cover image Is It Me or My Meds?: Living with Antidepressants

Is It Me or My Meds?: Living with Antidepressants

David A. Karp. Harvard University Press, $25.95 (293pp) ISBN 978-0-674-02182-2

This engaging, well-written book begins with a harrowing account of the author's own struggle to go off his meds. While this is certainly a gripping way to begin the book, it is more important in establishing Karp's credentials as someone who knows first hand what psychiatric drugs can do. The fifty subjects interviewed for the book range from teenagers to retirees and represent a variety of occupations, from high school and university students to medical doctors. The book is organized loosely around the trajectory those on meds tend to follow: from initial encounter, to enthusiasm and cooperation, to rebellion and finally to acceptance. Karp has a philosophical, almost spiritual take on the relationship between human beings and psychiatric medication: ""In contrast to other medications ... psychotropic drugs ... act on-and perhaps even create-people's consciousness and, therefore, have profound effects on the nature of their identities."" Though a proponent of antidepressants, Karp's book goes beyond an examination of drug effects to question ""exactly what makes us human,"" and examine those human qualities that allow medication to do its work, among them hope, communication and the ability to learn from our suffering. Karp's use of interviews rather than statistics will resonate with those interested in narrative approaches to the social sciences, and his straightforward explanations of complex psychiatric concepts make the book accessible to those without a background in research psychiatry.