Psychiatry is doomed to conflict about the value of psychiatric medication

Doctors have always exaggerated the advantages of medication. But medication, including recreational drugs, can’t just be eliminated. There are plenty of people that say that psychiatric medication has helped, despite its disadvantages (see eg. previous post). This experience cannot be denied, even if it is due to the placebo effect. Mainstream psychiatry will never accept that psychiatric medication is not effective.

What is more important is that people are being misled about the nature of mental health problems (see eg. previous post). People are more than their brains. Of course brain abnormalities can produce mental health problems, such as dementia and delirium. But most mental health problems are not due to brain abnormalities.  People are limited by their bodies, true. But it’s their social experiences that determine how mental health problems present. This may be because of their past or present experiences. It’s important to try and understand why people have mental health problems because of their experiences, even if the causes can’t be proven as such. Trouble is that people are looking for definitive answers, which is why they latch on the idea that mental health problems may be due to their brain. 

Psychiatry will continue to take advantage of people, including prescribing them medication. But it needs to change to be more focussed on people rather than its own prestige and financial interests (see eg. previous post).