Posted by SLS on May 3, 2012, at 21:03:03
In reply to Re: ADs may do more Harm than Good -New Research paper, posted by zazenducke on May 3, 2012, at 8:56:20
Hi.
> The US is exporting the idea of "mental illness" as well as the remedy. People in other cultures are being taught to define various human states of mind as illnesses which require medication.
That's an interesting way of looking at it. I imagine there is some truth to be found in this notion.
> "Crazy Like Us" describes the campaign to teach Japan how to be depressed. And this was done without direct advertising of meds. It was public service announcments to sell the illness and then the AD sales followed.
According to the book, when did the US begin this campaign process in Japan?
Japan has had antidepressants since the early 1980s, some of which we will never see. This was true before the introduction of Prozac. Rolipram and adinazolam are two examples of Japanese antidepressants that have been available since 1983.
The French have been ahead of us in many ways in the definition and treatment of mental illness. The first antipsychotic, Thorazine, was developed in France by Rhône Poulenc in 1951. The French also have had lots of antidepressants that are exclusive to that country. The first SSRI was not Prozac. It was a drug called zimelidine. Zimelidine was developed in the late 1970s and sold in Europe until fatal side effect emerged (Guillain-Barré syndrome). I don't know in what country imipramine, the first tricyclic antidepressant, was first synthesized, but it was the Swiss who discovered its therapeutic properties.
I would have to say that the French and Swiss were complicit with the Americans in exporting mental health.
- Scott
Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1016380
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20120425/msgs/1017078.html