reviewed by the 'Spinster Librarian' [Suzanne Rush]
http://www.boyaremyarmstired.com/spinster.html
Review:
Everything the general public believes about the causes and remedies for mental
illness — specifically schizophrenia — is based on shoddy science and is
likely false. That is the message of noted science journalist and author Robert
Whitaker, in his book, "Mad in America; Bad Science, Bad Medicine and the
Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill."
Whitaker's book, based on comprehensive research culled from old patient medical
records, historical accounts and government freedom of information documents,
paints a harsh picture of the mistreatment of mental patients from the beginning
of the 19th century to the care prescribed by today's psychiatrists.
His historical perspective begins with the description of "cures" from
the late 1700s and early 1800s like the tranquilizer chair, to which those
suffering from madness were strapped, immobilized, hooded and doused with icy
water. Drowning therapy was another early favorite. Here the subject "was
enclosed in a coffin-like box with holes, [and] was lowered by means of a
well-sweep [into water]. He was kept there until bubbles of air cease to rise,
then was taken out, rubbed and revived." The thinking about this therapy
being that after experiencing near-death the patient could re-evaluate his life
and fly right.
In contrast, the York Quakers of Pennsylvania tried more humane methods, a
philosophy they dubbed, "moral treatment." They saw the mentally ill
as "brethren" who needed gentleness, respect and good food. They
opened a home in 1796 with beautiful gardens, game rooms and nighttime
entertainment.
Their success rate in curing those who had suffered psychotic breaks ran
about 70%. Moral treatment was a method that lasted for most of that century,
but by the end of the 1900s, the general adoption of Francis
Eugenics was the belief that both desirable and undesirable human traits were
bequeathed and not the result of environmental conditions. "By 1914,
forty-four colleges in America has introduced eugenics into their curriculums,
with the subject taught as a science... Even the august
The groundwork had been laid for American society to view moral and physical
infirmities from an unforgiving perspective. So begins the litany of modern
abuses heaped upon the impotent insane. This was the era that saw the beginning
of large-scale asylum building to segregate those who were seen as unfit to
participate in society and who must not, at any cost, reproduce. Sterilization,
without consent, was a powerful tool to rid society of the impure, and was
practiced without regard to the rights or wishes of the confined.
But castration and clitorectomies would not rid the mind of impure thoughts.
Once segregated, a number of new methods were employed to "help"
psychotics, depressives and those who by lack of wealth or power found
themselves incarcerated. Insulin coma treatment was one such therapy — one
that caused grand mal seizures that would damage the brain in such a way that
the patient would become drooling and docile. This led to electroshock therapy,
another permanently damaging regimen to subdue the ill. Finally, this line of
care led to lobotomy. Lobotomies of the frontal lobe produced the same effects
as the other brain-damaging therapies, but more quickly.
Psychiatrists in charge of the mentally ill felt justified in using any toxic
method to make their wards more pliable for their long-term care. That is
probably why, after WWII, neuroleptic drugs that inflicted a whole host of
virulent side effects, were introduced, misrepresented and lauded. These drugs,
of which thorazine is the most commonly known, cause a blockage of dopamine to
the brain, which it was postulated, would help schizophrenics eliminate
psychotic episodes.
In reality, thorazine and other neuroleptics caused serious damage to the brain
and body in addition to blocking the dopamine receptors.
Parkinson-like symptoms appeared in almost all patients who were prescribed
these drugs. But the list of side effects is long and harrowing. "Evidence
of the harm caused by the drugs was simply allowed to pile up and up, then
pushed away in the corner where it wouldn't be seen." Still the drugs were
touted as "insulin for the insane." It was said that neuroleptic drugs
used daily would help schizophrenics maintain mental health, live regular lives
and keep them out of state institutions which were increasingly losing
government funding as the century came to a close.
If the drugs had actually kept patients free from delusions, allowed them to
function, or even kept them pain-free, perhaps the brain-damaging effects could
have been justified. But not only did these drugs have low rates of success in
returning the insane to society as functioning citizens, they instead turned a
whole population into veritable zombies. The ugliness didn't end there. As
"Boston Globe" journalist, Whitaker, recounts with evidence culled
from the FDA, medical journals, and the records from clinical trials, the
drug-makers knew all along that the drugs were not effective.
The stories of corrupted "double-blind" studies, drug money
influencing doctors and psychiatrists and the unrelenting disregard of the
afflicted, are harrowing. The book brings us up to date with it discussion of
the newest "wonder" drugs, the atypicals, notably clozapine. This
modern drug, based once again on the unproven hypothesis that psychosis is
caused by the dopamine receptors in the brain, produces many neurotoxic effects
—
"seizures, dense sedation, marked drooling, rare sudden death,
constipation, urinary incontinence and weight gain." Try to get a job, or
return to normal society with those symptoms.
Ultimately, what the book reveals is that neither doctors nor drug makers know
what causes psychosis, their drugs do little but turn humans into incompetent
animatrons and that most of what the public has been led to believe about the
marvels of modern drug therapy is a hideous sham.
Furthermore, studies done during the end of the twentieth century by the World
Health Organization in Africa, and others done in California by the National
Institute of Mental Health, show that patients who are never given neuroleptics
have much higher rates of recovery than those who are medicated.
"Mad in America," exposes and debunks our deepest-held societal
beliefs about the mentally ill, which have been fed primarily by the publicity
and money machine that is the pharmaceutical industry. As Robert Whitaker says,
"The day will come when people will look back at our current medicines for
schizophrenia and the stories we tell to patients about their abnormal brain
chemistry, and they will shake their heads in utter disbelief."
Perhaps society has been willing to separate and isolate the insane because it
has been too frightening to see them for who they are: us, on a very bad day. If
even half of what this book purports is true, the time is nigh for the human
race to return to the ideals of the Quaker's moral treatment for our mentally
ill. It wouldn't hurt to treat the sane with compassion as well.
