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Legendary
Member Since Feb 2009
Posts: 10,027
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Apr 15, 2019 at 01:01 PM
Quote:
Originally Posted by little turtle
this morning I am reading an interesting story in the april 8th
magazine THE NEW YORKER titled THE BITTER PILL...
it is about why we know so little about how to stop taking psychiatric drugs...
it is a story about laura Delano who took 19 meds in 14 years...
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Thank you for mentioning this article, Little Turtle. For me this paragraph - and the following - capture an important element of the story:
Quote:
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Laura had always assumed that depression was caused by a precisely defined chemical imbalance, which her medications were designed to recalibrate. She began reading about the history of psychiatry and realized that this theory, promoted heavily by pharmaceutical companies, is not clearly supported by evidence. Genetics plays a role in mental disorder, as do environmental influences, but the drugs do not have the specificity to target the causes of an illness. Wayne Goodman, a former chair of the F.D.A.’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee, has called the idea that pills fix chemical imbalances a “useful metaphor” that he would never use with his patients. Ronald Pies, a former editor of Psychiatric Times, has said, “My impression is that most psychiatrists who use this expression”—that the pills fix chemical imbalances—“feel uncomfortable and a little embarrassed when they do so. It’s kind of a bumper-sticker phrase that saves time.”
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My dog  mastered the "fetch" command. He would communicate he wanted something, and I would fetch it.
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