental health hell with me and my companion psychologist Ty Colbert, PhD as he works under surrealistic conditions with violent and seemingly deranged prisoners locked in cages and wearing plexiglass masks for their therapy hour.  This is empathic therapy at its most challenging--and potentially at its most rewarding.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

If all of psychiatry's false and damaging assumptions about "schizophrenic" homeless people are discarded and a fresh start is made, what do you get? One of the most innovative programs in the history of our field! My guest is psychiatrist Alberto Fergusson from Columbia, South America, and his program or movement is called Accompanied Self-Rehabilitation. This hour is a major educational experience for anyone interested in offering genuine help to all people who are struggling with their lives.

The Dr. Peter Breggin Hour

Bob Brewin, investigative reporter, provides the data and I provide the outrage and the analysis on the extraordinarily abusive psychiatric drug practices involving our soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as afterward in the VA.  The drug companies found the ideal top-down market for their drugs: Get the army to give them to active duty combat soldiers--a mind-boggling 20% of them.  Unsupervised young men and women carry into combat 90-120 day supplies of all the most dangerous drugs: benzos like Xanax, stimulants like amphetamine; antidepressants like Paxil and Prozac; and antipsychotic drugs like the old Trilafon and the new Seroquel.  Hear an in depth expose and examination of the Psychopharmaceutical Complex at its worst and the irresponsible psychiatrists who so eagerly enforce it.  A tour de force of psychiatry at its worst.