Do the drugs actually work?

antidepressants

My take on James Davies book ‘Cracked’ and why psychiatry is doing more harm than good.

Do antidepressants actually work?

Prescription of antidepressant medicine has approximately tripled in less than 25 or so years, Is it that we are indeed more mentally unstable, that we are far more anxious and psychologically marred, is it merely that the doctors and psychiatrists are better skilled at highlighting psychiatric ailment than they used to, or is it that we are now just medicalised (dishing out tablets) what is very normal about the variety of day to day human experiences, which at times can be trialling, challenging or frustrating?

James Davies has highlighted a huge problem within the medical industry his book ‘Cracked’ has so much clarity, clearly argued, and timely book. It rendered me with much rage, exposing as it did something which I am so very aware of, due to me having my feet firmly in the industry of psychology and development. James Davies has thoughtfully and meticulously connected all the dots together, uncovering this horrendous chasm and blatant unscientific snake oil pushing mechanism we know as Big Pharma.

Anyone who cares about what it means to be a fully human being whether you be a professional or layman should be aware of what Davies lays out clearly about the mental health industry.

With a carefully created stream of ideas and arguments Davies serves up a telling no punches held back informative insight into mainstream psychiatry.

With the increasing creation of titles listing every EMOTIONAL STATE that falls within a category of disorder – thus opening the way to the development of chemical coshes. This categorisation – the `Bible’ used to denote syndromes, the DSM (currently DSM 5), is NOT the result of huge studies and research itself, yet it gets used as if it were the result of close scientific analyses. The result of the sort of rubbish, limiting thinking, limiting belief forming, turning us all into robots who can be managed out of our normal human pain is the crass thinking that says, for example sake, if after a the death of a loved one, sleep deprivated and general mood are affected for more than 2 weeks, anti-depressants may be helpfully or unhelpfully prescribed. We have become so afraid of our suffering that we are lead into self limitation by the people that should help us become more independent of aliments instead our worst fears are reinforced.

Various meta analysis study researches have shown that antidepressants are BARELY even effective, in mild to moderate depression, to placebo, which would suggest that they are nearer 10% helpful. Drug companies have very low level to meet, in order to `prove’ their products effectiveness. Davies uncovers the secrecy, the UNPUBLISHED drug trials that go against the findings Big Pharma wants and the manipulation of result. More than this, how drug companies positively USE the most powerful of tools – THE PLACEBO to manipulate their own results higher – for example, the colour, the name, the advertising of the pharmaceutical – many of the effects that might be assumed to be the result of the chemistry of the drug `better than placebo’ – are in fact DUE to the use of placebo!

There has been a change in thinking throughout the years between the 60s and 70s, where psychiatric drugs were seen as mood altering (in the same way as alcohol or non prescription drugs) A shift occurred to thinking of psychiatric drugs as `curative’. This might not seem an important shift – however it goes along with the idea that much uncomfortable, difficult human emotion is now being seen as potentially aberrant and classifiable as a `disease’ – as in the DSM – shyness becomes `social phobia’.

Medical naming encourages thinking about human beings in all their entirety as faulty, and wanting to fixed and opens the door to the over-prescription. In fact, as one expert Davies consults, points out, this way of thinking towards these drugs as `cures’ is erroneous, as unlike most physiological disease there just is no hard support of evidence to back up the biology of a lot of what is now being treated as `disease’ through these medications which alter a persons psychology. They do not `cure’ shyness, any more than a a pint of beer `cures’ shyness – but both change ways of perceiving the world.

There is a blatantly a huge cover-up, the wool being pulled over societies eyes, the world of funding `research’ into psychiatric medicine whether in academic institutions, or with clinicians. There is even less transparency over this in the UK than there is abroad, where under the US Presidents administration, spearheaded by a particularly truth-and-justice campaigning Senator, Senator Grassley, some efforts to bring the Pharma beast under scrutiny are beginning to fruition. But unfortunately not here in the UK. Perhaps though, the fact that fully 56% of the panel member luminaries involved in writing the DSM-IV bible had 1 or more financial associations with the pharmaceutical industry, should begin to rip the wool from over our eyes. And, for those writing/creating the diagnostic categories, which would or course be primarily treated by pharmaceuticals, – 88% of DSM-IV panel members had drug company financial ties from Big Pharma.

I am not saying , neither is James Davies is saying that all the senior clinicians and medical academics are knowingly corrupt, merely that clarity becomes hard to maintain when your salary is dependent on a particular company who are hoping your findings will support their product, and even a need to demonstrate a need for their product.

The Big Pharma here in the UK has a lot to answer for and certainly needs to be put under the microscope and some clarity to be formed. Most of the clients that I see in my private practise are indeed using antidepressants as a way to help them with their mental health issues, but and a big BUT most of them communicate that the drugs haven’t helped them in anyway hence there reason for seeking me, even after exhausting all GP referrals of conventional psychotherapies such as CBT etc. Please find out more information about ‘Evidence Based Psychotherapy’.

Do antidepressants actually work? What has your antidepressants experience been like?