Updated with bonus material including a new foreword and afterword with new research this New
York Times bestseller is essential reading for a time when mental health is constantly in the
news. In this astonishing and startling book award-winning science and history writer Robert
Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of disabled mentally ill in the
United States tripled over the past two decades? Interwoven with Whitaker's groundbreaking
analysis of the merits of psychiatric medications are the personal stories of children and
adults swept up in this epidemic. As Anatomy of an Epidemic reveals other societies have begun
to alter their use of psychiatric medications and are now reporting much improved outcomes . .
. so why can't such change happen here in the United States? Why have the results from these
long-term studies-all of which point to the same startling conclusion-been kept from the
public? Our nation has been hit by an epidemic of disabling mental illness and yet as Anatomy
of an Epidemic reveals the medical blueprints for curbing that epidemic have already been
drawn up. Praise for Anatomy of an Epidemic The timing of Robert Whitaker's Anatomy of an
Epidemic a comprehensive and highly readable history of psychiatry in the United States
couldn't be better.-Salon Anatomy of an Epidemic offers some answers charting controversial
ground with mystery-novel pacing.-TIME Lucid pointed and important Anatomy of an Epidemic
should be required reading for anyone considering extended use of psychiatric medicine.
Whitaker is at the height of his powers. -Greg Critser author of Generation Rx
