Posted by med_empowered on March 31, 2007, at 14:29:04
In reply to and I hated provigil, Drug variability rationale, posted by stargazer on March 31, 2007, at 12:47:06
here's the problem: few drugs are developed *IN* psychiatry. Thorazine--old school antihistamine. Prozac--dervied from Benadryl. Amphetamines--used evidence for some sort of physical basis for thefor general medicine. On and on it goes.
There's no proof that there are chemical imbalances or what have you, so drugs are used alter brain chemistry to a desired effect. This is difficult for a number of reasons, one of which being the brain's ability to compensate for any alterations in function.
Psychiatry doesn't have or use the same tools as other fields of medicine b/c it isn't really medicine, not in the strictest sense. There aren't blood tests or scans for disorders; many "diseases" have no basis for their existence other than inclusion in the DSM, which has been growing exponentially since its introduction anyway, so that's not really an indication that a disorder is "real"; it just means some shrinks voted it in.
Depression, anxiety, etc. are REAL in the sense that one really does experience them--I know I have--but I don't think the bio-medical model has done very much to help alleviate suffering, and there has been a lot of suffering due to bio-medical interventions (iatrogenic disease) that could have been avoided. I think drugs can help, but they're not going to fix things for most people. I think maybe the thing to do is embrace a drug-centered psychiatry, one that focuses on the effects of the meds on one's psychological state, rather than a disease-centered model, in which there are specific "treatments" for specific "diseases." Calling mental distress "mental illness" is really just metaphor for the time being--se problems hasn't been forthcoming--so maybe its time to put the metaphor aside and start a new way of looking at these issues.
poster:med_empowered
thread:745673
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070327/msgs/745767.html