Terrorists causes the disease. We need to protect our people from the harmful radiation they get from the attacks they use using their sattelites. Here the poster from the philippines has discovered that there’s no CIA nor anything. Just God protecting the people who share their good new of the God almighty’s arrivel. Thanks again and god bless.
You may want to abstain from issuing health advice to diabetics.
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Totally difference case. You can fully recover from SZ without maintenance drugs. In Diabetes, you can’t.
Although I read several years back in studies that type 2 diabetes can be permanently cured through caloric restriction. I don’t know how has that progressed since then though.
xxx
Here’s an article from a psychiatrist who also is wary about over-prescribing antipsychotics:
A psychiatrist thinks some patients are better off without antipsychotic drugs
Obviously, a lot of patients do need these drugs though.
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Actually, it’s not a totally different case. There is mounting evidence of a very close relationship between all autoimmune disorders: types 1 and 2 and gestational diabetes, hypothyroidism, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, bipolar disorder, dermato-polymyositis, pernicious anemia, schizophrenia. And just as all of the others can vary in severity, so does sz. Just as some can get away with no meds for some of these, so can some people with sz. But unless you can somehow halt the autoimmune attack, a person’s condition can continue to decline. If you notice, none of these conditions can be cured, just controlled or reduced in severity.
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I look forward to the slew of peer reviewed studies that will soon be flooding forth in support of your assertion. Bueller? Bueller? Anyone? Anyone?
[crickets chirping]
In the meantime, some common sense: APs are NOT ideal They are an imperfect solution in an imperfect world. As with ALL drugs, you should take the MINIMUM necessary dose. If you can find other means to mitigate symptoms such as improved diet, more exercise, therapy, etc., definitely use those IN ADDITION to head meds unless an actual doctor advises you to the contrary.
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Wow maybe I would be better off if I was supported to deal with schizophrenia and depression without medication.
How about the WHO study which demonstrates schizophrenics are twice as likely to recover in third world countries (with less access to medical care) than they are in developed nations.
The WHO study shows that patients in developing countries can demonstrate longer periods of unimpaired functioning, but suffer nearly identical amounts of unremitting illness to SZs in developed countries. The questions that follow from this are:
- Do cultural differences affect a person’s ability to cope with SZ symptoms?
- Is the ‘unimpairment’ due to lower expectations of SZs in developing nations?
- Do the generally stronger family networks in developing nations affect SZ prognosis?
The WHO study is interesting, but it is not definitive proof that we should be tossing our meds out with the baby and bathwater. This doesn’t stop the anti-psychiatry crowd from latching onto it and waving it around frantically, however.
Me, I’ll keep taking my meds.
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As another poster said, There is differentl levels of severity. When the disease is this severe, you needn’t think that everyone involved hasn’t unturned every stone to ensure that there isn’t another cause. My question to you is what do you have to gain from pushing Whitakers unproven unfactual theories. I have read it. Have you been through the same thing? I can say that you haven’t been through what my family has or you wouldn’t still beleive whitakers writings.
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You are arguing the semantics of the word “recovery.” I think that says enough about your argument.
Very good post and info, Wishing you the best. Always here for you!
I think it’s a valid issue to address. A country with a low literacy rate and low skill level amongst its general populace would likely have a different definition of what constitutes an acceptable level of function as compared to a first world nation. In some of these countries (e.g. India) they can’t get people to stop bathing in rivers full of human waste and dead bodies because they’re not educated enough to know what a bacteria is and how it works. (Of course, the other half of India can be found in call centres advising unemployed Yanks on how to work their new smartphones, so…)
Statistical analysis gets interesting when you start trying to quantify those things no one can agree on how to quantify. 
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i live in Turkey, a developing country. in my community i know five people with sz or bp. They are ALL on meds. One of them is an African girl married to a Turk. They won’t go back to her country BECAUSE she can’t get her meds there and there’s only one psychiatrist in the entire country. People here do have much more social support. All of them, men or women are married - through arranged marriages, and have some kind of occupation, also arranged through contacts. But there is no anti-psych stuff. Doctors are close to God in Turkey!
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The questions look pretty standard and seem to apply uniformly across cultural barriers. Questions like “are you living independently?”, “are you working?”, and “do you take care of household responsibilities?”
http://www.who.int/classifications/icf/12int.pdf
No one specified a working definition of recovery when the discussion began. You asked to see recovery from schizophrenia without medication. The WHO study, as much as the “pro-psychiatry” crowd would like to bury it, shows that recovery, at least in terms of disability, can be achieved without medication. And going even further, that recovery is even likelier (in terms of disability) without medication.
Yes, because making sure you pen the goats at the end of the day and collect dung for the cooking fire requires the same level of cognition as the four Web design contracts, three photo shoots, and five video projects I’m working on right now to bring in income for my family. This is in addition to my ‘housewife’ role where I am responsible for the bulk of the cooking (scratch made butter chicken this evening, thank you) and a healthy share of the cleaning. Oh, and helping darling daughter with science and her podcasting.
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Does medication improve your cognition (concentration, focus, motivation, etc.)?
I find schizophrenia confusing and its treatment. How do anti-psychotics appear to help so much, but over time lose their efficacy? I’ve taken Abilify for 10 years, and over time I’ve developed a few issues. Firstly, I have gained weight and am not physically fit enough as I want to be. I’ve also written a few books, gained insight and awareness, educated myself and recovered.
But I’m debating what to do next. I got a new psychiatrist and I met with him in a large space, where he scribbled on a page all the things I described and it didn’t matter if I said I was Adhd or Schizoaffective, he just wrote it down and prescribed me pills. I’m debating if I should keep taking medication.
Adderall helps me the most, but could lead to unraveling of symptoms maybe. I just don’t know how effective it would be over time but it helps the most because of my memory issues. I would like to just take Adderall and nothing else anymore. I haven’t been taking Abilify for the past three days in NYC because it makes me so tired and apathetic. I can’t keep up if I’m stuck in dreamland. My friend said it’s making me seem careless.
I admit I care less when I take anti-psychotics. I feel no volition or emotion, and am constantly chasing a high to cure it. How is that Bipolar? Isn’t that more like manufactured bipolar? Like a condition being recreated? I had a manic episode when I was fifteen, how come it had to become a chronic illness at first glance? Esp when I was forced medications against my will, traumatic in and of itself. But then I look at the tangled mindlessness of my mom who never agreed to treatment, and never gave into it.
She’s completely sick from her bipolar schizophrenia. I’m not, however I have been medicated. It’s conflicting me a lot. I don’t mind Abilify but it does make me shaky and nervous, and slow and I breathe shallow all the time. It slows me down like I’m being doped up or pumped with chemicals. However, I don’t trust other antipsychotics.
The reason I stuck with Abilify was because it appears to be the safest of all medications. It has bad withdrawal symptoms and could lead to strokes, but no one has yet died of an overdose of it so that seems safe. It’s like xanax, or a sedative. It should be treated as such but I have to take it every day. The three days off it I’ve felt much calmer. I haven’t heard voices or had hallucinations.
And if I supplement the side effects I might be able to come off it for good. I slept well last night, better than normal. It’s making me panic, making me feel like I’m stuck in a glass bowl and when it shatters, I’m terrified. I feel glazed over by medications. I can’t drive on medication like this. I keep asking people to repeat directions because I don’t know where I’m going. My memories are fading away.
Is schizophrenia the cause or the medication? If it was either, wouldn’t a stimulant make more sense than the opposite? I seriously can’t handle the memory loss. It’s not like ECT, but I sure as hell can’t find my way around if I keep taking it. That’s why here in Brooklyn NYC, I can’t take it! If I took it I wouldn’t keep up.
So here is the hallmark question: How to adjust treatment so that medications help people adapt, not stifle them. But every psychiatrist who sees my label thinks automatically I HAVE to take antipsychotics.
Is there anything else to treat this illness? I haven’t had any unusual thoughts in fact I feel more freed when I dont take medication at all. I also cut back on smoking that helps the utmost.
I can’t work if I take anti-psychotics, because they do make me want to sleep all the time, shut myself away and forget about life.
Again, I am not anti psychiatry or anti meds - I totally agree with this. Right now I am working on the minimum dose necessary - dont know if I will ever get off of meds completely. My psychiatrist feels that I should stay on an antipsychotic, but is open to lower doses.
Antipsychotics are not pure perfection - they come with a trade off. Right now I am of the mindset - go as low as possible. This way I might be able to deal with the side effects these meds cause.
Psychiatrists in the past put me on higher doses of meds - this includes antipsychotics and mood stabilizers.
They led me to believe that I could not function well on lower doses - they kept me on higher doses for years - this affected my liver enzymes. I resent this. My current psychiatrist is more conservative when prescribing meds - she is comfortable treating patients at lower doses,and adjusting these meds accordingly
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http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=S1516-44462006000200014&script=sci_arttext
Just to show that the picture of better outcomes in developing countries is less clear than the original WHO studies indicate.