A scientifically scrupulous and impressively accessible introduction to integrative psychiatry.
A comprehensive, personalized approach to the treatment of depression that uses an individual’s unique “biochemical signature.”
According to Greenblatt (Finally Focused, 2017), who co-authored this book with debut author Lee, the psychiatric community has a tendency to treat depression as a monolithic phenomenon, a one-size-fits-all approach that encourages a heavy reliance upon pharmacological cures. There are many different types of depression, however, and a dizzying array of potential root causes. As a consequence, the author avers, each case must be treated singularly. In fact, everyone is “biochemically unique”—a dynamic organization of hormonal, genetic, neurophysiological, and psychological factors. As an alternative to the regnant models of conventional psychiatry, Greenblatt advocates for “integrative psychiatry,” a holistic approach that considers the full panoply of depression’s causes as well as possible cures, including spiritual responses like yoga and meditation, nutritional programs, exercise, and of course, psychotherapy. The author soberly presents a mountain of data to support his position and confirm his commitment to supporting only “evidence-based medicine.” Greenblatt powerfully argues that pharmacological treatments are far less effective than typically reported and not well understood. He presents a discomfiting picture of traditional psychiatry that is financially beholden to a pharmacological industry and dogmatically attached to empirically untenable theories. “Traditional psychiatry is in crisis,” he writes. “The ideas as to what causes depression are not based on strong science, and our current treatments are not working nearly as well as they should.” Greenblatt’s expertise on the subject is irreproachable. He’s a psychiatrist who has been successfully using integrative medicine for more than 30 years and has been inducted into the Orthomolecular Medicine Hall of Fame. At each stage of his argument, he supplies a bevy of experimental support, and he lucidly, concisely explains remarkably technical subjects like epigenetics: “the study of trait variations caused by external or environmental variables…that may turn genes on or off or may change the ways in which cells ‘read’ DNA, but which do not involve any alterations to DNA sequences.” Also, the entire study radiates intellectual moderation. Greenblatt never rejects the use of drugs in treatment; he thoughtfully recommends a far more judicious use of them—and only as part of a therapeutic regimen that addresses the full medical profile of each patient.
A scientifically scrupulous and impressively accessible introduction to integrative psychiatry.Pub Date: March 18, 2019
ISBN: 978-1-5255-4189-6
Page Count: 396
Publisher: FriesenPress
Review Posted Online: May 28, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2019
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
BOOK REVIEW
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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