Post by kitkat on Jun 27, 2012 19:05:55 GMT -5
I chanced across a factoid i was unaware of today..that anti-psychotics are the biggest selling class of drugs in the US today...(followed by cholesterol reducing drugs (statins) and then PPIs (acid relflux heartburn, prevacid etc).
That led me to the following articles in the NY Review of books, published last year in which the author examines the whole subject of the recent evolution of the field of psychiatry and its use of psychoactive drugs.
Some key points/excerpts:
Those on SSI for mental health reasons climbed 242% between 1987 and 2007. (Prozac came on the market in 1987.)
For children the rise has been 3500% in the same time period. Not a misprint.
The hypothesis that psych disorders are caused by "chemical imbalances in the brain"--which the drugs purportedly correct-- is without any scientific foundation whatsoever.
Double blind studies released by the FDA document that the only evidence of efficacy is bound to side effect-bias, which acts to negate the double blind design (placebos have no side effects.) As for efficacy regardless, it is statistically still so minimal that drug companies typically run study after study until they finally have two (FDA requirement) that show a high enough result bias to finally publish.
And long term use of commonly prescribed psychoactive drugs seems to cause permanent brain *damage* as well..:
“A quick thought experiment”:
Imagine that a virus suddenly appears in our society that makes people sleep twelve, fourteen hours a day. Those infected with it move about somewhat slowly and seem emotionally disengaged. Many gain huge amounts of weight—twenty, forty, sixty, and even one hundred pounds. Often their blood sugar levels soar, and so do their cholesterol levels. A number of those struck by the mysterious illness—including young children and teenagers—become diabetic in fairly short order…. The federal government gives hundreds of millions of dollars to scientists at the best universities to decipher the inner workings of this virus, and they report that the reason it causes such global dysfunction is that it blocks a multitude of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain—dopaminergic, serotonergic, muscarinic, adrenergic, and histaminergic. All of those neuronal pathways in the brain are compromised. Meanwhile, MRI studies find that over a period of several years, the virus shrinks the cerebral cortex, and this shrinkage is tied to cognitive decline. A terrified public clamors for a cure.
Now such an illness has in fact hit millions of American children and adults. We have just described the effects of Eli Lilly’s best-selling antipsychotic, Zyprexa.
read more:
Part I www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/?page=1
Part II www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/illusions-of-psychiatry/
Oh, btw..this is all driven by PROFIT of course...for the provider and for big pharma (also detailed within above articles).
That led me to the following articles in the NY Review of books, published last year in which the author examines the whole subject of the recent evolution of the field of psychiatry and its use of psychoactive drugs.
Some key points/excerpts:
Those on SSI for mental health reasons climbed 242% between 1987 and 2007. (Prozac came on the market in 1987.)
For children the rise has been 3500% in the same time period. Not a misprint.
The hypothesis that psych disorders are caused by "chemical imbalances in the brain"--which the drugs purportedly correct-- is without any scientific foundation whatsoever.
Double blind studies released by the FDA document that the only evidence of efficacy is bound to side effect-bias, which acts to negate the double blind design (placebos have no side effects.) As for efficacy regardless, it is statistically still so minimal that drug companies typically run study after study until they finally have two (FDA requirement) that show a high enough result bias to finally publish.
And long term use of commonly prescribed psychoactive drugs seems to cause permanent brain *damage* as well..:
“A quick thought experiment”:
Imagine that a virus suddenly appears in our society that makes people sleep twelve, fourteen hours a day. Those infected with it move about somewhat slowly and seem emotionally disengaged. Many gain huge amounts of weight—twenty, forty, sixty, and even one hundred pounds. Often their blood sugar levels soar, and so do their cholesterol levels. A number of those struck by the mysterious illness—including young children and teenagers—become diabetic in fairly short order…. The federal government gives hundreds of millions of dollars to scientists at the best universities to decipher the inner workings of this virus, and they report that the reason it causes such global dysfunction is that it blocks a multitude of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain—dopaminergic, serotonergic, muscarinic, adrenergic, and histaminergic. All of those neuronal pathways in the brain are compromised. Meanwhile, MRI studies find that over a period of several years, the virus shrinks the cerebral cortex, and this shrinkage is tied to cognitive decline. A terrified public clamors for a cure.
Now such an illness has in fact hit millions of American children and adults. We have just described the effects of Eli Lilly’s best-selling antipsychotic, Zyprexa.
read more:
Part I www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/?page=1
Part II www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jul/14/illusions-of-psychiatry/
Oh, btw..this is all driven by PROFIT of course...for the provider and for big pharma (also detailed within above articles).
