Posted by med_empowered on November 17, 2005, at 23:51:31
In reply to Wow It's Now On TV!, posted by Phillipa on November 17, 2005, at 21:16:06
ugh...no, its not the real world. A bad response to an AD doesn't mean "you must be bipolar". Antidepressants raise the levels of neurotransmitters to *unusually high* levels--so really, you're inducing an unusual, patholigical state in the brain; any improvements you see are more from unusually high serotonin or whatever than they are from "restoring balance" or whatever marketing BS drug companies are saying these days. Whats remarkable is that MORE people DONT go crazy--I mean, you soak your brain in serotonin, for a LOOOONG time.
Now, Im not saying antidepressants dont help some people--they do--but lets be honest here: psychiatric drugs don't really "fix" any underlying problem. Yes, they can alter brain chemistry so that *symptoms* go away and life overall becomes easier, but this doesn't mean that they somehow *fix* a *disorder*.Weirdly enough, the newer breed of psychiatric meds actually seems to sometimes threaten *psychiatrists*--something like 70% of all psychotropic med RXs are written by non-psychiatrists; GPs, nurse practitioners, that kind of thing. Psychiatrists tend to see the affluent and the more complicated cases. Also, theres a move to allow psychologists to prescribe--they're doing this in New Mexico, with no apparent problems as of yet. Of course, shrinks fought against this and continue to fight against it. Its weird, isn't it--the idea that a 15minute session every 2-3 months could somehow offer them insight that other docs don't have? Plus, they don't usually do blood work or anything themselves so...really, many of todays shrinks are highly skilled drug pushers. This whole "we have all the answers" schtick is really just a power grab.
poster:med_empowered
thread:579280
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20051112/msgs/579919.html