Wayne Blackmon, a psychiatrist and lawyer who teaches at George Washington University Law School, said he commonly sees patients taking more than one antipsychotic, which raises the risk of side effects. Blackmon regards them as the “drugs du jour,” too often prescribed for “problems of living. Somehow doctors have gotten it into their heads that this is an acceptable use.” Physicians, he said, have a financial incentive to prescribe drugs, widely regarded as a much quicker fix than a time-intensive evaluation and nondrug treatments such as behavior therapy, which might not be covered by insurance.
There’s lots more here, including some choice remarks from UD‘s friend Allen Frances.
March 14th, 2012 at 7:06AM
“Two graduate students who had no symptoms of mental illness wondered if she thought they should take a powerful schizophrenia drug each had been prescribed to treat insomnia.”
Oh god, America is FUBAR. The only good thing here is that these two students were seeking information from an appropriate source, such as a doctor. OTOH, graduate students ought to be able to find information themselves. One look at the PDR (or similar) and I know the answer is ‘hell no, I wouldn’t take an antipsychotic b/c it is to serotonergic brain function what the zenith-hammer is to… well anything that needs crushed out of existence’.
I do seem to recall a successful movement to legislate that talk therapy be covered by health insurers. Maybe it wasn’t as successful of a push as I recall, maybe the particulars and financial incentives led to a bill looking like Swiss cheese. (Though you know I’m not a big fan of the shrinks either. The kids are alright, its the prevailing circumstances of the human condition that are the problem, have these people read a newspaper — ever?)
No more DTC advertising. No more direct funding of clinical trials by the drug makers themselves. No more ghostwriting. No more journals dependent on drug makers’ money. Matters pertaining to public health must be transparent and independent. Is it even possible?
Is UD really ‘friends’ with Dr. Allen Frances? Facebook friends? Acquaintance-at-a-bloggers’-conference? Or is it no foolies IRL FRIENDS? C’mon UD, tell the truth. (How is it that I’m jealous of your claimed friendship with some geezer? Oh right, he’s reprising the Gandalf role currently! However, I did meet Shasha Shulgin once… oh no, I’ve said too much!)
March 14th, 2012 at 7:20AM
Mike S.: UD and Allen Frances are email friends. We correspond about pharma stuff, encourage each other in our writing, etc.