Posted by yxibow on June 30, 2009, at 23:04:15
In reply to Re: We are the guinny pigs, posted by linkadge on June 30, 2009, at 7:47:00
> This is a new generation. The med generation. A much higher percentage of people are taking psychiatric medication than ever before. Also the use of medication combinations has dramatically increased. The long term effects of these new coctails is not known. The clincial data is nonexistent in this area. We are the guinny pigs. We are the generation which is going to demonstrate what long term effects these medications have.
>
> Linkadge
I disagree... since the dawn of the use of what we would now call alternative medications, everyone was a guinea pig.Everyone who tried food that we now call GRAS (generally recognized as safe) suffered the consequences.
What about the first person who ate nightshade ? Amanita muscarita ? Legends from those who died were passed on and those weren't eaten.
Survivalists and adventurers now know what can be eaten, and what possibly can be eaten by books of poisonous plants, that were probably eaten and some hunter/gatherer keeled over.
The first vaccine for smallpox was in 1798... I'm sure there were quite a few side effects. But it was a great leap forward.
The late 19th and early 20th century were the time of "snake oils". I'm sure people died from toxic metals in them.
Acetaminophen was introduced in the early 20th century. It would never be approved now but fortunately we have it as a vital tool against fever. Its immediate precursor was even worse and killed people.
People who were suffering from things like rheumatic fever got the first sulfa drugs, which were potentially quite dangerous and could cause anaphylactic shock among other things. My father survived, but you could say that he was a guinea pig of the Depression era.
Chlorpromazine (Thorazine, Largactil) was a great stride forward for psychotically ill patients and basically eliminated the (talk about guinea pig), horrible treatment of brain drilling, insulin, and lobotomies.Those people were also guinea pigs. Yes, to this day, after its introduction in 1954, 55 years later, we haven't solved the TD problem.
It scares me and I'm sure many people who need to take APs for psychotic or other disorders are in a way guinea pigs if you really want to put it in such a base way, but it is now informed choice unless you're in immediate danger to yourself or others.
But actually besides the cardiac effects and a whole list of other potential things, Thorazine was not as strong as the drugs that followed it. In fact some suggest low doses of it have very low TD potentials.
SSRIs have been around for about 20 years and prescribed to millions of patients, hence easily over 20 million patient-years of experience (that is how its defined, X Phase IV patients and how many years they have been on it, factoring in how long the agent has been out).
In the end, life is fatal. Don't want to be a "guinea pig", don't eat food (everything could have salmonella), don't drink water (could be polluted), and don't ingest medications (might have side effects).But you'd be dead in days to weeks because you haven't had anything (minus medication) that sustains human life. That risk has to be taken and I know its a possibly ridiculous assessment of risks, but its a point.
So I say go forth young (or older) man (and woman), and make your decisions. They're your entitlements depending hopefully that you live in a fairly democratic place.
There will be more generations of people, assuming this world doesn't collapse of global warming (lovely thought, but now quite obvious).And I am of the generation that will have to survive it just like everyone else my age....
.....(though I knew it since I was something like 8 or 10, I amassed a large quantity of information and was going to write a book.... that folder still sits... but anyhow)
So those of us of Gen-X or whatever the definition is vaguely will also be the guinea pigs both of what we've done to our earth and also what we can do to correct things, and still life will press on in a way, hopefully leading to things like more stem cell research.And that will also be "guinea pig". There's no way of getting around using just guinea pigs or mice or dogs or the like, eventually things are tested on humans.
Maybe future computer molecule models will lessen that need.
I wait for the fantasy technological advances that those of us who remember The Jetsons and the like thought would come much sooner.
-- tidings
Jay
poster:yxibow
thread:903792
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20090630/msgs/904111.html