Posted by yxibow on February 11, 2006, at 7:45:32
In reply to The dramatic rise of mental illness, posted by detroitpistons on February 10, 2006, at 13:39:25
> I just wanted to share this article about the role of medications in treating mental illness, and the trends associated with the rise of psychopharmacology.
>
> http://www.altuit.com/webs/TruthTrustConsent/JNF/BobW_x.htm
>
> I think this is fascinating and it just confirms my suspicions after having been diagnosed bipolar II.
Well I'll get snapped at but this article smells of the Quack word. Quotes from Healy and Breggin....What has really happened is that between early psychiatry in the 50s and the present, greater knowledge and ability to treat people has happened. I'm not saying that GPs should be handing out happy pills left and right -- in fact, I dont think GPs should be treating psychiatric disorders unless they've been taking CE courses, especially on P450 interactions. Psychiatrists and Psychopharmacologists should be treating patients. But there are costs involved of course.
When the aunt with BP2 I never knew took her life with a gun in 1971? Somewhere around then, the only real medications around were Lithium and possibly Elavil may have just come in, I dont know. But that was just early days. We have come so far in treatment of psychiatric patients, and not just psychiatry, but medicine in general, that we are entering in the 21st century, politics willing, a phase of genetically tailored medication. Roche has introduced the AmpliChip, which tests people's responses to the P450 system. It hasn't yet won the approval of all insurance, but some day it will.
My point is that, we have had "crazy people" since the dawn of time. But they were ostracized out of the general population, given all sorts of strange medieval interventions, religions incantations, etc. People "got through" life, but that debates the question.. what is a life worth living to "get through it." If you're religious, you may have your own explanation. I'm agnostic, so don't fault me for it. But only over recent time has the very brain images of patients even been discovered. I was very fortunate to meet the team of people who discovered PET scans of OCD and control patients. Stunning.
Medications, like all 19th, 20th, and 21st century tools became more honed, and less harsh, as we transcended from TCA through to the SSRI era. Now we are upon the SNRI/SSNRI era and there is more yet to come.
If you live in a big city like a certain one on the west coast that I might happen to inhabit, you'll notice people on the freeway ramps with their signs and change boxes. In the 1960s, funding failed and early antipsychotics emptied out the mental hospitals at the time which were extremely crude by todays standards. Today the sunny shores of Santa Monica are faced with one of the toughest homeless issues outside of Berkeley.
But if tougher depot compliance with antipsychotics were able to control the roughly 1-2% of the population who have severe Schizophreniform disorders, things might be completely different. Patients might actually willingly go into the VA for continued treatment.
But I stray. My point is, we're arguing chicken and eggs. The chicken has always been around, and he's been laying eggs. Some of the chickens never layed the best eggs. But now we have the tools available to help those chickens lay the best eggs. Are there miracle cures. No. But will those chickens live better, more productive lives. Absolutely without a doubt. There will be mishaps along the way. But at the end of the day, the eggs will be layed, and society will function in a better fashion than it ever had before. Millions of "sick days" lost in industry because people were too afraid to tell the truth about themselves would vanish if the stigma of mental -- biochemical illness was lost.
Anyhow its getting late and I'm starting to talk about chickens. :)
Something to ponder about.
To Torino !
Tidings
-- Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:608339
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20060205/msgs/608593.html