Let’s be honest—modern psychiatry has sold out to Big Pharma. In 1980, with the release of the DSM-III, the field took a sharp turn away from human-centered mental healthcare and fully embraced the disease model, aligning itself with pharmaceutical giants. The result? A medical-industrial complex that turned normal human emotions into disorders, overprescribed psychotropics and put profits over patient well-being.

 

And the numbers don’t lie. In 1987, Americans spent about $80 million on psychotropics. By 2007, that number had skyrocketed to $40 billion—a 50-fold increase in just 20 years. Today, antidepressants are the second most-prescribed medication in the United States, behind only antibiotics.

 

Although this discussion focuses on antidepressants, the same patterns of pharmaceutical corruption, overprescription and long-term harm apply to other classes of psychotropic medications as well. Antipsychotics, benzodiazepines, stimulants and mood stabilizers have all been subject to misleading marketing, suppressed research and reckless prescribing practices. Each of these drug classes comes with its own risks, including withdrawal syndromes, cognitive impairment, emotional blunting, metabolic issues and, in some cases, permanent neurological damage.

 

The Serotonin Myth: The Lie That Launched an Industry

For decades, the chemical imbalance theory of depression—specifically, the idea that depression results from low serotonin levels—was presented as scientific fact. However, the truth is that it was never proven. Not then, not now.

 

Leading critics, including Dr. Joanna Moncrieff and Dr. Mark Horowitz, have dismantled the serotonin hypothesis, showing that antidepressants do not fix an imbalance—because no imbalance exists (Moncrieff, 2023; Moncrieff et al., 2023). Yet, pharmaceutical companies and complicit prescribers continued pushing SSRIs as the answer, despite strong evidence they are only marginally more effective than placebo in mild to moderate depression.

 

The Price of Overprescription: Real Harm, Real Consequences

Psychotropics do affect the brain—but not in the way people have been told. The long-term effects of antidepressants are underreported, poorly researched and too often dismissed. Consider these disturbing findings:

 

• Emotional numbness – 71 percent of users report feeling detached from emotions
• Cognitive impairment – Documented decline in information processing, memory and focus
• Weight gain – A 30 percent higher likelihood of obesity after 10 years of antidepressant use
• Increased dementia risk – A 34 percent higher chance of developing dementia in long-term users
• Bleeding risks – SSRIs reduce platelet serotonin, increasing the risk of serious bleeding
• Sexual dysfunction – 25 to 80 percent experience loss of desire, arousal issues or inability to orgasm—sometimes permanently, known as Post-SSRI Sexual Dysfunction
• Suicide risk in young people – The FDA’s Black Box Warning states that antidepressants can increase suicidal thoughts in people under the age of 24

The Brave Few Who Dare to Speak the Truth

Thankfully, not everyone has fallen in line with Big Pharma’s agenda. A handful of courageous professionals have risked their careers to expose the truth about psychotropics and the corruption within psychiatry. These are the people I admire deeply:

 

• Robert Whitaker – Investigative journalist who exposed the dark side of psychiatry in Anatomy of an Epidemic
• Joanna Moncrieff – Psychiatrist who debunked the serotonin myth and challenges the overmedicalization of distress
• Mark Horowitz – Psychiatrist and neuroscientist who experienced his own battle with antidepressant withdrawal and now educates prescribers on safe tapering
• David Healy – A relentless critic of pharmaceutical corruption who has documented antidepressant-induced suicides and sexual dysfunction
• Peter Gøtzsche – Co-founder of the Cochrane Collaboration, who has called out Big Pharma’s deceptive research tactics
• James Davies – A psychologist who exposed how psychiatry’s alliance with drug companies expanded the definition of mental illness for profit
• Josef Witt-Doerring – A former U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) psychiatrist turned whistleblower, who now educates the public about the dangers of psychiatric medications and exposes how regulatory agencies prioritize pharmaceutical interests over patient safety

Dear Prescribers: Please Do Better

To the prescribers who are recklessly handing out psychotropics like candy, you need to do better. Too many patients are put on these drugs without full informed consent, without a real discussion of side effects and without a clear plan for discontinuation. This is malpractice—plain and simple.

 

To be fair, not all prescribers are part of the problem. There are many who practice responsible, evidence-based psychiatry, who use medication only when truly necessary and who work to ensure their patients are fully informed. To those clinicians: I salute you.