Zyprexa
Rin Zebramädchen
Imagine that a virus suddenly appears in our society that makes people sleep 12–14 hours a day. Those infected with it move about somewhat slowly and seem emotionally disengaged.
Many gain huge amounts of weight – 20, 40, 60, and even 100 pounds. Often their blood sugar levels soar, and so do their cholesterol levels. A number of those struck by the mysterious illness – including young children and teenagers – become diabetic in very short order. Reports of patients occasionally dying from pancreatitis appear in the medical literature. Newspapers and magazines fill their pages with accounts of this new scourge, which is dubbed metabolic dysfunction illness, and parents are in a panic over the thought that their children might contract this horrible disease. The federal government gives hundreds of millions of dollars to scientists at the best universities to decipher the inner workings of this virus, and they report that the reason it causes such global dysfunction is that it blocks a multitude of neurotransmitter receptors in the brain – dopaminergic, serotoninergic, muscarinic, adrenergic, and histaminergic. All of those neuronal pathways in the brain are compromised. Meanwhile, MRI studies find that over a period of several years the virus shrinks the cerebral cortex, and this shrinkage is tied to cognitive decline. A terrified public clamors for a cure. Now, such an illness has in fact hit millions of American children and adults. We have just described the effects of Eli Lilly’s best-selling antipsychotic, Zyprexa.
45 comments on the article “Zyprexa”
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Anonymous
The brain is a physical thing and therefore any illness affecting it is by definition physical in nature whether it is caused by damage due to an accident, the inability to regulate neurochemicals (too much, too little), "bad wiring" or any other factors that can effect the functioning of an individual's brain. The separation of body and mind in Western culture is a false dichotomy.
No Alternative
I would also point out that with schizophrenia in particular, most are unemployable, so capitalism would have more of an interest in not treating them, since people like this should just die off if they cant afford medical treatment, as your hero Thomas Szasz has actually advocated. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC9r3Gs8XuU
He also says that even if schizophrenia or other illnesses are real they are the sick persons fault therefore their disease does not need treatment. He says even if it isnt their fault it is a violation of the liberty of rich people to treat them.
Markps2
regarding "capitalism would have more of an interest in not treating them" . Who pays the bill? The Government. Who tells the Government what is medically valid-true? Doctors.
No Alternative
So you have a problem with Doctors?
Markps2
Yes the doctors who treat physical disease should divorce themselves from the figurative disease doctors of emotions or feelings. Diseases of over doing it. Overeating=gluttony Oversmoking=lung cancer, Overdrinking, Over angry, Over sad.
Anonymous
Well you can always volunteer as a lab rat in America to get treatment for a mental illness. Or you can take the route of 68% percent of the uninsured mentally ill in America and go to prison.
Anonymous
*becoming homeless
Moshe
But where do you get the seeds? And, what if your need & what you've managed to grow are out of sync?
Please don't buy it off the streets. Your money when you do so may go to supporting arms purchases and brutal deaths in northern Mexico. When a domestic source can somehow be assured, the purchase still maintains the profit margin for cartels.
Anonymous
I was on this drug for a period of time as a teenager. It made me gain about 30 pounds in a period of just a few months. I also felt like a tranquilized horse. I slept through classes and at one point was pulled out of school to be home-tutored. I did not need to be on this drug. Whether some people's illness is so bad that this is their only option..I don't know. But I think there are probably safer drugs with less side-effects, even for drastic cases. I think this drug should be pulled off the market.
Anonymous
Yes, without doubt this drug has severe side effects. Yet it's also very effective at stopping a psychotic episode or a manic episode in people with mental illness. For those people carefully weighing the side effects with the befits is part of life. I agree that too frequently treatment for people with mental illness begins and ends at the pharmacy. Therapies like establishing a support system, building skills to cope with symptoms and lifestyle changes to stabilize moods and psychosis are overlooked with disastrous results, perpetuating a cycle of crisis treatment, crisis. That said, there are times when no amount of therapy can convince someone they can't fly and that's typical of psychosis, a loss of reality.
Unlike a virus, no one is infecting people with this drug. It's prescribed to people suffering from frightening delusions, people who may harm themselves or those around them without medical intervention. This article is trying to compare a medication with a virus and it just doesn't work. None of us are afraid someone will sneak up and inject our loved ones with insulin or antibiotics. Similarly most patients are involved with their treatment and can choose to discontinue the drug whenever they wish. Many do and many experience a return of symptoms. Then the frequently go live under a bridge and beg for food. But again, they are given that option.
Mental illness is real. It affects millions worldwide. It existed long before these drugs so withdraw from them can't be the cause. It is frequently genetic and strikes people of all income levels, races. sexes and religions. It struck me and I know for damn sure it wasn't because I was withdrawing from a psychiatric drug. I take a close relative of Zyprexa and I'm grateful that it exists. Delusions and psychosis suck way more than a little weight gain. If I become diabetic, well, it's better than crazy.
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