tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post8012183846470096006..comments2023-07-13T05:01:01.343-07:00Comments on Holistic Recovery from Schizophrenia: The fall-out from Dr. Nancy C. Andreasen's bombshellAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06700295858497275586noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post-29998217630551178372010-04-11T07:54:25.584-07:002010-04-11T07:54:25.584-07:00Whatever happened to Carl Jung (or even Sigmund Fr...Whatever happened to Carl Jung (or even Sigmund Freud)? Scratch beneath the surface of most psychiatrists these days and it's only about finding the "right" drug. Consumers are rarely consulted about what is best for them.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06700295858497275586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post-85433768510854459532010-04-11T06:38:46.306-07:002010-04-11T06:38:46.306-07:00I have a problem with what Nancy Andreasen calls h...I have a problem with what Nancy Andreasen calls her policy implications. Lowering the dosage certainly wouldn't hurt while using some of these drugs heavily certainly does hurt. Developing other drugs that effect different areas of the brain...? Isn't that how we came to this pass in the first place? Then she goes onto suggest drug treatment in combination with non-drug treatment. I don't think anybody should be given these harmful drugs against their will and wishes. I also think we need to be even more innovative, and look into treatments that don't involve using drugs. (These are drugs, before you call them them medication, look at what she says they do, and tell me how the heck what they do relates to medicine!?) The search-for-the-perfect-drug kick Dr. Andreasen is on resembles the same type of thinking that keeps these dangerious drugs, and the companies behind them, going.MindFreedom Virginiahttp://lunatickfringe.wordpress.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post-23933261537161845222010-04-09T00:12:32.909-07:002010-04-09T00:12:32.909-07:00I am very skeptical of the damaged brain argument,...I am very skeptical of the damaged brain argument, even when people wave so called "proof" in my face. I mean, come on, if someone wants to measure my brain activity when I am thinking about sex (which is very little these days), my brain is going to look different, too. Dr. Andreasen is like the rest of them who think that a new drug is going to solve the problem, while completely overlooking the fact that it will only create a different and possibly more sinister problem (it that is possible).Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06700295858497275586noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2894514913516471357.post-83175390724942672982010-04-08T09:51:01.750-07:002010-04-08T09:51:01.750-07:00So far, it doesn't look like the bombshell has...So far, it doesn't look like the bombshell has had any further impact. I've had consumers reply to me, after I'd referenced this research, that this certainly was a mistake, "bad science", and/or that they'd only believe it, if their own shrink told them it was true - which is an understandable defence mechanism, especially when someone's been on these drugs for a decade+. On the other hand, I see the "experts" continue to talk about the brain-damaging effects of "psychosis", and about "schizophrenia" to be an illness that, if untreated (with drugs, of course), has your brain functioning, especially cognition, deteriorate, and that shrinks your brain. So, hardly any chance that the "expert" will confirm the consumer of this research to be trustworthy.<br /><br />I think, I've mentioned it before: Almost three decades of untreated (=undrugged) crisis on/off haven't done any damage to my brain, unless you regard increased intensity from crisis to crisis a sign of brain damage, and not of a brain that is perfectly well-responding to the unconscious' need to make itself heard...<br /><br />I can imagine the "experts' " (and society's) argument if ever this research is acknowledged in a broader sense: Oh, but the illness is so much more horrible than a little brain shrinkage! These drugs save lives!" There's, as far as I know, one person here in Denmark, who filed a complaint about Zyprexa, which had given him diabetes. The complaint was dismissed. If you suffer from an illness like "schizophrenia", you have to live with a side effect like diabetes, the Danish Patients' Complaint Board explained its decision. The person in question died a few months later. He didn't die from "schizophrenia". He died from complications of diabetes.<br /><br />And btw, Nancy C. Andreasen mentions it herself in the interview: What we really need is not a paradigm shift, but new drugs, that, hopefully, don't have this "side" effect. Never mind that there's no way of predicting what kind of side effects the new wonder drugs will turn out to have, and that, actually, it is unlikely that any substance will come into consideration that doesn't shrink the brain, sooner or later, more or less, as it's not a side effect, but <i>the</i> effect.Marianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16273435151682585281noreply@blogger.com