Posted by med_empowered on February 22, 2005, at 17:51:42
In reply to Re: Why I Hate Neuroleptics and Forced Hosptialization, posted by banga on February 22, 2005, at 16:47:43
Lots of drugs have been used as models for schizophrenia. The first two were mescaline and LSD...for a while, some psychiatrists even used hallucinogenic agents themselves so they could experience "first-hand" what their patients were going through. THe government also funded many studies using these agents, some of which were highly unethical. The LSD/mescaline model was abandoned for a number of reasons (for one thing, the variability of the drug experience; for another, hallucinogens seem to induce visuals-heavy hallucinations, while schizophrenia is more often characterized by audio hallucinations). Other drug models have been used, as well...amphetamines, Ritalin, ketamine, and (I believe) PCP. Problems with drug models include: there doesn't appear to be any condition in animals that can be reliably compared to schizophrenia in humans. From what scientists have been able to piece together, it appears schizophrenia is a uniquely human experience. Also, the research itself has yielded little insight into treatment or diagnosis. The closest the research came to doing that was the amphetamine/Ritalin research, which suggested that since these drugs can induce or worsen psychosis through an effect on dopamine, schizophrenia may be a dopamine disorder. Since scientists at the time had just figured out that neuroleptics work on dopamine, it looked like they had found a winner. They hadn't. Anyone can have a stimulant-induced psychotic episode...though some people ARE more sensitive to this psychosis than others, it doesn't seem that this sensitivty is related to any underlying mental illness, although people who have been treated with neuroleptics are theoretically more sensitive than most others because of changes in the brain caused by neuroleptics. Also, I always try to remember to look at the study itself...many of the drug-model studies were funded by the NIMH, and continued until 1998. Around that time, there were lawsuits from patients who were claimed they were experimented on without their consent. There were also (and should be) serious ethical concerns about using those in the throes of psychosis in experiments. Those who favored the research said that even the floridly psychotic had the needed competence to agreee to such research (awfully convenient!), even though many of the subjects were INVOLUNTARILY HOSPITALIZED. Basically, these studies were often done on patients that were accessible...this raises serious problems, because the sample sucks (not even close to random) and adequate controls for other variables (drug exposure, gender, age, income, race, length of time with illness) were not in place.
poster:med_empowered
thread:461854
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20050222/msgs/461918.html