Ordinarily Well

The Case for Antidepressants

Nonfiction, Health & Well Being, Psychology, Mental Health
Cover of the book Ordinarily Well by Peter D. Kramer, Farrar, Straus and Giroux
View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart
Author: Peter D. Kramer ISBN: 9780374708962
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Publication: June 7, 2016
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux Language: English
Author: Peter D. Kramer
ISBN: 9780374708962
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication: June 7, 2016
Imprint: Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Language: English

Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified dummy pills? How can we tell?

In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist and author Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients’ dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light.

Kramer homes in on the moment of clinical decision making: Prescribe or not? What evidence should doctors bring to bear? Using the wide range of reference that readers have come to expect in his books, he traces and critiques the growth of skepticism toward antidepressants. He examines industry-sponsored research, highlighting its shortcomings. He unpacks the “inside baseball” of psychiatry—statistics—and shows how findings can be skewed toward desired conclusions.

Kramer never loses sight of patients. He writes with empathy about his clinical encounters over decades as he weighed treatments, analyzed trial results, and observed medications’ influence on his patients’ symptoms, behavior, careers, families, and quality of life. He updates his prior writing about the nature of depression as a destructive illness and the effect of antidepressants on traits like low self-worth. Crucially, he shows how antidepressants act in practice: less often as miracle cures than as useful, and welcome, tools for helping troubled people achieve an underrated goal—becoming ordinarily well.

View on Amazon View on AbeBooks View on Kobo View on B.Depository View on eBay View on Walmart

Do antidepressants work, or are they glorified dummy pills? How can we tell?

In Ordinarily Well, the celebrated psychiatrist and author Peter D. Kramer examines the growing controversy about the popular medications. A practicing doctor who trained as a psychotherapist and worked with pioneers in psychopharmacology, Kramer combines moving accounts of his patients’ dilemmas with an eye-opening history of drug research to cast antidepressants in a new light.

Kramer homes in on the moment of clinical decision making: Prescribe or not? What evidence should doctors bring to bear? Using the wide range of reference that readers have come to expect in his books, he traces and critiques the growth of skepticism toward antidepressants. He examines industry-sponsored research, highlighting its shortcomings. He unpacks the “inside baseball” of psychiatry—statistics—and shows how findings can be skewed toward desired conclusions.

Kramer never loses sight of patients. He writes with empathy about his clinical encounters over decades as he weighed treatments, analyzed trial results, and observed medications’ influence on his patients’ symptoms, behavior, careers, families, and quality of life. He updates his prior writing about the nature of depression as a destructive illness and the effect of antidepressants on traits like low self-worth. Crucially, he shows how antidepressants act in practice: less often as miracle cures than as useful, and welcome, tools for helping troubled people achieve an underrated goal—becoming ordinarily well.

More books from Farrar, Straus and Giroux

Cover of the book Double Shadow by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book Paper Lantern by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book If You Don't Have Anything Nice to Say by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book Invisible Enemies by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book The Dog by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book The Atomic Bazaar by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book Amore by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book An Evil Eye by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book The Not Very Merry Pout-Pout Fish by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book Hold My Hand by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book New Poems by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book Secret Historian by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book At the Same Time by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book My Life Undecided by Peter D. Kramer
Cover of the book The Sounds of Poetry by Peter D. Kramer
We use our own "cookies" and third party cookies to improve services and to see statistical information. By using this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy