DOCSLIB.ORG

The Bitterest Pills Also by Joanna Moncrieff the MYTH of the CHEMICAL CURE

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Bitterest Pills Also by Joanna Moncrieff the MYTH of the CHEMICAL CURE The Bitterest Pills Also by Joanna Moncrieff THE MYTH OF THE CHEMICAL CURE DE-MEDICALISING MISERY (co-editor) A STRAIGHT TALKING INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS Praise for The Myth of the Chemical Cure: ‘A revolutionary book written with the calm assurance of someone who knows her subject matter – and the people involved – extremely well. Essential reading for anyone interested in mental health’. Dorothy Rowe, www.dorothyrowe.com.au ‘This is a book that should change psychiatry forever’. Mental Health ‘This book is critically important and should be essential reading for all psy- chiatrists, politicians, service providers, and user groups. Why? Because Joanna Moncrieff’s central tenet is right, and the implications for service delivery are profound. The book is closely argued and well referenced. Even if you disagree with some of it’s overall premises, it is not legitimate to dismiss it. I urge you to read it if only as a prompt to a critical evaluation of the status quo, never a bad thing, and almost always an illuminating exercise’. Sarah Yates, Cambridge, UK ‘This is a sober and thoughtful book. I found it very engaging and worth the effort to be better informed about a subject that affects many of our clients and impinges on our professional lives as therapists’. Existential Analysis (Society for Existential Analysis) ‘...Joanna Moncrieff, a practising psychiatrist and academic, has produced a devastating critique of the use of psychiatric drugs... This courageous book has the potential to revolutionise psychiatric practice and the care of people with many forms of mental distress. Many in the therapy professions will, I am sure, celebrate its message’. Rachel Freeth, Therapy Today This page intentionally left blank The Bitterest Pills The Troubling Story of Antipsychotic Drugs Joanna Moncrieff University College London, UK © Joanna Moncrieff 2013 Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-27742-8 All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission. No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 6–10 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS. Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages. The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. First published 2013 by PALGRAVE MACMILLAN Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS. Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010. Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world. Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries. ISBN 978-1-137-27743-5 ISBN 978-1-137-27744-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1057/9781137277442 This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin. A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. Typeset by MPS Limited, Chennai, India. To my life-long companions Sarah, Richard and Madeline This page intentionally left blank Contents List of Tables and Figures x List of Abbreviations xi Preface and Acknowledgements xii 1 Cure or Curse: What Are Antipsychotics? 1 2 Chlorpromazine: The First Wonder Drug 20 3 Magic Bullets: The Development of Ideas on Drug Action 39 4 Building a House of Cards: The Dopamine Theory of Schizophrenia and Drug Action 60 5 The Phoenix Rises: From Tardive Dyskinesia to the Introduction of the ‘Atypicals’ 76 6 Looking Where the Light is: Randomised Controlled Trials of Antipsychotics 91 7 The Patient’s Dilemma: Other Evidence on the Effects of Antipsychotics 113 8 Chemical Cosh: Antipsychotics and Chemical Restraint 132 9 Old and New Drug-Induced Problems 152 10 The First Tentacles: The ‘Early Intervention in Psychosis’ Movement 170 11 The Antipsychotic Epidemic: Prescribing in the Twenty-First Century 189 12 All is not as it Seems 208 Notes 221 Appendix 1: Common Antipsychotic Drugs 223 Appendix 2: Accounts of Schizophrenia and Psychosis 226 References 229 Index 269 ix List of Tables and Figures Tables 1.1 Models of drug action 8 1.2 Positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia 13 6.1 Randomised trials of antipsychotic treatment of an acute psychotic episode 97 6.2 Recent randomised trials of antipsychotic discontinuation 106 7.1 Verbatim descriptions of subjective effects of antipsychotics from www.askapatient.com 119 7.2 Changes in dimensions of psychosis after antipsychotic treatment 125 10.1 Melbourne criteria for the ‘at risk mental state’ 181 10.2 PIER (Portland Identification and Early Referral) programme 185 Figures 1.1 Kissit demonstration, UK, 2005 3 1.2 Trends in prescriptions of antipsychotics issued in the community in England 6 3.1 Reserpine advertisement 47 3.2 Melleril advertisement 48 3.3 Stelazine advertisement 52 3.4 Melleril advertisement 54 6.1 Northwick Park first episode study: patients remaining relapse-free on drug and placebo 104 7.1 Global adjustment of psychotic patients over 15 years of follow-up 128 8.1 Stelazine advertisement 138 8.2 Stelazine advertisement 140 8.3 Clopixol acuphase advertisement 144 9.1 Incidence rate of sudden death in people taking antipsychotic drugs compared with people not taking them 167 x List of Abbreviations ADHD attention deficit hyperactivity disorder APA American Psychiatric Association BPRS Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale CATIE Clinical Antipsychotic Trial of Intervention Effectiveness study CT computerised tomography D1, D2 dopamine 1 and 2 receptors DSM Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders ECG electrocardiogram ECT electro-convulsive therapy FDA Food and Drug Administration LSD lysergic acid diethylamide MRI magnetic resonance imaging NAMI National Alliance for the Mentally Ill NICE National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence NIMH National Institute of Mental Health PACE Personal Assessment and Crisis Evaluation clinic PANSS Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale PET positron emission tomography PIER Portland Identification and Early Referral programme PTSD post-traumatic stress disorder SSRI selective serotonin reuptake inhibitor TIPS Early Identification and Treatment of Psychosis programme VA Veterans Affairs 5-HT2a 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 2a xi Preface and Acknowledgements I have been interested in the drugs used to treat psychiatric problems ever since, as a junior psychiatrist in the 1990s, I realised how com- pletely drug treatment dominated psychiatric practice, and how inad- equate were the current theories for explaining the effects these drugs had on people in real life. Since their introduction in the 1950s, what we now call ‘antipsychotics’ have become psychiatry’s most iconic treat- ment, symbolising everything that modern psychiatry wishes to portray of itself. They are a simple, easy to administer, seemingly specific medi- cal treatment that, it is claimed, target the underlying biological basis of the most serious and debilitating family of psychiatric conditions, the ‘psychoses,’ including the most frightening and disabling of all forms of madness, schizophrenia. Discovered by chance, so the story goes, and introduced against resistance from an unwilling and psychoanalytically inclined profession, antipsychotics helped to place psychiatry on a sound medical footing, revealing the true nature of psychiatric disorders as diseases of the brain, and enabling patients to be discharged in droves from the old asylums back into normal life. This book will challenge this common perception of the revolution- ary nature of antipsychotics by setting them in the context of the physi- cal interventions that preceded them, procedures like insulin coma therapy, now mostly discredited, and also by reinstating an understand- ing of these substances as drugs, in other words as potentially toxic chemicals that change the way the body functions. It will explore the characteristic alterations that antipsychotics induce, particularly their ‘psychoactive’ effects, that is the way they modify normal processes of thinking and feeling. Exploring the history of antipsychotics reveals that the clinicians and researchers who first prescribed these drugs were interested in these effects and how they impacted on people with mental disturbances of various sorts. As the drugs became transformed in official circles into disease-specific, targeted treatments, however, this knowledge was lost from view. The ideas represented here form an attempt to reclaim this way of understanding the effects of anti- psychotic drugs and their potential role within mental health services. The book also charts the effects of this metamorphosis of anti- psychotics into restorative treatments. The belittling of the drugs’ seri- ous neurological side effects, the denial
Load more

Recommended publications
  • The Psychoactive Effects of Psychiatric Medication: the Elephant in the Room
    Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 45 (5), 409–415, 2013 Published with license by Taylor & Francis ISSN: 0279-1072 print / 2159-9777 online DOI: 10.1080/02791072.2013.845328 The Psychoactive Effects of Psychiatric Medication: The Elephant in the Room Joanna Moncrieff, M.B.B.S.a; David Cohenb & Sally Porterc Abstract —The psychoactive effects of psychiatric medications have been obscured by the presump- tion that these medications have disease-specific actions. Exploiting the parallels with the psychoactive effects and uses of recreational substances helps to highlight the psychoactive properties of psychi- atric medications and their impact on people with psychiatric problems. We discuss how psychoactive effects produced by different drugs prescribed in psychiatric practice might modify various disturb- ing and distressing symptoms, and we also consider the costs of these psychoactive effects on the mental well-being of the user. We examine the issue of dependence, and the need for support for peo- ple wishing to withdraw from psychiatric medication. We consider how the reality of psychoactive effects undermines the idea that psychiatric drugs work by targeting underlying disease processes, since psychoactive effects can themselves directly modify mental and behavioral symptoms and thus affect the results of placebo-controlled trials. These effects and their impact also raise questions about the validity and importance of modern diagnosis systems. Extensive research is needed to clarify the range of acute and longer-term mental, behavioral, and physical effects induced by psychiatric drugs, both during and after consumption and withdrawal, to enable users and prescribers to exploit their psychoactive effects judiciously in a safe and more informed manner.
    [Show full text]
  • Changing the Balance of Psychosis Treatment
    Advances in psychiatric treatment (2009), vol. 15, 0–0 doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.108.006361 Advances in psychiatric treatment (2009), vol. 15, 221–223 doi: 10.1192/apt.bp.108.006361 INVITED Changing the balance of psychosis COMMENTARY treatment INVITED COMMENTARY ON … MINIMAL-MEDICATION APPROACHES TO TREATING SCHIZOPHRENIA† Joanna Moncrieff but a further reason is that their benefits may have Joanna Moncrieff is a senior SUmmary been exaggerated. Long before the introduction lecturer in social and community psychiatry at University College Antipsychotic medication is the primary form of these drugs, it was known that a proportion of of treatment offered to people diagnosed with London and an honorary consultant people who have a psychotic breakdown recover schizophrenia or psychosis, but it is associated in rehabilitation psychiatry at the naturally. In addition, it is generally accepted that North East London Foundation Trust. with severe adverse effects, it is often experienced up to a third of patients derive little benefit from She has written numerous papers as unpleasant and its benefits may have been and one book on psychiatric drug overstated. Therefore, it is important to evaluate taking antipsychotics, but continue to manifest treatments, history of psychiatry research into approaches that aim to minimise the disabling symptoms. and research methodology. use of this medication. Existing studies suggest that Correspondence Dr Joanna such approaches can be successful and result in Moncrieff, Mental Health Sciences, Research on antipsychotics Wolfson Building, University College avoidance of antipsychotics in a high proportion It is commonly assumed that research has London, 48 Riding House Street, of clients.
    [Show full text]
  • Mental Health Retrosight Perspectives
    CHILDREN AND FAMILIES The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and EDUCATION AND THE ARTS decisionmaking through research and analysis. ENERGY AND ENVIRONMENT HEALTH AND HEALTH CARE This electronic document was made available from www.rand.org as a public INFRASTRUCTURE AND service of the RAND Corporation. TRANSPORTATION INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS LAW AND BUSINESS NATIONAL SECURITY Skip all front matter: Jump to Page 16 POPULATION AND AGING PUBLIC SAFETY SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Support RAND TERRORISM AND Browse Reports & Bookstore HOMELAND SECURITY Make a charitable contribution For More Information Visit RAND at www.rand.org Explore RAND Europe View document details Limited Electronic Distribution Rights This document and trademark(s) contained herein are protected by law as indicated in a notice appearing later in this work. This electronic representation of RAND intellectual property is provided for non-commercial use only. Unauthorized posting of RAND electronic documents to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND electronic documents are protected under copyright law. Permission is required from RAND to reproduce, or reuse in another form, any of our research documents for commercial use. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please see RAND Permissions. This report is part of the RAND Corporation research report series. RAND reports present research findings and objective analysis that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors. All RAND reports undergo rigorous peer review
    [Show full text]
  • ECT Citizen Petition
    Citizen Petition Submitted August 24, 2016 Petitioners Atze Akkerman, Evelyn Scogin, Dianna Loper Posthauer, Kenneth Fleischman and Tony Buonfiglio, hereby submit this Citizen Petition under 21 U.S.C. §§ 360e(b) and 360f(a) and 21 C.F.R. § 10.30, to request that the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration (“Commissioner”) either promulgate a final regulation making electroconvulsive therapy (“ECT”) devices banned devices or maintain the Class III classification of the devices and issue a final order establishing the effective date for premarket approval (PMA) for all ECT devices. Petitioner Atze Akkerman was given a round of 10 shock therapy treatments in 2003. He experienced dramatic memory loss and amnesia for his historical memory, including all memories of his children, his parents and his wife. Although he was a professional musician and toured with the Navy Band, he lost his ability to play music. He continues to suffer substantial long term memory loss and short term memory loss making learning new matters difficult. He remains on full disability following his ECT. The details of his injuries were submitted to the FDA through detailed Comment and submission of his attorney in FDA-2010-N-0585 and FDA 2014-N-1210. Mr. Akkerman also submitted a report to the MAUDE database. Mr. Akkerman is resident of California. Petitioner Evelyn Scogin is a resident of Texas who has suffered personal injury by way of persistent and continuing memory loss and cognitive damages from the receipt of ECT in 2005. She experienced dramatic memory loss, wiping out, for example, knowledge of friends and family.
    [Show full text]
  • Postpsychiatry's Challenge to the Chemical Treatment of Mental Distress
    DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY UNIVERSITY OF COPENHAGEN Postpsychiatry's Challenge to the Chemical Treatment of Mental Distress When we name you a ‘schizophrenic’, we take away your speech and your ability to name yourself, we The reduction of peoples distressing life experiences obliterate you. The moral position that we must adopt is into a diagnosis of schizophrenia means that they are one in which we bear witness and resistance. To bear condemned to lives dulled by drugs and blighted by stigma and offered no opportunity to make sense of witness means accepting the reality of lives harmed and damaged by many things, including psychiatry. We can their experiences. no longer deny this. Jacqui Dillon Chair of the UK Hearing Voices Network P. Bracken and P. Thomas Postpsychiatry It is open to question whether schizophrenic patients, with their lack of insight into their illness and their cognitive deficiencies, are able to assess their own situation and to evaluate and describe their psychic state and the positive/negative effects of the medication given to them. E. B. Larsen & Jes Gerlach Former Chair of Psykiatrifonden Olga Runciman Master’s Thesis Academic advisor: Morten Nissen Submitted: 11/08/13 Postpsychiatry | Olga Runciman Number of pages 79.9 Number of letters 191772 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ....................................................................................................................... 3 Introduction ................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • OVERCROWDING on the SHIP of FOOLS: HEALTH CARE REFORM, PSYCHIATRY, and the UNCERTAIN FUTURE of NORMALITY Johnathan Fish, J.D., LL.M.*
    11 HOUS.J.HEALTH L. & POL’Y 181–266 181 Copyright © 2011 Johnathan Fish Houston Journal of Health Law & Policy ISSN 1534-7907 OVERCROWDING ON THE SHIP OF FOOLS: HEALTH CARE REFORM, PSYCHIATRY, AND THE UNCERTAIN FUTURE OF NORMALITY Johnathan Fish, J.D., LL.M.* I. INTRODUCTION Unbeknownst to most Americans, the Wall Street bailout and the health care overhaul that were signed into law in 2008 and 2010, respectively, marked a bold new direction in federal mental health policy. Parity requirements in the bailout law eliminated much of the disparity between mental and physical health care coverage in employer-sponsored health insurance plans.1 The health care reform law signaled an even more significant shift. In a few years, the federal government will require most Americans to have health insurance coverage that must include a minimum basic mental health and substance abuse benefit.2 Along with insurance market reforms, subsidies, and a dramatic expansion of the Medicaid program, this mandate is expected to expand access to affordable mental health services and treatments for an additional thirty-two million * I owe a deep debt of gratitude to William J. Winslade for his guidance and support. This Article would not exist were it not for my wife’s extraordinary patience. 1 See Paul Wellstone and Pete Domenici Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act of 2008, Pub. L. No. 110-343, §§ 511–12, 122 Stat. 3765, 3881–93 (2008) (amending 26 U.S.C. § 9812, 29 U.S.C. § 1185a, and 42 U.S.C. § 300gg-5). 2 See Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, Pub.
    [Show full text]
  • FDA Is Studying the Risk of Electroshock Devices
    F.D.A. Is Studying the Risk of Electroshock Devices - NYTimes.com 1/24/11 2:36 PM Reprints This copy is for your personal, noncommercial use only. You can order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers here or use the "Reprints" tool that appears next to any article. Visit www.nytreprints.com for samples and additional information. Order a reprint of this article now. January 23, 2011 F.D.A. Is Studying the Risk of Electroshock Devices By DUFF WILSON Federal regulators are weighing whether to downgrade the risk classification of electroshock devices, reinforcing what many psychiatrists consider a deepening acceptance of electroshock in modern therapy. The procedure has had a resurgence in recent years. And an estimated 100,000 Americans — two-thirds of them women — undergo the treatment for major depression and other illnesses each year. Patients, anesthetized, receive a jolt of electricity from electrodes for several seconds, inducing a brain seizure and convulsions of up to a minute. The American Psychiatric Association and other leading specialists are recommending that the Food and Drug Administration downgrade the devices to a medium-risk category from high risk, a move that will be reviewed by an agency advisory panel in Gaithersburg, Md., this week. To some extent, the review has renewed the debate over electroshock. In 1990, F.D.A. staff proposed declaring the devices safe for major depression, but never took final action amid an uproar by opponents. If the F.D.A. downgrades the devices to a medium-risk category, the equipment could be promoted and sold without new testing.
    [Show full text]
  • A Book Review
    Journal of Scientific Exploration, Vol. 24, No. 3, pp. 523-526, 2010 BOOK REVIEWS Opinion vs. Opinion A Review of: Doctoring the mind: Is our current treatment of mental illness really any good? By Richard P. Bentall New York University, 2009 There are in fact two things, science and opinion; the former begets knowledge, the latter ignorance. Hippocrates Today everyone knows someone who is ‘mentally ill,’ ‘possessed,’ ‘disturbed,’ ‘unhinged,’ or just plain ‘crazy.’ While past generations have been more open to all of these expressions, we have been taught to think only in terms of the first. Working hand in hand, the psychiatric and psychopharmacology establishments have indoctrinated us into the belief that any odd behaviour or unpleasant feeling is due to an illness of either neurobiological or genetic origin. A natural corollary is that drugs are the cure. Doctoring the Mind by Richard Bentall, a professor of clinical psychology at the University of Manchester challenges this belief. After a cursory review of the history of psychiatry with a British slant, he systematically puts under scrutiny psychiatric diagnosis à la Kraeplin and then the DSM, psychiatric theories of genetic and brain factors, and psychiatric drugs. Pointing out methodological problems, statistical manipulations and faulty assumptions, he concludes that “the dominant paradigm in psychiatry, which assumes that mental illnesses are genetically influenced brain diseases, has been a spectacular failure.”(264, emphasis added) “Conventional psychiatry,” he declares, “has been profoundly unscientific and at the same time unsuccessful at helping some of the most distressed and vulnerable people in society.” (vx) His conclusion is convincing as it follows from a critique of psychiatry that appears to be based on a good knowledge of science and the proper interpretation of research results.
    [Show full text]
  • Evidence from Clinical Study Reports. Joanna Moncrieff
    Misrepresenting harms in antidepressant trials- more evidence from Clinical Study Reports. Joanna Moncrieff, Senior Lecturer, Division of psychiatry, University College London, Maple House, 149 Tottenham Court Road, London, W1T 7NF. E mail address: [email protected] Word count: 737 Misrepresenting harms in antidepressant trials- more evidence from Clinical Study Reports. People in the United Kingdom are consuming more than four times as many antidepressants as they were two decades ago (1). Despite this, we still do not fully understand the effects of these drugs, nor can we be confident about their risk-benefit ratio. Unresolved issues include the nature and frequency of potential serious adverse effects such as self-harming or suicidal actions, suicidal ideation and aggression. In the linked paper, Sharma et al use Clinical Study Reports (CSRs) to explore these adverse effects. CSRs are prepared by pharmaceutical companies for the purpose of obtaining marketing authorisation. There are guidelines about contents and presentation of CSR’s (2) but no mandatory requirements. Consequently, although CSRs usually contain more data than published articles (3), the level of detail varies. Moreover, there may be differences between what is reported in the body of the CSR and data contained in appendices, such as individual patient listings of adverse events or narratives of serious adverse events. Sharma et al’s analysis of CSRs reveals misrepresentation of adverse events. Comparing the ‘results’ reported in CSRs with data from individual patient listings or patient narratives revealed misclassification of deaths on antidepressants, and misrepresentation of suicidal events. More than half of the suicide attempts and instances of suicidal ideation were coded as ‘emotional lability’ or ‘worsening of depression,’ for example.
    [Show full text]
  • Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Testimony by Daniel B. Fisher, MD, Phd Jan
    599 Canal Street, Lawrence, MA 0184 Phone: 800 POWER2U www.power2u.org - Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Testimony by Daniel B. Fisher, MD, PhD Jan. 27, 2011 Document ID: FDA-2010-N-0585-0001: Neurological Devices Panel of the Medical Devices Advisory Committee Thank you for the opportunity to share my views on ECT with you today. I base my testimony on my thirty years of practice as a board-certified psychiatrist, my five years of postdoctoral neurochemical research at NIMH, and my 19 years as director of the National Empowerment Center, a federally-funded technical assistance center. I am appalled that ECT has never been required to validate its efficacy or its safety before the FDA. I was heartened to hear that in 2008 the FDA did require such verification. However, today I am dismayed to learn that the manufacturers want the status of their devices downgraded from Class III to Class II, or the same classification as a wheelchair. In my expert opinion and that of a recent review of the ECT literature by Drs. John Read and Richard Bentall (Read and Bentall, 2010), the short-term gains of ECT do not justify its associated brain damage, memory loss, cognitive deficits and increased risk of death. I therefore recommend: 1. That ECT devices continue to be designated as class III devices and 2. That, in keeping with the approval process of a Class III medical device, their use be suspended unless and until their manufacturers can produce independently obtained evidence with government oversight of meaningful long-term efficacy and minimal short- and long-term risks of memory loss, cognitive deficits, brain damage, and mortality to warrant the resumption of its use.
    [Show full text]
  • Schizophrenia Under Siege: the Unmaking of a Disease
    BOOK REVIEWS Schizophrenia Under Siege: The Unmaking of a Disease Pamela J. Birrell, PhD A Review of MODELS OF MADNESS: PSYCHOLOGICAL, SOCIAL, AND BIOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO SCHIZOPHRENIA. John Read, Loren R. Mosher and Richard P. Bentall (Eds.). Brunner- Routledge, Publishers, 2004, 373 pages. The year is 1961. A man waves a gun on the streets of downtown Phoenix, convinced that the CIA has finally surrounded him, and that agents who have been gunning for him for years are about to kill him. After capture and assessment, he is diagnosed with paranoid schizo- phrenia and his prognosis, as relayed to the family, is grim. It is a chronic, disabling brain disease with no hope of recovery. No, it was not caused by a bad childhood, but probably genetic, and the only treat- ment is medication. The man spends the rest of his life in psychiatric hospitals and halfway houses, on strong doses of psychiatric drugs. He died in 1998, a broken and hopeless man. Pamela J. Birrell is affiliated with the Psychology Department, 1227 University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403-1227. Journal of Trauma & Dissociation, Vol. 7(3) 2006 Available online at http://www.haworthpress.com/web/JTD @ 2006 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved. doi:10.1300/J229v07n03_06 91 92 JOURNAL OF TRAUMA & DISSOCIATION This could be almost any man in the industrialized western world who was diagnosed with schizophrenia in the late twentieth century–es- pecially if the man is without financial resources or family support. He is a classic case. But this man is not any man, and he is not merely a case study designed to show the effectiveness of psychiatric drugs.
    [Show full text]
  • Distress Or Disability? Proceedings of a Symposium Held at Lancaster University, 15-16 November 2011
    Distress or Disability? Proceedings of a symposium held at Lancaster University, 15-16 November 2011 Published by Centre for Disability Research, Bowland North, Lancaster University, LA1 4YN, UK Symposium run in conjunction with: School of Social Work, University of Central Lancashire; and Mental Health in Higher Education. Editors: Jill Anderson, Bob Sapey and Helen Spandler Published 2012 ISBN: 978-1-86220-293-1 i Contents Introduction Jill Anderson, Bob Sapey and Helen Spandler 1 part one ...distress or disability? Anne Plumb (1994) 3 (Reprinted with permission of the Greater Manchester Coalition of Disabled People) part two Symposium Papers Setting the scene Helen Spandler 14 Incorporation, or not, of MH survivors into the disability movement Anne Plumb 18 Psycho-emotional disablism in the lives of people experiencing mental distress Donna Reeve 24 Disability and distress: towards understanding the vulnerable body-subject Floris Tomasini 30 Recovery as a process of decolonisation? History, politics and experience Brigit Morris Colton 33 Sorting trucks and going forth: Service provider and service user discourses of recovery. Tony Sparkes 34 Three relapses in one year: My story of recovery with bipolar disorder Kirsty Stevenson-Turner and Debbie Mayes 39 Complex trauma: A composite case study exploring responses to complex trauma across a lifespan Shelly Briggs and Fiona Cameron 43 Which model of disability can include voice hearing experiences? Bob Sapey 49 Diagnosed victims, survivors or disabled women? Exploring pathology and the
    [Show full text]