Posted by Cam W. on May 29, 2000, at 6:55:11
In reply to Re: Hi , posted by andrew on May 29, 2000, at 1:32:30
Andrew - I have extensively researched the relationships between stgma, violence and mental illness. I have one article published and have given numerous presentations on the subject. The NHS (hardly paid by the drug companies) in the U.K. has paid for many studies into these topics and are involved in an ongoing mental illness anti-stigma campaign.The Lancet a year or two ago published a collection of articles on the stigma of mental including a couple on violence and the mentally ill. They concluded that the amount of violence perpetrated in society is miniscule compared to the amount of violence that occurs (especially when excluding substance abuse-related violence). The only risk of increased violence in the mentally ill occurs in the "untreated", severely mentally ill person.
Drug companies have backed up their drugs in court, most notably Eli Lilly in the early 1990s. The Church of Scientology released press reports that were alarmist and unscientific (made to look scientific). The Church overstated the numbers of Prozac-related deaths in their statistics by a factor of more than ten. The reason for these suicides while taking Prozac was that the Prozac was relieving the depressive symptoms in these people who committed suicide. These people already had suicidal ideation and the Prozac had given them more energy to act upon their impulses. So, yes, I guess you could say that it was the Prozac that caused their death by relieving their depression. I guess if these people were never treated, and were depressed for the rest of their lives, they wouldn't have committed suicide.
Any disease requires disease-management. There are no cures in pharmacy. All of the medication are only bandages. Psychotherapy is necessary (be it talking to a therapist, your pastor, a family member, or a friend) to recover from depression. It has been well established that drugs alone will not "cure" a depression. It is people with mental illness, who have violent or suicidal thoughts, that neede to be followed closely during treatment. Other people who know a potentially violent or suicidal person (and especially the doctor) can notice signs of changes in the ill person (usually before that person does) and can head off any potentially violent of suicidal tendencies as someone recovers from depression. Recovery does not occur in a vaccuum.
Sincerely - Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:32651
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000526/msgs/35072.html