Posted by med_empowered on April 28, 2007, at 4:07:46
In reply to That article is fundamentally wrong » linkadge, posted by greywolf on April 28, 2007, at 0:58:44
In the 50s-70s (into the 80s, really), schizophrenia was **the** diagnosis. I mean, yes, they used other diagnoses, but schizophrenia dominated (at least in the US, not so much elsewhere). Then, shrinks decided that ,hey, maybe not everyone needs Mellaril, afterall.
Now Bipolar is the "it" diagnosis. It covers up for treatment failures, explains adverse effects (stimulant induced mania? AD induced mania? Bipolar!), and brings in loads of $$$ for new drugs (seroquel, zyprexa, lamictal, etc.) for this "often misunderstood" and/or "misdiagnosed" condition. Just as the Prozac years turned your blues into depression, the coming years will turn pretty much anything (happiness, sadness, insomnia, hypersomnia, etc.) into "bipolar." Like the old schizophrenia label, ANYTHING can be pushed into the "bipolar" category. Since polypharmacy is the rule in bipolar, it could actually work, and the potential profits are ENORMOUS--a mood-stabilizer, then something to move the mood up or down, something for sleep, maybe something for anxiety and/or inattentiveness...bipolar is a mental illness where EVERYBODY wins, b/c any and every part of the "bipolar experience" can be medicated.
I'm not anti-meds--I mean, take what works, whether its Prozac or Percocet--but I am against this practice psychiatrists have of disguising *trends* in prescribing as being somehow scientifically based. They're not. For instance: shrinks act as if the use of low dose antipsychotics for sleep, bipolar, depression, agitation, etc. is something novel. Its not. Read the old ads for trilafon, etc.: alot of them were aimed squarely at the non-psychotic market. All that's happening is the market is being flooded with heavily promoted tranquilizers, just like in the 50s and 60s, so docs are changing their prescribing habits accordingly. Maybe, if patients are lucky, drug companies will do something that *patients* will appreciate, like bring back Quaaludes. (Fingers crossed)
poster:med_empowered
thread:753904
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070426/msgs/754121.html