Reply #7: Reaction to link

[TrogL]

Basically this a rather dangerous article written with some sort of axe to grind (or something to sell).

His basic points:

• All psychiatry is bunk
  
• no psychotropic medications work
  
• things used to be better in the old days
  

What immediately raises my suspicious is a total lack of footnotes or references. He makes outlandish claims and then doesn't back them up with facts and figures.

His arguments are full of logical fallacies.

I'll hit some of the highlights.

Depression has grown tenfold since 1900.

Possibly. Who knows. Certainly the diagnosis of depression has grown tenfold. We know a lot more about depression since the 1900s.

we are all are expected to acclimate as a dulling void of disconnectedness and dehumanization

That's certainly not what I've seen in the mass media. I've found we're all supposed to be shiny happy socializers. In that particular point I agree with the author that some psychiatric meds are incorrectly prescribed.

However the whole "dehumanization" meme comes from the "there's no such thing as ADD crowd" who want to have Ritalin banned (even though Ritalin isn't necessarily the drug of choice - I'm on dexedrine).

just take a look at 30 years ago: we have twice as many overweight children now compared with then

I was a child 30 years ago. There were plenty of kids around who would now be diagnosed as "overweight" who at that time were actually considered "underweight". At the time, I was what is now considered a healthy body weight, was told that I was "skin and bones" and questions were raised about my upbringing. One doctor insisted I needed to basically double my body weight. The poster boy "healthy child" was what we would now call "tubby". What they called "fat" was what we now call "grotesquely obese". Basically, the standards have changed.

If you can find it, have a look at the Canada Food and Health guide from that period. A "healthy breakfast" was an orgy of fat and carbs.

biochemical, neurological or genetic markers have been found for ADD, depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, alcoholism, gambling, or any other mental illnesses we can think of

Absolute nonsense. Autistic Spectrum disorders run through my family. So does depression. Here's a simple google search for genetic markers for schizophrenia (http://www.google.ca/search?hl=en&q=schizophrenia+genet... ). There's my footnote. Where's his?

Prior to 1980, there was no such thing as "Post Traumatic Stress Disorder".

Nonsense. Prior to 1980 there was no such diagnosis as PTSD. There was certainly plenty of it about. In the World Wars it was called "shell shock". Only recently has it been found that there are many traumas that could cause the disorder.

And now, kids who are bored in school and then get diagnosed with ADD, they're going be put on Ritalin or other amphetamines.

You had to know this was coming. My son has ADHD. Last school year he was doing awful. Beginning of this school year he was given medication (dexedrine). His marks picked up. His school work was better. He was organized and had his materials. Right after Christmas we ran out of money and couldn't afford his meds. His marks immediately fell of. He became a problem in class. The comments coming home from an increasingly concerned teacher reflected last year's comments. Then we got his meds back. Things went back to the new "normal". Granted it's only one case but plenty of others are documented.

Yes, my son was bored in school. He was so overwhelmed by the classroom and so upset with the teacher constantly on his case trying to make him pay attention that he was a "problem". Now that he can actually cope with the classroom and has the materials at hand he finds school exciting.

Remember, however, that I live in Canada with a Canadian health care system. My son has seen four different specialists to have the problem diagnosed and treated. I am well aware that in the US health care system for someone who make what I do, this would be unaffordable. I'm also aware of many family physicians making these diagnoses and prescribing these medications who are questionably qualified to do so.

First of all, they don't do research on these anti-depressants, including the SSRIs like Prozac, Paxil, Zoloft, on suicidal people.

There's a tiny bit of meat to this argument. Say one chicken wing's worth.

http://www.biopsychiatry.com/bigpharma/ssri-suicides.ht...

Dr. David Shaffer, a researcher at Columbia University, noted that teenage suicides have fallen significantly in every country where Prozac and its cousins are in widespread use.

Granted there has been studies showing a link between Paxil and suicide. I can certainly see it. I've been on Paxil and frankly I think it should be taken off the market. There are, however, other choices. Remember, we are talking about 3000 cases out of the millions of people taking SSRI's. There are other choices including tricyclics. To dismiss all SSRI treatment out of hand is ludicrous and dangerous.

I suffer from clinical depression. It is being treated with an SSRI. I had to try a number of different ones before I found a good fit. In a situation where basically nothing bad was going on, I found myself sad and upset and suicidal. On the medication, confronted with the same situation I am not sad and upset and suicidal. I'm not shiny happy dancing in the dandelions either.

I grant him his points that medications are over-marketed and improperly prescribed. Nonetheless many people have found relief from them.