The Changing Face of Psychiatry
http://thekojonnamdishow.org/shows/2010-05-18/changing-face-psychiatry
In the past few decades, psychiatry has jumped off the therapist's couch and into the pharmacy. Pharmacology and medications to aid mental health are now the norm. But many doctors are re-examining their reliance on pills. Join Kojo to explore the history of psychiatry and how science is likely to transform treatments in the future.
Guests
Daniel Lieberman
Professor, Director of Clinical Psychiatric Research Center, The George Washington University
Daniel Carlat
Psychiatrist; Associate Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts Medical School
James Potash
Associate Professor, Arlene and Robert Kogod Professorship in Mood Disorders and Director, Mood Disorders Research Programs, Johns Hopkins University
Comments
Please familiarize yourself with our Code of Conduct and Terms of Use before posting your comments.
Dear Kojo ~
Thank you, thank you, thank you for informing the public about this important issue. There is rampant ignorance about psychiatric drugs, and people fear what they do not understand. As a result, many treatable illnesses are going untreated and thereby making lives miserable.
Sandra Rowe-Dagostaro
age 27. Female.
To me it feels like what scientists and psichiatrists are trying to do is to put bandages on wounds created by much larger and societal issues. These days many people live their lives devoid of community or a feeling of support. People are disconnected from one another at the heart by the pressures our jobs and the technologies we use. The feeling of duty to protect and to love one another is segmented in our rush to make the next buck and pay the bills, while we worry about our diseses....all which cause stress and illness.
I believe that putting drugs, or chemicals into the body is not the answer. Side effects can be worse that the initial disease and thi causes complcation and more heart ache.
My question is :
Don't drugs cause more pain and griefe in the end than caring ear and helpfu feedback? What is your reasoning for making people drugged and toxic with pharmicudicals?
Hi Kojo,
I feel I should tell you that I had intended for comment to be directed at your guests, not you! I feel silly. I rushed through it without paying attention to what exactly I was doing. Maybe I should get on dexadrine or ridalin! HA ha ha...
I want you to know that I think the topics of discussion you choose are great and I am thankful for all the effort you put into your cause.
I think I'll change my username to a much nicer one for when I send my next "comment".
Take care, Marie
As someone who takes psychiatric medications (Dr. Lieberman is actually my psych doc), I get very annoyed with people both in and out of the mental health community who are so quick to put down their use. I do believe that Americans in general are over-medicated. And I do believe that many people with light to moderate depression should go through therapy and perhaps use drugs temporarily to make sure their depression doesn't worsen. However, for many of us that have more severe mental illnesses (Major Depressive Disorder, Schizophrenia, Bipolar) drugs are what keep us functional.
I shudder to think where I and many of my mentally ill friends would be without drugs. I wonder how many people in the last century who were thrown into asylums for having one of the illnesses I named. I have had psychotic episodes that involved me running half naked screaming in the street or cowering in the corner because the "shadow people" would not let me leave the room. With drugs I am a functional member of society. I went from being kicked out of college for flunking all my classes to being a rising senior at Georgetown who will graduate Cum Laude. I've traveled all over the United States and Europe and have even gone to the Middle East for cultural studies. I thank science everyday for creating medications that allow me to be myself instead of a psychotic maniac locked up somewhere.
I know that people who put down drugs often don't know much about the flip side of them. Even many people in the mental illness community do not understand how others can be so gun-ho about meds. Ignorance is everywhere. I have a friend that is bipolar and didn't know that bipolars can also be psychotic. Often people's knowledge is limited to their personal experience and beliefs and they don't bother to expand to the experiences of others.
As I like to say, if you think psychiatric medications are so bad, then let me go off my meds for a month and show up at your house. Would you want to be alone with me? Would you trust me with your children in that condition? I find it amusing that people who think everyone should stop taking meds are the first ones to be terrified when you see what we're like when we are not properly medicated.