Mind Drugs: a Primer
Alicia Priest | Whole Health
Anyone with a pulse should now be familiar with the SSRI scandal. That’s the sordid saga that came to light in late 2003 concerning the antidepressant medicines known as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.
In brief, it’s a tragic tale of corporate corruption and greed and government neglect at the expense of public health. SSRI drugs, which affect chemical messages in the brain and nervous system, were given to children and teens with the full knowledge of one of the manufacturers, GlaxoSmithKline, that their product could increase a patient’s chance of becoming suicidal. Yet these drugs—such as Prozac, Zoloft, Paxil, and Celexa—were prescribed for everything from depression to bed-wetting, anxiety, and insomnia. Furthermore, many of the SSRI trials show little, if any, benefit in treating depression in children.
This incident illustrates many worthy things but one that screams out to be heard is how little medical science knows about how the brain/mind works, while at the same time putting more people on brain/mind drugs than ever.
In 2003, almost one-quarter of women in B.C. were prescribed an SSRI. Between 1996 and 2002, antidepressant use in the province increased by 73 per cent. Use of benzodiazepines—such as Ativan, Valium, and Serax—increased in B.C. by 11 per cent.
Into this morass enters a little 38-page pamphlet that may pack a big punch. What People Need to Know about Psychiatric Drugs is written and published by Janet Currie and Daisy Anderson, two Vancouver Island women who are part of a group called the Psychiatric Medication Awareness Group. Currie, of Victoria, is a social-policy consultant and author of Manufacturing Addiction: the Over-Prescription of Benzodiazepines and Sleeping Pills to Women in Canada, a 2004 paper published by the B.C. Centre of Excellence for Women’s Health. Anderson, of Duncan, is a retired nurse and mental-health worker who struggled with psychiatric-drug addiction for 40 years.
In plain language, the booklet lays out basic information about why people may be advised to take a psychiatric drug, the major classes of mind drugs, their chemical and brand names, the most common and/or serious side effects, and issues such as tolerance and dependency. As well, it contains assorted facts, such as “There are no blood tests or brain X-rays which can diagnose schizophrenia.” The publication includes a short list of books and websites for more information. Its basic message, however, is that mind drugs are extremely potent and need to be taken with great caution.
Psychiatry is the medical specialty most deeply into drugs. Mind medicines include antidepressants, sleeping pills, tranquilizers, anti-psychotics, stimulants, and mood stabilizers. No doubt some enhance quality of life and some may even save lives, but in many other cases, they do great harm. For instance, tranquillizers are highly addictive and although designed for short-term use to treat anxiety, stress, and sleeplessness are often taken for years, resulting in disturbing side effects such as loss of balance, confusion, and depression. Doctors can set off a “prescription cascade” by treating these untoward effects with more drugs that cause yet more nasty symptoms, which are then treated by—you guessed it—more drugs.
It’s also disturbing that no one really knows the long-term effects of taking these drugs for many years. How could they? According to this pamphlet, clinical trials that test such drugs often last only four to six weeks.
The misuse and overuse of psychiatric drugs, Currie says, is a huge public health issue and should be treated as such. Yet there is no formal acknowledgement of the problem.
“These drugs really cause tremendous grief in people’s lives and I think they kill and leave more people damaged than many street drug addictions,” she says.
Sometime back in the early 1960s, psychiatry changed its focus from psychoanalytical to biological, Currie says. That move means an increasingly wider range of mental and emotional conditions are being treated with drugs on the grounds that they are caused by biochemical imbalances.
“A lot of this is scientifically not proven,” Currie says. “For example, the serotonin-deficiency theory that was promoted by the drug companies around [SSRI drugs]. I’ve had people tell me ‘I have a deficiency of a brain chemical; therefore, I need to take this drug.’ It’s scientific hogwash.”
Curries hopes anyone reading the booklet will come away with three main points: if you are on a psychiatric drug, never go off it on your own; if you are discontinuing the drug, be prepared for withdrawal symptoms; if you are concerned about the drug’s side effects, discuss them with an informed health-care specialist.
To get a copy of the booklet, send a $3 cheque (made out to Daisy Anderson) to: Psychiatric Awareness Medication Group, P.O. Box 156, Duncan, B.C., V9L 3X3.