Has the field of Psychiatry been infilitrated by drug companies?
Psychiatry, in a pure sense, should not involve drugging people. Psychiatrists should seek to cure their patient’s mental disorders or issues through natural means, and this is VERY possible. There is no need to drug over 30 million Americans every day. Its ridiculous.
I believe the answers is yes, so the real question may be: To what extent?
Psychiatrists are sponsored by drug companies, and are so loose with their prescription pads. They don’t do much asides from prescribing drugs. Its unfortunate, really.
Richard Louv, a scientist who studies a term he coined himself, "natural-deficit disorders" studies how so many of the mental disorders which psychiatrists work can be dealt with through other means, such as exposure to nature. It is absolutely not necessary to drug millions of Americans.
I’m not sure what the percentage is, but a substantially large percentage of the American population takes drugs for depression-related purposes.
He authored a book, titled "Last Child in the Woods" - Check it out if you want.
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July 26th, 2010 at 4:36 am
Our society is *gradually* letting go of the outdated belief that "mental health problems" are "diseases," which can be best treated by doctors trained in human psychology. Because the SYMPTOMS of many "mental illnesses" like AD-HD really DO recede with strategic medications, the argument that psychiatrists should prescribe drugs for selected conditions seems valid. "Herbal remedies" (and shamans) for emotional and physical distress have been around for thousands of years in all societies, so chemicals have a long-standing place in easing human discomfort.
Some psychiatrists over-medicate and mis-medicate - for example, prescribing mood-control drugs for "depression" - which is often a misdiagnosis of unfinished (normal) grief.. A demonstrable phenomenon is the "Placebo effect" - people who are told drugs will alleviate discomfort DO "feel better," despite the drugs being bogus (like sugar pills). Part of the problem is that many patients only trust medication, and distrust "psycho-babble" (qualified counseling).
"Developed" nations are slowly growing to accept "non-traditional" health practices long known in older civilizations, like acupuncture, massage, and meditation.
Bottom line - I disagree with your conclusions.
July 26th, 2010 at 4:36 am
Yes, but to be fair, there are a lot of people who have been helped by those drugs. I think they are over prescibed, but having worked with schizophrenic homeless people in my younger days, some of the people who we were able to get medical attention were greatly improved in terms of their ability to function, care for themselves, and relate to people. That said, it is more than a coincidence that there are epidemics of disorders like Adult Attention Deficit Disorder whenever there is a drug developed to cure it.