When the hell are Americans going to understand that psychiatric drugs don't "cure" anyone?

Question

Medical model of psychiatric health: When symptoms go away you're "cured." Really? So the iatrogenic diseases I got from the side effects of psychotropic drugs is a non-problem? You mean when the roller coaster of mood swings is not abated by drugs like Depakote we should conclude mood stabilizers really "work?" You mean when I take a drug like Wellbutrin to stop depression and I still feel depressed I should blame myself and not the pharmaceutical industry for its false promises? You mean when I take tranquilizers for anxiety related problems I should stay on the maintenance dosage for the rest of my life why?--a) because I have a "chemical imbalance" or b) because the pharmaceutical industry needs all the "sick" people it can get to get hooked on addictive prescription drugs?

I think I need to reask this question at a better time.

First of all, I never said I take psychiatric drugs (LOL)!

Secondly, even a first year graduate student in clinical psychology (or even a good intro to psych student) knows that indeed the medical model of mental health that is mainstream in the USA today absolutely assumes that when symptoms are gone the person is considered CURED. If the "cure" requires a maintenance dosage for the rest of your life the assumption is the person is "cured" as long as meds are taken. You don't like that assumption? Don't blame me. I didn't create the medical model, and for all you "professionals" who are in denial that the above assumption is indeed real, maybe you need some awareness therapy.

Third, most of these answers are so spot on I have no clue how to pick the "best" answer!

Please, don't misunderstand my question. To argue pro-drug treatments in the extreme cases (typical of "professionals") says ZERO about 80% of the people taking psychotropic drugs who don't fit into that cohort!

Answer 1

I completely agree with you...I was on Paxil for a year a while back. My doctor did not tell me that the drug was addictive, and that side effects included depression, feeling numb emotionally, and a lowered sense of ethics and morality. When I was on Paxil, I thought it was ok to run up credit card debt and sleep in til 5 pm, and go out with men who were practically strangers to me. All this behavior was completely out of character for me. Finally, when I decided to take back my life, getting off Paxil was so difficult because whenever I tried to, my brain felt like it was being zapped. I had to take a constant dosage of Dramamine just to feel somewhat normal.
The drug companies have very little knowledge of what exactly is a chemical imbalance in your brain. I don't even think they have any scientific way of testing the levels of seratonine in your body. They don't care, they just keep making and packaging and selling the crap like the crack dealers that they are.
I live with anxiety, and I went to a different doctor and mentioned it to her a few months ago, and told her my woes with Paxil. She then gave me some samples of Zoloft. I asked her what the side effects were, and she told me to go home and read the phamphlet inside, not even caring about my concerns.
I get home, and inside there was a phamphlet warning parents to be on the outlook for depression and SUICIDAL TENDENCIES, which have been reported with the use of this drug. WHY WOULD A DOCTOR PROMOTE ANYTHING THAT MAY CAUSE SUICIDE?!!!! I threw the crap out in the toilet.
A month later, my husband comes home and told me that his co-worker committed suicide. He was 60 years old, and 3 months ago, he went on Zoloft as advised by his doctor because he had mild depression. The man was making good money, had grandchildren, in great health, married, and so forth. His wife said she never even suspected he was thinking like this. THESE DRUGS REDUCE YOUR ABILITY TO THINK LOGICALLY!!!
Now I realize that all of a person's behavior, choices, and actions cannot always be blamed on the medication he is taking, but these drugs are definately not for everyone, and certainly there needs to be more testing.
I don't know what the "cure" is for depression and anxiety, but I have managed to go on with my life prescription drug free, and have discovered coping techniques that have worked.
I am very disgusted at the quality of health care in this country. Though it may be the best, I certainly do believe we have a long way to go.

Answer 2

As a medical professional, I assure you the medical model of psychiatric health does not involve a cure to any specific mental illness. Treatments can be very effective for some, calm psychotic symptoms such as paranoia, auditory hallucinations, delusions, etc. Anti-depressants can also be very effective for some, letting some who would suffer live a more healthy life. Obviously every drug (non-psychiatric included) has a side-effect and one must weight the benefits vs. the side effects.

Obviously pharamaceutical companies are for profit, yet are necessary to treat many illnesses. It is true some medication withdrawal symptoms are under exxagerated or not mentioned at all by pharmaceutical companies. Ethics are questionable, however in the end, without medications many more people would be living in mental institutions... which was the case up until the 1950's.

I have seen people with severe schizophrenia who wanted nothing more than the voices to go away and the medications aren't perfect by any means, but they can really help some people. So the question, would you rather be "hooked" to a medication that is helping you or be miserable? That's a personal choice you have to make.

If you are suffering anxiety and do not wish to take tranquilizers (I assume you are talking about benzodiazapines), then you are not forced to. Simply don't take them. They are meant to help, not harm.

Mood stabilizers used for bipolar tend to be very effective for many, it's all about finding the right one, and again, balancing the side-effects. Much research finds that mood stablizers do help maintain mood stability. Obviously there are no cures and any physician that tells you otherwise is very ill-informed and should probably not be practicing.

I guess you have to look at the real "promises" you are hearing. As to my knowledge there are no promises or guaranteed made by any pharmaceutical company regarding the many psychiatric treatments. Perhaps one day in the future there will be a true cure for these illnesses and the suffering they cause. For now, all we can treat are symptoms, and that's difficult in itself.

I wish you the best of luck.

Answer 3

The American public has this erroneous idea that when someone in the psychiatric profession says something that person is to be believed because they would not lie. They are in the profession to help others and they know what is best for others. We Americans have given this profession to much control. They will tell us that such and such is safe when they have no studies regarding what is safe or have never been done or they manipulate the studies for the outcome they want. A very good example is the whole Prozac thing. The drug companies and APA only told the public the good things about the drug and many people lost their life as a result. As Americans we have let a profession (psychiatry) tell us what is right and what is wrong. How many times has someone gone to a psychiatrist and the doctor ordered blood tests or other tests prior to prescribing a pill. The truth is Psychiatry does not have the answers and the drug companies are only concerned with making money. But as long as we continue to let doctors make decisions about what is right and what is wrong for a society we as Americans well continue take the drugs. Unfortunately there is going to be a whole generation of children who are now taking addictive medication for problems we once were able to tolerate that may not be able to function as adults. All because we have let a profession tell us how our children should be raised.

Answer 4

You're kind of all over the place with this question so I'm going to pick and choose what I respond to.

First, I don't know of a medical professional out there that calls psychotropic medication a cure. Heck, hardly anything is a cure. The word they use is treatment. The idea is to allieviate the problem as much as possible.

Next, prescription drugs are hardly ever addictive with the exception of pain killers. The deal with these drugs is that they have a long half life, so they stay in your body for quite some time. This means that there is a more constant, regular supply of the drug so that your body is less likely to go into withdrawal. A drug like alcohol, on the other hand has a much shorter half life. Your body gets rid of it in a matter of hours leaving your body with an irregular supply and making it way easier to become addicted.

Answer 5

The thing that's especially annoying is that if you look at even the clinical trials data, that these companies needed to submit to the FDA to get to say their products are 'effective' as well as 'safe', they are often only 10-20% more effective than *placebo*! That means, when they are actually willing to admit the numbers at all (it seems that sometimes they don't have to tell the general public little details like how many subjects they ran, what the actual numbers were, just that it was 'statistically significantly' better than placebo.), 30-40% of the people in the placebo group claimed they had improvement, and maybe 40-60% of people taking the drugs seemed to have improved. Makes you wonder how it would do against, say, vitamins in some of these trials! Given that the medical model should be first and foremost compliant with the Hippocratic oath--first, do no harm--the downside of these substances should be waaay more seriously considered.
I love it how drugs like Depakote and Zyprexa are prescribed for mood disorders, and they have side effects like huge weight gain, irreversible ticks and tremors, induced diabetes, liver damage--side effects for which whole programs of research are dedicated to addressing when they occur "on their own".
Research also indicates that cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective as drugs for many people, but indeed that wouldn't be very beneficial to the drug companies!
The science is really just beginning to be decent, has a long way to go, and there is only the pretense that the medical establishment has a good clue what causes depression or mood swings or anxiety. Throwing around drugs that mess with major neurotransmitter systems when they really haven't the vaguest idea what a given patient's 'chemical' issues are is ridiculously hit or miss, and they should accept it as such.
Don't let anyone make you believe you need to be on any drug forever, but be careful getting off them because the other issue that gets little attention is how they don't do any research at all when setting guidelines for use on longterm consequences or on the effects of *coming off* the meds! Often, the symptoms look like the ones you had to get the 'diagnosis' in the first place...oh, you're anxious? that's the anxiety disorder again, better stay on the tranqs forever!...find someone who has experience with getting people off meds and who doesn't mouth that 'maintenance dosage or else' crap if you feel the meds are doing more harm than good.
Don't accept a medication that doesn't work just because they tell you to and surely don't blame yourself!

Answer 6

You are right. Unfortunatly a lot of people will not understand until they "get it" that these prescriptions are not the cure. I think that every time a psychiatrist prescribes you a drug, they get money for it. I was on anti-depressants for 3 years and to tell you the truth I felt great. I had great relationships with my family and friends. But soon I realized that this may go on forever. That I would have to depend on these pills for the rest of my life. And so I decided to get off them...Its been 6 months now and I've worked my butt off to get better. No more stupid doctors. I'm exercising and I have a great relationship with my boyfriend. And although I still have some sad days, its ok...everyone has them. I always give the advice to never go on anti-depressants. They are the worst thing to do.

Answer 7

Just because you are bitter about things not working out for you doesn't mean that they dont help other people. I am not a fan of people taking drugs for every little problem but I think there is little doubt that they can be quite helpful if you keep on trying until you find one that doesn't have severe side effects for you personally. i've been through it, now I watch my patients go through it. (i'm not a psychiatrist so i dont prescribe drugs.)

I do think that drugs should be a last resort. They can cause side effects and often are required to be taken for the duration of a person's life. That is no different than insulin for a diabetic. No they dont all work for every person. But there are a lot of drugs like that for a lot of diseases. I"m sorry you are having a bad experience but don't scare everyone else over it.

By the way, what is your definition of "cured"? I havent heard any doctor or drug company claim any of these drugs "cure" anyone.

Answer 8

That is the whole point. The idea is to get the american population so used to taking apill for everything that when it is decided that everyone should take a federaly mandated pill (that unknown to the populace is a mind altering means of control) people will take it without question. Why do you think that they advertise perscription medications on televison when you hve to aska doctro to get it? Think about it...the whole point is to make people think that to be normal you have to be taking something that alters your mind in some way.


Remember more than 55% of the people in charge of the FDA have vested financial interests in pharmaceutical companies.

Answer 9

well i know that i felt ******* horrible a few years ago, and now im stable again because of my meds. i tried getting off cause i didn't want to be on drugs my whole life, but i had a relaspe and feel right back down

Answer 10

imma say that since the rich have invested so much money into pharmaceutical stocks the answer will be um NEVER