Posted by viridis on September 6, 2002, at 3:32:19
In reply to The Evil Pharmaceutical Empire, posted by Martin Johnson on September 5, 2002, at 23:21:18
Just curious -- if you were diagnosed with high blood pressure, or a heart condition, or a genetic disease, or a bacterial infection, would you avoid the products of the "evil pharmaceutical empire"? Somehow psychiatric conditions are thought by certain individuals to be totally correctable by non-drug treatments, when the vast majority of modern evidence points to an organic cause for these ailments.
I'm all for lifestyle changes, exercise, good nutrition, and better sleeping habits, but having tried all of these and still suffering (until appropriate psychopharmaceutical treatment), I'm a firm believer in the value of drug treatment for serious psychiatric conditions.
I do agree that many prescription drugs are over-prescribed and sometimes inappropriate, but this is an issue of finding the right ones and the right doctor, not a fundamental failing of the companies that develop them.
I also use herbs and nutritional supplements, but these are just drugs of a different, less predictable and controlled kind, and have to be used as carefully as any prescription drug. Most are no more "natural" than prescription drugs, and many are downright dangerous -- they contain active chemicals too, often ones that the average human (modern or ancestral) wouldn't encounter in everyday life. "Natural" does not equal "safe"!
Finally -- in an earlier post you stated that ADD is "not real". Whatever ADD is (and I'm sure it encompasses a spectrum of conditions) it most definitely is real, as supported by a multitude of scientific studies. If you don't experience it, fine -- but please avoid unsubstantiated claims that could be hurtful and misleading to many on this board.
poster:viridis
thread:118970
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20020829/msgs/118984.html