The details are simultaneously exactly what you'd expect and shocking. And some people wonder why we're reluctant to embrace the latest and greatest pharmacological fad. Keep all of this in mind next time someone suggests that medicalizing addiction treatment will improve professionalism, ethics and reliance on scientific evidence. Sham advisory boards: Glaxo also used sham … Continue reading GlaxoSmithKline’s corruption
Category: Controversies
The medical model and recovery
Yesterday's post about the disease model and recovery got me thinking about complaints that treatment is not medical enough. It's worth noting that mental health treatment has a medical model and these patients believe it's been harmful to them. What they want is something more like the holistic lifestyle approach, peer support and talk therapy that one … Continue reading The medical model and recovery
“Disease” and recovery
“Once I became my diagnosis, there was no one left to recover.” Yesterday's Pat Deegan post led me to Dr. Daniel Fisher's work on mental illness recovery. He promotes an "empowerment" model of recovery that he contrasts with a "rehabilitation" model of recovery. According to this vision, one is capable of recovering from the mental … Continue reading “Disease” and recovery
Intellect no shelter from cognitive bias
In a recent post I shared my observation that, as the usefulness of many psychotropics have been cast into doubt by a growing body of evidence, many people who used to chide questioners to "follow the evidence" now resort to anecdotes to defend their advocacy for these drugs. (And, denigration of other methods.) One story … Continue reading Intellect no shelter from cognitive bias
The political left and prohibition
Andrew Sullivan picks up on Jack Meserve's discussion of the political left and prohibition: Meserve: Think of a few of the currently illegal vices: recreational drug use, gambling, prostitution. With some exceptions, the left has been in favor of legalization or decriminalization of these activities. Now think of legal vices: gluttony, cigarette smoking, alcohol use. … Continue reading The political left and prohibition
The truth is dangerous
How hard is it for the DEA to have an honest conversation about drugs? Below is testimony from the director. Note the incoherence. “Is crack worse for a person than marijuana?” Polis asked Leonhart. “I believe all illegal drugs are bad,” Leonhart answered. Polis continued, asking whether methamphetamines and heroin were worse for a person's … Continue reading The truth is dangerous
The ancients on will and addiction
It took me a few reads, but Alan Brody suggests that addiction is a combination of impaired will and impaired evaluative faculties that lead to poor choices in how to exert our will. Then again, I'm not sure I know where he stands. He guides through some philosophical musings about addiction and will. He presents … Continue reading The ancients on will and addiction
Disease and choice
A NY Times philosophy blogger challenges the hijacked brain metaphor for addiction: It might be tempting to claim that in an addiction scenario, the drugs or behaviors are the hijackers. However, those drugs and behaviors need to be done by the person herself (barring cases in which someone is given drugs and may be made … Continue reading Disease and choice
Integrated care?
Pat Deegan bites her nails at the prospect of integrated care for mental health care (The same thing is happening with addiction treatment): Is recovery going the way of the dinosaur? Is recovery-transformation an old idea that should give way to more enlightened policies of integrated, co-located behavioral and physical healthcare services? These days, I … Continue reading Integrated care?
An exciting time for pharma
Ugh! This Join Together article reads like a ad for pharma: Many people struggling with alcohol dependence who could benefit from medication are not receiving it, according to an expert who spoke at the recent American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting. “Antidepressant prescribing is 100 to 200 times as great as prescriptions for medications approved to … Continue reading An exciting time for pharma
Recovery Review 