I took the day off work for this, I'm that impressed with Robert Whitaker's book, Anatamoy of an Epidemic.
I'm a skeptic in general, so acupuncture isn't something I find naturally creditable.
But I've had too much success with chiropractic care and massage therapy to dismiss it. And I've seen too many pharmacological train wrecks to not think needles through the ear might be a good, cautious, first step.
Whitaker's book was a hit with the acupuncturists. Basically, his research verified what many of them had suspected for years: that the magic bullets the pharmaceutical industry sells for a variety of mental illnesses are at the very least wildly over-prescribed, may even be counterproductive, and often produce side effects far worse than any organic illness.
Of course a conference of psychiatrists is the audience Whitaker really needs to be in front of.
Another group that desperately needs this message is Congress: through a variety of funding mechanisms, what amounts to a Disability Industrial Complex has been created whereby Medicaid pays big Pharma for drugs that push people into being on disability; then the Federal government gets to pay them SSDI in addition to profiting the company that put them there.
And that's not to mention all the foster children who are being doped into an ever-growing zombie army with cocktails of neuroleptics and 'mood stabilizers.'
1 comment:
My one experience with acupuncture has been pretty good. Cleared an allergy condition right up, long enough for me to go home and dispose of the offending materials (yard waste in the garage).
Overall, I agree with the over-medicalization argument. Not 100 percent, mind you, but I'm actually grateful I've never taken meds for my depression/anxiety on a long-term basis. Some situations require chemical interventions, I suppose, but not the number that allopathic medicine and big Pharma say it should be.
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