

Are Psychiatric Drugs Causing A Rise of Mental Illness in America? - Alex3917
http://www.alternet.org/health/146659/are_prozac_and_other_psychiatric_drugs_causing_the_astonishing_rise_of_mental_illness_in_america

======
gruseom
This sounds like an important book. The key point is this:

 _[The scientific literature on psychiatric drugs] is remarkably consistent in
the story it tells. Although psychiatric medications may be effective over the
short term, they increase the likelihood that a person will become chronically
ill over the long term._

Most people nowadays think that psychiatry finally established itself on a
scientific footing with the biochemical model of mental illness and associated
drug treatments. If this guy's right, then the biochemical model and
associated drugs are just the latest chapter in a long history of pseudo-
scientific barbarism, this time founded on a massive conflict of interest.

This part is positively Orwellian:

 _At some later point, however, as the chemical imbalance story repeatedly
fell apart, psychiatrists in the research community understood that they were
telling a “fib.” I can still remember -- this was the summer of 1998 -- when I
questioned a prominent academic psychiatrist about whether the chemical
imbalance story was really “true” and he replied by stating that it was a
“useful metaphor” that “helped patients understand why they needed to take
their medication.”_

------
MichaelGG
More people being diagnosed with mental illness doesn't mean there is more
mental illness, does it? Social acceptability and understanding has increased
since the 50s and 80s, so we should expect to see a lot more mental illness,
even if nothing else changed, right?

The other points about psych meds making symptoms worse is true - the rx info
for Ritalin and so on clearly list severe issues such as psychosis as a side
effect. Perhaps the problem lies in patients not receiving proper care and
follow up.

~~~
Alex3917
If I'm reading it correctly, the article isn't claiming there are more people
being diagnosed with mental illness, but rather that there are more people
severely enough incapacitated that they can't work.

------
pyre
Whenever I hear about people making claims against the current psychiatric
model, I look closely to see if they are associated with the CCHR
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Ri...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights)).
They basically believe that psychiatrists are purposefully poisoning us as
part of a campaign of eugenics...

Not to say that this guy might not be right, but it triggers my scepticism
alarms.

~~~
Alex3917
If you read the article the author actually criticizes CCHR. In any event he's
not arguing that psych meds shouldn't be used at all, but rather their long
term health effects should be taken into consideration.

------
maxharris
Do any of the people that came up with this have any relationship with
Scientology? I'm completely serious - Scientologists _hate_ psychiatry and
psychiatric drugs.

If there's no connection with those nutters, I'm very sorry for having raised
the issue at all. But you gotta know these things before you can trust what
you're reading.

~~~
gruseom
From the article:

 _Big Pharma and its partners in establishment psychiatry have smartly used
Scientology to defuse criticism of their medications. I honestly believe that
if Scientology weren't around, then our society could have a much more
rational discussion about our drug-based paradigm of care._

