Stephen Chernin/Getty Images

Two bottles of Prozac are seen on a pharmacy shelf

As medicines for mental illness have become more varied and effective, fewer patients are spending time on the psychiatrist’s couch. Is this a good thing, or bad? According to Dr. Daniel Carlat it’s a troubling sign, and psychiatrists themselves are to blame. Carlat believes that psychiatrists have become pill-pushers for the pharmaceutical industry, overprescribing medications and abandoning the more challenging and time-consuming practice of talk therapy. But not all psychiatrists agree, noting that advances in the treatment of mental illness have spared millions from suffering. Larry Mantle talks with Daniel Carlat and with Listening to Prozac, author Peter D. Kramer about the present state of psychiatry.

Guests:

Dr. Daniel Carlat, author of Unhinged: The Trouble with Psychiatry – A Doctor’s Revelations about a Profession in Crisis

Peter D. Kramer, a psychiatrist in private practice and the author of many books including the bestselling Listening to Prozac and Against Depression