Psychiatric Medication and Spirituality: An Unforeseen Relationship

Challenging an exclusively medical approach to mental health and illness, this book considers the impact psychiatric drugs can have on spirituality. In the last thirty years, a dramatic rise in medication as a treatment for mental illness has occurred in tandem with increasing numbers of people entering treatment with a spiritually-oriented understanding of their suffering. The unforeseen result is that some people taking psychiatric drugs are engaging with them in ways that can have a profound impact on the course and outcome of treatment. Based on interviews with people on psychiatric medication who regard spirituality as significant in their lives, this book reveals how medication can be perceived as both helpful and harmful to spirituality. The author argues that spirituality must be considered in debates around psychopharmacology.