Posted by Sean on August 6, 1999, at 13:52:14
In reply to TALKING BACK TO PROZAC, posted by Frustrated in PA on August 5, 1999, at 11:57:49
> Has anyone ever read this book? Some seriously convincing arguments against medication. I'd love to hear from anyone who'd like to comment on the book (hopefully only those who have read the book; I already know what the pro medicine camp has to say about taking medicine).
I have read most of this book. The interesting
things is that *some* of what he says is more or
less correct for a small subset of people. And I
think the drug companies are not paragons of moral
integrity either, so we should question everything
equally.All the same, I found the language in the book to
inflammatory, negatively biased, and some of it
really way off base. I recall one discussion where
SSRI's are compared to cocaine in terms of side
effects etc... and I just laughed my ass off. I
mean anybody who has done cocaine and an SSRI
can tell you they are not even on the same planet
in terms of their subjective impact. I've also
never heard anything about SSRI's and vasopressin
which is one of the key centers of cocaine action.
The whole implication of this discussion is really
misleading and could actually do harm to a person
who might benefit from an AD by confusing them or
delaying treatment.The fact is, we are just at the beginning of brain
science. Whatever his concerns are, I think we can
all forsee a time, probably within 20 years, where
all of his arguments will be dead. The advance of
technology is never perfect, but we as humans seem
deeply compelled to fight disease; this is a life
affirming struggle, not some evil cop-out.Also, compared to Kramer, his prose sucks...
Sean.
poster:Sean
thread:9630
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/19990726/msgs/9698.html