Joanna Moncrieff, thoughts on medication.

[Shezian]

Please l would like to know what you think of her thoughts on meds.
Here's the link.
http://youtu.be/IV1S5zw096U

[NikNik]

Hi Shezian,

Welcome to the forums 🙂

Always interesting hearing different perspectives.

While we encourage the views of others within the forum, we encourage members to seek out the advice of their own medical professional - as together, they know their situation best.

Already in this forum we've seen a wide span of experiences with medication - some who have seen great benefits and is a core element to their wellbeing and some who have used medication and working with their health care professional have no longer needed them and some who haven't used them before.

Very different for different people 🙂

& thanks for your first post - welcome again!

[Shezian]

I understand we are all individuals, but she is saying that medication is only of use to a very small handful of people and most of the the time they do more damage than good to our brains, and may even cause unwanted actions in many people and that they do no better than the placebo's. I find all this very confusing, as many report they do very well on meds. She also goes onto to state that there is no such thing as chemical imbalance of the brain. More and more health professional are starting to agree with her. So where to from here? I mean if meds don't help then l suppose we are banking it all on talk therapy?

[NarkenFuts]

---

@NikNik wrote:

Hi Shezian,

Welcome to the forums 🙂

Always interesting hearing different perspectives.

While we encourage the views of others within the forum, we encourage members to seek out the advice of their own medical professional - as together, they know their situation best.

Already in this forum we've seen a wide span of experiences with medication - some who have seen great benefits and is a core element to their wellbeing and some who have used medication and working with their health care professional have no longer needed them and some who haven't used them before.

Very different for different people 🙂

& thanks for your first post - welcome again!

---

Hi folks,

First Post.

Clicked on the link but didnt give it the time of day.

What meds are being discussed??

I have been on a variety on different antipsychotics.. While on the meds. I was still suffering from auditory hullucinations.They just affect the neurotransmitters (resposible for mood). The best thing found was psychotherapy (actually I began practising eastern philosophies, I found it helps a great deal).

:-)

[BatGuano]

Thanks Shezian,

Yup, chemotherapy is a therapeutic tool widely advocated.  One resource amongst many.  Very lucrative for the people that make and sell pharmaceuticals.

So therapy is arguably a marketplace with choices.  Vendors can compete, and there are regulatory bodies that try to make the vendors honest.

The consumers can choose what works for them, and choose who to take advice from.

Okay, so the snake oil still has buyers.  And the smiling salespersons sell it with lies and half-truths.  Dr Moncrieff has sound arguments.

As the Latin saying goes;  "Caveat Emptor"  (Buyer Beware). 

[BatGuano]

Thanks to both Mr Futs and Mr Nik for their views.

I have already put in my two bits, but I need to clarify.  Personally, I take my prescribed meds and my experience with them has been mixed.  At present I rely on them to help me fly straight.  Straight-ish.

Every prescription I've taken has been discussed with the docs and researched by myself.  When one didn't work I went back and discussed the alternatives with my doc.

There is a lot of academic discourse about and around psychiatry.  Thank heaven, because thats how we learn and explore.

What no-one on this green Earth knows is how a specific treatment or medication will work on a specific person at a specific time.

That might not be what you want to hear when, as it has been for me more than once, you feel like the sky is falling.  But I went for help and got it.  Lived to tell the tale, too.

[ivana]

Psychiatry needs to have a change in focus to treating people indivually.
Two patients with the same so-called diagnosis may need/desire different treatments and their wishes should always be respected and accommodated(providing their thinking is clear).
Psychiatric medications,like many things,has pro's and cons.

Joanna is partly incorrect in that the “neurotransmitter inbalance model“ has been greatly simplified and over emphasised.
In Depression and Schizophrenia for example,there are many findings including Oxidative stress,Neuroinflammation,low BDNF levels,hippocampal volume loss,errors of metabolism,abnormalities in genes affecting the Immune System etc....
It's much more complex then the phony misconception that Depression is due to low Serotonin and SZ is due to “too much Dopamine“.
That said,Neurotransmitters can have some role to play and SOME ( emphasis on some only),who have received a diagnosis of Schizophrenia do have too much Dopamine in some areas of their brains.

Medications are beneficial,and in some instances even can save peoples lives.
It becomes a problem when they are used without caution and indiscriminately at excessively high doses,excessive time periods Ie:risks of brain atrophy increase when they are used for extended periods of time(years),
and when they are used as a substitute for other treatments.
Eg:if a patient is denied Psychology treatments-which they would prefer-and is forced to take Medication-thats when it would become a huge problem.

Psychiatrists have a duty to allow patients to make their own decisions regarding their treatments (to the best of the patients ability) but patients also have a responsibility to make sure that their decisions are clear and not guided by fears(of medication) or misinformation.

Do what's right for you now,what improves your quality of life.
There are often conflicting studies coming out.They often have some truth but they don't always apply to everyone because people are individuals.
Studies can also be flawed or outcomes influenced by the financers personal agenda etc........

[BatGuano]

Thankyou ivana,

Totally agree with you that psychiatry must change.

And the good news is that its already happening.

The bad news is that changes are moving slowly, and meeting some resistance.

The medical profession has a lot of status and power.  Bless them, but when they've spent 5 or 6 years studying for a doctorate these good people rightly have the idea that they know a thing or 2.

And we have high expectations of them.  We expect them to cure us, infallibly and quickly.

Honest to goodness people, its not the same as drive-through fast food.  Psychosis cured while u wait.  If its not delivered within 30 minutes there's no charge, and a half-price voucher.

Sorry. Raving.