TheBanyanTree: The Schizophrenia Diaries - by Stew

[Monique]

This just in from our foreign correspondent . . . 
 
Dante's Curse
 
I appear to be an anomaly.
 
Which is fine. I've accepted that of myself before. It's no big
surprise.
 
But I find it odd that so many mentally ill people complain about their
medications. Granted, most of the meds I've been on have some pretty
icky side effects - dry mouth, drowsiness, decreased libido,
constipation and/or diarrhea.  I've been through most of those, and it
ain't pretty.
 
But then I've been through what it was like without the meds, and that's
a whole lot worse.
 
And I think that's what a lot of mentally ill people forget - what it
was like before the meds.
 
I went to this book reading the other day - Dr. Daniel Dorman reading
from his book "Dante's Cure" about a schizophrenic that he helped early
on in his career. The patient - Katherine - went from being suicidal and
hearing voices in her head telling her to kill her self, her sister and
her mom, to being "cured" and having a very functional life as a nurse
and an advocate for the mentally ill. 
 
That in itself is great. Wonderful, even. I like knowing that people
with extreme mental conditions can go on and lead wonderfully active
functional lives. 
 
But Dr. Dorman doesn't believe that there is anything wrong with the
brain chemistry of mentally ill people, and that medication has no
value. He states that he believes the "medical model" of treating
mentally ill people is invalid.
 
Now my understanding of the "medical model" is this. A patient reports
symptoms to a doctor. The doctor prescribes treatment to the patient.
I'm not sure what's so wrong about that. One might argue that it doesn't
get to the underlying cause of the symptoms. But I submit this little
bit of data: in 1930 the average life expectancy for all races, both
genders was 59.7 years. For 2001 it was 77.2 years. That's an increase
of 29% in 70 years - I'd say that's a pretty good record for a so-called
"flawed" model.
 
Rather, Dr. Dorman believes that mentally ill people have a decreased
image of Self. Well, yeah, that's not too hard to figure out. Society
has a very large stigma against mentally ill people. That stigma alone
is going to decrease a mentally ill's person self-esteem. Also, many
mentally ill people, once they realize they have a problem, and seek
help are then encouraged to go to support groups, therapy, etc. All of
which have a valid place in the treatment of the illness, but at times,
a mentally ill person becomes their illness because that's what they've
surrounded themselves with to get better.
 
What shocked me most about this reading was the number of people who
agreed with Dr. Dorman. Who shook their fists at their medicine bottles.
I dunno about them, but it was the pills in those medicine bottles that
helped me to get to the reading. 
 
And of course there were the usual criticisms of the health care
industry. Maybe I'm too simplistic, but it seems to me the health care
system can be fixed on a two prong approach - tort reform and
streamlining the FDA.
 
Pharmaceuticals are like any other industry in America - the economics
work just like they do in cars, sodas, or dishwashing detergents. Costs
are high because it costs a lot to make them. Why does it cost so much?
Because of research and development costs. Why are R&D costs so high?
Because the FDA regulates how much testing must be done before a drug
can be brought to market. What's stupid is that the FDA determines how
much time, even if the drug has been sold and marketed in other
countries for years before being introduced to the States.
 
I dunno, but it seems like it makes sense that if a particular drug has
been used in Europe for 5 years, with no adverse effects, the FDA
shouldn't have to go through the complete line of testing (which takes
years and money) to make it available to patients in America.
 
The other problem with health care is the large sums of money juries
award to damaged patients because of doctor neglect or malpractice.
Doctors have to line themselves with so much malpractice insurance it
becomes too costly for them to stay in business, or they overprescribe
tests and procedures to cover their butts. And even when a patient is
awarded a huge settlement, we all know that about half goes to the
lawyer anyway. Simple solution: cap the amount that can be awarded.
Second step to the solution: make plaintiffs pay all court costs if they
lose. this would eliminate frivolous lawsuits in a heart beat.
 
I dunno.. the solutions seem simple to me. but then, what do I know, I'm
writing this under the influence of medications. 
 
Stew