Table of Contents

1: Introduction
2: Before Psychopharmacology
3: The First Drug Set
4: Power Play
5: Killer Drugs!
6: Death Sentences
7: "This Plague of Affective Disorders"
8: Losing Ground
9: What Now?
Glossary
Notes

About the Author

Edward Shorter is Hannah Chair in the History of Medicine and Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

Reviews

"Excellent...informative and intriguing..."--New England Journal of Medicine
"...interesting and provocative..."--Doody's
"...Before Prozac is a nuanced, timely, and provocative book written by an incisive thinker at the height of his considerable intellectual powers. Prof. Shorter's powerful arguments demonstrate clearly the value of historical perspectives when evaluating current medical practices, and serve as a sobering reminder of the transitory nature of many psychiatric treatments and, indeed, psychiatric categorisations."--Irish Medical News
"I saw a patient not long ago with quite paralysing long-term periods of anxiety associated with depression and despair accompanied by suicidal thoughts... If I saw him now I would recommend Shorter's illuminating Before Prozac so he would have the full inside story."--The Lancet
"...engagingly written and informative."--PsycCRITIQUES
"Writing in a lively, exciting style packed with historical facts, Shorter brings to life the process of psychiatric drug discovery and development, enriching the fabric of his narrative wtih details about the persons involved....the book is a lot of fun to read."--The Journal of Clinical Investigation
"Shorter, a prolific medical historian, provides a detailed, lively history of what has been called the 'first set' of psychotropic drugs...the antipsychotics, anxiolytics, and antidepressants that showed up in the 1950s...It is a compellingly argued and erudite polemic..." -- American Journal of Psychiatry