Sunday, November 22, 2009

Why antidepressants still prevail when proved not so effective on depression?



I left a question in the older post: Why antidepressants still prevail?
Read here: Why antidepressants don't work
The fact is:



According to Dr Thomas L. Murray, Jr. in his article "The loss of client agency into the psychopharmaceutical-industrial complex"
Some of the assumptions are
1. phychiatry is part of a larger system which is called the psychopharmaceutical industrial complex(PPIC), driven by capitalism primarily.
2. power dynamics are inherent in the doctor-consumer relationship


Composition of PPIC:
1. American Psychiatric association(administrative and research psychiatry)
2. Pharmaceutical industry
3. Public relations
4. Advertising firms
5. Patient support organizations(e.g., the National alliance on mental illness[NAMI], children and adults with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder[CHIAA])
6.The National institute of mental health(NIMH)
7. Managed care organizations
8. Flow of sources among these groups

The PPIC existed based on a simple assumption that: within a capitalistic society, mental disorders are a chronic condition resulting from a diseased brain that requires expert medial treatment in the form of mass produced pharmaceuticals.(Kuppin&Carpiano, 2006)
So pharmaceutical companies(first line of the following pic)develop a continuous flow of medications and provide funding to NIMH and patient support organizations like NAMI and CHADD. In turn, NIMH and patient support organizations endorse the disease model and its effects lobby policy makers to fund psychiatric research through NIMH.The pharmaceutical industry relies on academic psychiatrists to produce evidence that supports their medications.
Academic psychiatry depends on the pharmaceutical industry for research grants. Insurance companies rely on pharmaceuticals to contain costs.
As a capitalistic system with a drive toward greater profits, modern health care has evolved into a sickness care system. The consumers don't easily leave this system because the empowerment to overcome their emotional problems.

3 comments:

  1. Thanks for citing my article. Dr. Tom Murray

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  2. Your article is really great, worth for everyone to read it

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks, but ignorance is bliss. I had hoped that the article would have been picked up by mass media given its controversial content. The media loves controversy, but their more interested in Tiger Woods' alleged affairs.

    ReplyDelete