Inessential Pharmacology: A Frontier Psychiatrists' Guide to Understanding Psychiatric Medications Paperback – March 25, 2026

Inessential Pharmacology is a playful romp through the data behind psychiatric medications. the point of the book is to teach my readers how to understand what a medicine does. I give them the same tools I use, as a practicing psychiatrist, with a lot more humor than used to teach me. We go through a list of common medications, and using those as examples, we learn how to read research about those same medications. We learn about charts, graphs, tables, and the lawsuits and side effects that made these drugs famous. They also made pharmaceutical companies billions. This is a book written for general audiences who have a very definite interest in wanting to learn more about the medications that have shaped our lives. If you're a medical student, it'll help you crush your rotations. If your parent, it'll help you understand what your doctor is prescribing for your child. If you're a fellow physician, you'll have a good laugh, and maybe learn something too. I wrote the book to be fun, and I hope it is. The humor is a little bit dark, so, fair warning! Read more