This relates to my previous riff on skepticism about medical research and anti-psychiatric attacks on it, and without having read Shag's post, a few things:
1. I flat out do not believe and will not be persuaded that ADs are ineffective or no more effective than placebos. If someone show me a stack of studies to the contrary, I'm posed with the question Groucho asks; Margaret Dumont in Duck Soup: Who are you gonna believe, me, or your own eyes? I _know_ those studies are defective from personal experience.
2. Just as a smallish point is that if a placebo is as effective as an AD, it shouldn't make any difference if I take a Vitain C tab, thinking it is Wellbutrin, or the actual drug -- if I'm not paying attention they look similar. Ya know what? Vitamin C does nothing to alter my mood. Wellbutrin does.
3. Alcohol is a seriously bad idea for people with clinical depression. It is, of course, a depressant. It cuts or numbs the pain a bit without actually affecting the mood -- you just don't mind being down. And it's addictive and dangerous if used as self-medication. At the risk of True Confessions here, I nearly died using alcohol as self-medication, owe my life to a friend, and it's a miracle I didn't kill anyone else.
4. Maybe it's because you're just a cheerfully upbeat sort of blowhard -- well, you are, I'm not even sure you mind; you rather revel in being a jerk, and at this point I don't even hold it against you -- you evidentally have neither any conception of what's involved with clinical depression or empathy for people with that condition. You think it's a bad mood, shake yourself out of it, buck up and smile, have a drink! This is total cluelessness. It's also brutally insensitive, but I know you will take insensitivity ads a compliment, whereas even you don't want to be clueless.
My unsolicited advice to you is, don't talk about stuff you don't know anything about, don't understand, have no interest in understanding, and which is a matter of, frankly, life and death to millions of people -- certainly of living hell versus functionality. I know that the likelihood that you will follow this advice is less than O%. But I had to put in.
Andie
--- On Sun, 9/27/09, Bill Bartlett <billbartlett at aapt.net.au> wrote:
> From: Bill Bartlett <billbartlett at aapt.net.au>
> Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Let them eat Prozac (was: let's argue about the causeofmental illness
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Date: Sunday, September 27, 2009, 7:44 PM
> At 5:40 PM -0500 27/9/09, Carrol Cox
> wrote:
>
> > I think amitriptylines (not an SSRI) practically
> > saved my life back in the mid-80s, but after that I
> ssemed to sink into
> > and recover from depressive episodes pretyymuch
> independently of any
> > meds I was taking.
>
> I gather from Shag's earlier posts that there is
> essentially no scientific evidence that most of these psych
> drugs are actually effective. No more effective than a
> placebo.
>
> But it shouldn't come as any surprise that placebos are
> very effective remedies for psychological malaise. Imaginary
> remedies for imaginary illnesses, it just has to work, when
> you think about it.
>
> I was feeling a bit depressed myself last night. My family
> is away on holiday and I'm on my own with no-one to talk to.
> Came down with the 'flu a week ago and have been sick as a
> dog. My mother's in hospital. Then yesterday morning just
> before 6 am, after I woke up with a coughing fit, the
> electricity was cut by a fierce gale and stayed out all
> day.
>
> In the evening, I lit a couple of candles and sitting there
> in the flickering light I couldn't help thinking about how
> my youngest daughter loved it when the power went out and
> would run around lighting as many candles as she could find.
> Sigh...
>
> Anyhow, I prescribed rum for the condition. It worked a
> treat.
>
> I feel much better this morning. I think its cured me of
> the flu as well.
>
> So Carroll, take my advice. Steer clear of those
> amitriptyline thingies, sounds quite unpleasant. Next time
> you're feeling blue, have a few glasses of Bundaberg rum. In
> fact, go out and buy a bottle right now and keep it in the
> cupboard for when you need it.
>
> Medicinal purposes only though Carrol, no cheating.
>
> (Why oh why isn't Bundy subsidised by the Pharmaceutical
> Benefit Scheme, that's what I want to know?)
>
> Bill Bartlett
> Bracknell Tas
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>