NY Review of Books (Jun 2011)

Article reviewing 3 books questioning the efficacy (and potential harm) of psychiatric drugs.

 

[nobbc]http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2011/jun/23/epidemic-mental-illness-why/?pagination=false[/nobbc]

 

 

 

Edit: deactivate link per FUM. Members can copy and paste the link to their browser.

Unbelievable.  So all this evidence about how these drugs can shrink the brain, cause weight gain, cause harmful side effects, diabetes, cholesterol problems, and they are still passing this stuff out like candy. 

I love the questions raised in the article:

 

 

What is going on here? Is the prevalence of mental illness really that high and still climbing? Particularly if these disorders are biologically determined and not a result of environmental influences, is it plausible to suppose that such an increase is real? Or are we learning to recognize and diagnose mental disorders that were always there? On the other hand, are we simply expanding the criteria for mental illness so that nearly everyone has one? And what about the drugs that are now the mainstay of treatment? Do they work? If they do, shouldn’t we expect the prevalence of mental illness to be declining, not rising?

 

 

 

I think the answers are obvious.

I was on a medical site the other day that was comparing the efficacy between Klonopin and Xanax. Someone who claimed to be a medical professional said that 25% of any given population was mentally ill....of course this commenter was talking about the marvels of psych meds too.