America Fooled

This book is divided into three parts. Part 1 is focused primarily on antidepressants, their effectiveness, their side effects and how America has come to believe that chemical imbalances are responsible for depression and other mental problems.

Part 2 deals with the various approaches used throughout our history to treat more serious mental problems including the use of antipsychotics, the side effects of antipsychotics and the real reasons people sometimes lose their minds. This is an important part of the book as the story of antidepressants cannot be fully understood without knowing the story of antipsychotics.

Part 3 discusses the Continuum Model of mental health and how good mental health can be achieved.

Dr. Timothy Scott, a native of southern California who has resided in Texas for most of the last 35 years, is not a physician but a PhD who holds MS and MMFT degrees. He was a full-time psychology professor for over 20 years during which time his specialty was medical research as it relates to psychology.

He successfully treated countless cases of depression before Prozac, the first SSRI-antidepressant, came to market in 1987. To suppose that depression could not be overcome without a drug ran counter to his own experience. As he examined the studies that gave rise to the chemical imbalance theory, he kept finding remarkably poor research designs had been used.

In time Dr. Scott learned that most chemical imbalance studies were designed, conducted and written by pharmaceutical company employees and then signed by a physician who would simply read the study and agree to let his or her name appear as the author for a large payment (a very common practice known as ghostwriting). He also regularly came upon facts that ran counter to the theory. For example, levels of melatonin, testosterone, estrogen and serotonin all begin declining by age 30 (or earlier). If the theory were correct, all old people should be depressed and no young people should be depressed. “When the facts do not fit the theory, we must adjust or reject the theory—not the facts.”

Dr. Scott is devoted to educating physicians concerning valid vs. invalid research designs (“no skill is more important and yet most college graduates and most MDs lack that skill”), harmful side effects of antidepressants and antipsychotic drugs and more effective ways to treat depression, schizophrenia and other mental problems.