This presentation has focused on four major themes.
	I.Excluding chemicals which are used to treat addiction (e.g., Antabuse, methadone), there are five major classes of psychiatric drugs: antidepressants, antipsychotics, anti-anxiety (sedative/hypnotics), mood stabilizers, and stimulants.
	II.Americans account for 5% of the world’s population yet they consume the majority of the world’s prescription drugs.  Even when taken precisely as recommended and prescribed, pharmaceuticals are the third leading cause of death in the U.S.A. each year.
	III.Compared to mentally healthy individuals of the same age, patients who receive treatment within America’s public mental health system die 10 to 30 years earlier than expected; die in higher numbers each year; and experience higher rates and combinations of disabling medical conditions.
	IV.Psychiatric drugs elevate the risks of early death and serious medical disease.  Evidence from animal experiments, human autopsies, brain scans, and biomarkers converge on the finding that antipsychotic drugs  – America’s top-selling drugs in 2009 – damage the brain by killing neurons. Recent evidence also suggests that antipsychotic drugs promote the defining features of Alzheimer’s disease.