Books
Publications
Books are listed by date of publication in descending order. Ratings shown are as of March 15, 2025.
The only criteria for inclusion in this list are a pharmaceutical focus and that I have read the book.
Currently, my highest recommendation goes to: “Psychopharmacology Reconsidered: A Concise Guide Exploring the Limits of Diagnosis and Treatment“.
Academic / Textbooks
“The Medication Fact Book is a comprehensive reference guide covering all the important facts, from cost to pharmacokinetics, about the most commonly prescribed medications in psychiatry. Composed of single-page, reader-friendly fact sheets, treatment algorithms, and quick-scan medication tables, this book offers guidance, clinical pearls, and bottom-line assessments of more than 100 of the most common medications you use and are asked about in your practice.” – Amazon
“The American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology has reviewed the Medication Fact Book for Psychiatric Practice and has approved this program as part of a comprehensive Self-Assessment and CME (continuing medical education) Program, which is mandated by ABMS as a necessary component of maintenance of certification.” – Copyright
“Pharmacovigilance is the science and activities relating to the detection, assessment, understanding and prevention of adverse effects or any other drug-related problems.
This introductory guide is designed to aid the rapid understanding of the key principles of pharmacovigilance. Packed full of examples illustrating drug safety issues it not only covers the processes involved, but the regulatory aspects and ethical and societal considerations of pharmacovigilance.” – Amazon
Review in Medical Writing (2018) – PDF download
Investigative / Editorial
The following list of books is representitive of mass-marketed books on pharmaceuticals published over the last two decades (compare to this list from Goodreads). Many of these books are critical of specific medicine(s) or aspects of the pharmaceutical industry. Some of them are controversial. For some of the more controversial (and/or more recent) titles I have included a Perplexity AI generated review.
Disclaimer: The inclusion of a book in this list does not imply endorsement or rejection of the viewpoints they contain. This list is intended to inform readers that these views are in print and mass-marketed. Where I can find criticism I have included it.
“Groundbreaking research has given us many remarkable new medicines, but America’s drug evaluation process, once the envy of the world, is being seriously compromised. Under pressure from drugmakers, the FDA has been lowering its approval standards and has let poorly effective or risky products enter the market—while our prescription prices, the highest in the world, put crucial treatments beyond the reach of many. In Rethinking Medications, Dr. Jerry Avorn explains how we got here and what we can do to ensure that our medicines are dependably effective, safe, and affordable.” – Amazon
Perplexity AI Report on “Reviews or online mentions of book “Rethinking Medications: Truth, Power, and the Drugs You Take”
Blind Spots: When Medicine Gets It Wrong, and What It Means for Our Health
by Marty Makary MD (2024)
Author is the current Commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration.
“From Johns Hopkins medical expert Dr. Marty Makary, the New York Times-bestselling author of The Price We Pay-an eye-opening look at the medical groupthink that has led to public harm, and what you need to know about your health.” – Amazon
Review – Podcast Book Club with Micheal Smerconish
Youtube – 14 Minute Summary by SnapTale.
4.5 on Goodreads (>2,290 ratings)
Heavy emphasis on vaccine and COVID – maybe just watch the Youtube – 16 Minute Summary by SnapTale.
“Emmy Award-winning investigative journalist and New York Times bestselling author Sharyl Attkisson exposes the corruption that has ruled the pharmaceutical industry for decades. Through blatant lies, deep cover-ups, and high-level collusion with government and media, Big Pharma has continuously put profits over people with dangerous results. Now, with her signature investigative rigor and uncompromising commitment to the facts, Sharyl Attkisson takes readers on an shocking journey through the dark underbelly of the pharmaceutical industry.” – Amazon
Critique – Perplexity AI Report on “Follow the Science: How Big Pharma Misleads, Obscures, and Prevails”
4.3 on Goodreads (>320 ratings)
Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak (Children’s Health Defense)
by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Brian Hooker (2023)
New York Times Bestseller
“This book is based on over one hundred studies in the peer-reviewed literature that consider vaccinated versus unvaccinated populations. Each study is analyzed, and health differences among infants, children, and adults who have been vaccinated and those who have not are presented and put in context.” – Amazon
Critique – Paywalled NYT article highly critical of studies on which JFK conclusions are based. Perplexity AI Report on “Vax-Unvax: Let the Science Speak (Children’s Health Defense)”
4.3 on Goodreads (>360 ratings)
Psychopharmacology Reconsidered: A Concise Guide Exploring the Limits of Diagnosis and Treatment
by Robert Haim Belmaker and Pesach Lichtenberg (2023)
“This thought-provoking book covers the full range of psychopharmacologic practice in textbook fashion, offering a fresh and comprehensive self-examination. Unlike conventional texts of psychopharmacology, this text speaks directly to clinicians who have started to question the limitations of psychopharmacologic claims and the rigid confines of DSM-5 diagnoses. Drawing from their clinical and research experience as well as new literature, the well-published authors provide a new perspective that encourages readers to reevaluate established practices and embrace that medication is just one component of treatment and has limits.” – Amazon
4.5/5 stars on Amazon (11 ratings)
“Chronicles the evolution of drug regulation in America through the lens of a 2011 FDA advisory committee hearing about the breast cancer drug Avastin. The book uses the hearing, where the author served on the committee, and several historic tragedies, to explore how the FDA’s core mission of ensuring drug safety emerged. The author examines the tensions between scientific evidence, personal testimonials, public pressure, regulatory caution, commercial interests and patient safety that continue to shape drug regulation today.” – Amazon
4.3 on Goodreads (100 ratings)
Forbidden Knowledge: A Self-Advocate’s Guide to Managing Your Prescription Drugs
by Terence H. Young (2022)
“Tens of millions of patients in North America take prescription drugs, but the safety of these drugs is often based on medical myths. We are led to believe that if a medication isn’t safe, the government would never allow it on the market and that doctors would never prescribe a drug that isn’t proven effective. Who controls these narratives? And do they always have the best interests of patients in mind? In an in-depth study of the enormous influence the pharmaceutical industry has over our health, drug safety advocate Terence Young explores how those with the most to gain financially are also those who wield all the power in health care ― and withhold the knowledge that is critical to the safety of patients.” – Amazon
4.7/5 stars on Amazon (5 ratings)
Sickening: How Big Pharma Broke American Health Care and How We Can Repair It
by John Abramson (2022)
“In this no-holds-barred exposé, Dr. John Abramson—one of the foremost experts on the drug industry’s deceptive tactics—combines patient stories with what he learned during many years of serving as an expert in national drug litigation to reveal the tangled web of financial interests at the heart of the dysfunction in our health-care system.” – Amazon
Review by Troy Farah
4.6/5 stars on Amazon (>290 ratings)
Evidence-biased Antidepressant Prescription: Overmedicalisation, Flawed Research, and Conflicts of Interest
by Micheal P. Hengartner (2022)
“This book addresses the over-prescribing of antidepressants in people with mostly mild and subthreshold depression. It outlines the steep increase in antidepressant prescription and critically examines the current scientific evidence on the efficacy and safety of antidepressants in depression. The book is not only concerned with the conflicting views as to whether antidepressants are useful or ineffective in various forms of depression, but also aims at detailing how flaws in the conduct and reporting of antidepressant trials have led to an overestimation of benefits and underestimation of harms.” – Amazon
5/5 stars on Amazon (1 rating)
“Pharmaceutical breakthroughs such as antibiotics and vaccines rank among some of the greatest advancements in human history. Yet exorbitant prices for life-saving drugs, safety recalls affecting tens of millions of Americans, and soaring rates of addiction and overdose on prescription opioids have caused many to lose faith in drug companies. Now, Americans are demanding a national reckoning with a monolithic industry. Pharma introduces brilliant scientists, in-corruptible government regulators, and brave whistleblowers facing off against company executives often blinded by greed. ” – Amazon
Gerald Posner Interview on YouTube – Concerned Citizens Presents (2021)
4.2 on Goodreads (>740 ratings)
“Katherine Eban’s Bottle of Lies exposes the deceit behind generic-drug manufacturing—and the attendant risks for global health. Drawing on exclusive accounts from whistleblowers and regulators, as well as thousands of pages of confidential FDA documents, Eban reveals an industry where fraud is rampant, companies routinely falsify data, and executives circumvent almost every principle of safe manufacturing to minimize cost and maximize profit, confident in their ability to fool inspectors. Meanwhile, patients unwittingly consume medicine with unpredictable and dangerous effects.” – Amazon
Youtube – 6 Minute Summary by SnapTale.
4.4 on Goodreads (>6,950 ratings)
Psychiatry Under the Influence: Institutional Corruption, Social Injury, and Prescriptions for Reform
by Robert Whitaker and Lisa Cosgrove (2015)
“Psychiatry Under the Influence investigates the actions and practices of the American Psychiatric Association and academic psychiatry in the United States, and presents it as a case study of institutional corruption.” – Amazon
4.2 on Goodreads (103 ratings)
by Ben Glenacre (2014)
“We like to imagine that medicine is based on evidence and the results of fair testing and clinical trials. In reality, those tests and trials are often profoundly flawed. We like to imagine that doctors who write prescriptions for everything from antidepressants to cancer drugs to heart medication are familiar with the research literature about these drugs, when in reality much of the research is hidden from them by drug companies. We like to imagine that doctors are impartially educated, when in reality much of their education is funded by the pharmaceutical industry.” – Amazon
Youtube – 12 Minute Summary by SnapTale.
4.1 on Goodreads (>9,010 ratings)
Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs, and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America
by Robert Whitaker (2011)
“In this astonishing and startling book, award-winning science and history writer Robert Whitaker investigates a medical mystery: Why has the number of mentally disabled ills in the United States tripled over the past two decades?” – Amazon
Associated Website – Mad in America
Critique – Review by Dr. Daniel Carlat in his blog, The Carlat Psychiatry Blog.
Youtube – 16 Minute Summary by SnapTale.
4.2 on Goodreads (>4,290 ratings)
Publications
Books
National Academies
Reports from meetings of scientific luminaries on topics of scientific concern – including medicine. The workshops/roundtables and forums that are the subject of these publications were supported and attended by money and scientists from industry, academia and government. National Academies is a private, non-profit.
“The National Academies Press (NAP) publishes the publications of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. NAP publishes more than 200 publications per year on a wide range of topics in science, engineering, and medicine, providing authoritative, independently researched information on important matters in science and health policy.” – Homepage
Recommended Reports
- Examining Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 Receptor (GLP-1R) Agonists for Central Nervous System Disorders – Proceedings of a Workshop (2025)
- Veterans, Prescription Opioids and Benzodiazepines, and Mortality, 2007–2019 – Three Target Trial Emulations (2025)
- Charting a Path Toward New Treatments for Lyme Infection-Associated Chronic Illnesses
- Medications and Obesity Exploring the Landscape and Advancing Comprehensive Care – Proceedings of a Workshop (2024)
- Adult Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder Diagnosis, Treatment, and Implications for Drug Development: Proceedings of a Workshop (2024)
- Forum on Drug Discovery, Development, and Translation – 2023 Annual Review (2024)
- Roundtable on Genomics and Precision Health – 2023 Annual Report (2024)
- The Food and Drug Administration’s Accelerated Approval Process for New Pharmaceuticals – Proceedings of a Workshop—in Brief (2023)
- Exploring Psychedelics and Entactogens as Treatments for Psychiatric Disorders – Proceedings of a Workshop (2022)
- Novel Molecular Targets for Mood Disorders and Psychosis – Proceedings of a Workshop (2021)
- Understanding the Benefits and Risks of Pharmaceuticals – Workshop Summary (2007)
One-Offs
- EBM Fundatmentals – Document detailing concepts in the practice of evidence based medicine from Dynamed.