Psycho-Babble Medication | about biological treatments | Framed
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Re: Implants, ECT

Posted by Squiggles on December 2, 2005, at 20:11:34

In reply to Re: Implants, ECT, posted by med_empowered on December 2, 2005, at 13:50:18

...
So..they *are* reversible, more so than depot neuroleptics. But...given the costs involved with removal and the hurdles to getting off antipsychotic treatment in general, my guess would be that, in practice, a schizophrenic patient would have a difficult time getting the implants removed.

Do you have to pay extra to have the implant
removed? I don't see the problem. Where
are they implanted?


I'm also concerned b/c developments like this don't really benefit patients (I have yet to meet someone begging to be given a long-acting haloperidol implant.) Really they seem to serve to increase the psychiatrist's power in the doctor-patient relationship.

Well, I am not sure about the psychiatric
condition of the doctor. I am giving him
the benefit of the doubt that he does not
have a Napoleonic complex.


>
> As for lobotomy...it was pretty rough stuff. The idea of a "dysfunctional brain" is enchanting, but has yet to be proven satisfactorily. As it stands now, psychiatric illness is "understood" to be biological, but there still aren't any scans or other tests that can DX an illness based on any sort of physical abnormality.

Scans can detect stroke remnants, meningal
infections, tumours, lesions, overactivity
in certain areas of the brain, etc. etc.
Actually, this is not something new. But
the attempt to treat the conditions is.

So..basically, the idea that mental illness is physical in origin is pretty much the statement of *consensus* within the psychiatric community rather than the result of any sort of ground-breaking research or anything of that nature. Conveniently enough, the emphsis on physical origins of mental illness became more pronounced in the 1970s, which was about the time the APA and Big Pharma began a "partnership" that continues to this day.


If mental illness is not physical, then
I don't have a brain.


>
> Additionally, its worth noting that although lobotomy did help *some* patients, on the whole it wasn't that great (one study showed no major difference from placebo). The **big** advantage, one which many psychosurgeons openly pursued in performing lobotomy, was making patients more manageable--they could be cared for at home with minimal fuss, or kept in the insitutions with less supervision and care (which helped keep down costs).

As I said, I think it is more precise,
given a better understanding of the correlation
between brain function and brain physiology.
>
> The idea of giving patients anaesthesia during a crisis intrigues me. Its interesting how in the past opiates and heavy sedatives were pretty standard treatment for crises, such as "manic depressive psychosis". After years of looking on such treatment with disdain, given today's "sophisticated" treatments, docs are re-visiting a modified version of old-school treatments (ex: Temgesic for depression, other opiates as adjunctive therapy in severe, refractory schizophrenia). Its also interesting that antipsychotics are often used as part of anaethesia cocktails--like DPT, the demerol, promethazine, Thorazine combo used for pediatric anaesthesia.
>
What is Temgesic? I did not know about all
this stuff. At any rate, these physical
interventions must be applied to the brain
right, Q.E.D.

Squiggles


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Psycho-Babble Medication | Framed

poster:Squiggles thread:584162
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051126/msgs/584764.html