I have strong views about mental health, the mental health system and about treatment and attitudes. As you will be sure to see in my posts to come. For now I wanted to share this, I found it via the wonderful Qi site, and glad I am too. I have very strong views about anti-depressants. The fact that they are handed out like sweeties, with usually no other help or explanation/education or support offered. This is wrong and dangerous. Anti-d's are meant for the treatment of severe depression and only for short periods, to lift the person enough to enable them and their Dr or whoever to help them get better. Instead, if you go to your Dr complaining of feeling down and not sleeping, chances are you'll be given some anti-d's and sent home, and if it does not work, they'll usually just up the dosage! I even knew someone given it for acne!
Why is this? Because, as with all public services the government feels that the money to run them properly could be better spent on other things like war, and nice lunches! So Dr's have 5mins to deal with the patient, knowing that there are few, if any services that can help them. Counselling, therapy, support groups, holistic treatments etc that could help are in short supply. Even if you are very ill and really need help, you're unlikely to get the treatment you need. Also there has been an ever increasing shift away from people towards money and business. How many billions are made by the companies that make these drugs? And more importantly why is this not aonly allowed to happen but encouraged!?
I am not saying that they should be outlawed, as they do work for some poeple, in the right situation. What really needs to be done is firstly proper regulation of companies, it is well documented now that the company making Seroxat (Glaxo Smith Kline) knew for about 15 yrs that this drug caused increased suicidal tendancies! And they covered it up!
I could go on and on but I will save it for another day, and write a proper piece.
For now, I'd say, always check things out for yourself, don't take someones word for it especially just because they are a "proffesional"
There are many and varied ways to treat and help people, just offering support, love and a listening can in itself help hugely.
"Irving Kirsch, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut, believes that the effectiveness of Prozac and similar drugs may be attributed almost entirely to the placebo effect. He and Guy Sapirstein analyzed 19 clinical trials of antidepressants and concluded that the expectation of improvement, not adjustments in brain chemistry, accounted for 75 percent of the drugs' effectiveness (Kirsh 1998). "The critical factor," says Kirsch, "is our beliefs about what's going to happen to us. You don't have to rely on drugs to see profound transformation." In an earlier study, Sapirstein analyzed 39 studies, done between 1974 and 1995, of depressed patients treated with drugs, psychotherapy, or a combination of both. He found that 50 percent of the drug effect is due to the placebo response."
"A person's beliefs and hopes about a treatment, combined with their suggestibility, may have a significant biochemical effect. Sensory experience and thoughts can affect neurochemistry. The body's neurochemical system affects and is affected by other biochemical systems, including the hormonal and immune systems. Thus, it is consistent with current knowledge that a person's hopeful attitude and beliefs may be very important to their physical well-being and recovery from injury or illness."
Why is this? Because, as with all public services the government feels that the money to run them properly could be better spent on other things like war, and nice lunches! So Dr's have 5mins to deal with the patient, knowing that there are few, if any services that can help them. Counselling, therapy, support groups, holistic treatments etc that could help are in short supply. Even if you are very ill and really need help, you're unlikely to get the treatment you need. Also there has been an ever increasing shift away from people towards money and business. How many billions are made by the companies that make these drugs? And more importantly why is this not aonly allowed to happen but encouraged!?
I am not saying that they should be outlawed, as they do work for some poeple, in the right situation. What really needs to be done is firstly proper regulation of companies, it is well documented now that the company making Seroxat (Glaxo Smith Kline) knew for about 15 yrs that this drug caused increased suicidal tendancies! And they covered it up!
I could go on and on but I will save it for another day, and write a proper piece.
For now, I'd say, always check things out for yourself, don't take someones word for it especially just because they are a "proffesional"
There are many and varied ways to treat and help people, just offering support, love and a listening can in itself help hugely.
"Irving Kirsch, a psychologist at the University of Connecticut, believes that the effectiveness of Prozac and similar drugs may be attributed almost entirely to the placebo effect. He and Guy Sapirstein analyzed 19 clinical trials of antidepressants and concluded that the expectation of improvement, not adjustments in brain chemistry, accounted for 75 percent of the drugs' effectiveness (Kirsh 1998). "The critical factor," says Kirsch, "is our beliefs about what's going to happen to us. You don't have to rely on drugs to see profound transformation." In an earlier study, Sapirstein analyzed 39 studies, done between 1974 and 1995, of depressed patients treated with drugs, psychotherapy, or a combination of both. He found that 50 percent of the drug effect is due to the placebo response."
"A person's beliefs and hopes about a treatment, combined with their suggestibility, may have a significant biochemical effect. Sensory experience and thoughts can affect neurochemistry. The body's neurochemical system affects and is affected by other biochemical systems, including the hormonal and immune systems. Thus, it is consistent with current knowledge that a person's hopeful attitude and beliefs may be very important to their physical well-being and recovery from injury or illness."
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