Posted by Viridis on August 2, 2003, at 18:22:48
In reply to Re: Straterra approval., posted by Shel Swartz on August 2, 2003, at 15:54:08
I don't think that ADD/ADHD is a "made up" illness, although I suspect that it encompasses a variety of disorders. That's probably part of the reason why it (and many other mental illnesses) require a trial-and-error approach to medication, and frankly, I'm glad to see a range of meds available.
I have very mixed feelings about the pharmaceutical industry -- it is a business, and obviously they're out to make money, yet that provides the incentive to test new drugs and offer a wider range of options to patients. I remain very skeptical about their marketing techniques, however, and always try to educate myself as best I can.
I happen to benefit from Strattera and some other psychiatric meds and no, it isn't just placebo effect, any more than improvement with insulin could be labeled "placebo effect" for a diabetic. It really puzzles me how some people continue to make a distinction between "physical" ailments (heart disease, cancer, etc.) and "mental" ailments like ADD and depression, which are simply the result of the brain malfunctioning instead of some other part of the body. By this logic, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's syndrome, epilepsy, and so on must also be bogus, since they too originate within the brain.
There's a lot more that I could say, but I think that nearly everyone here is sufficiently experienced and open-minded to see the flaws in this argument.
By the way (to address the second point) a large study just released shows that doctors live longer on average than people in most other professions.
poster:Viridis
thread:133458
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030802/msgs/247650.html