All drugs have adverse side effects and no one I know is forced to take them. I know a bit about drug development and it bears no resemblance to what you state. Drugs have actually saved millions of lives and prolonged millions more.
While I agree that drugs have done much good, I also wonder how much we really comprehend about how prolonged use of any psychotropic drug changes the chemistry of the brain. This is particularly concerning when it comes to adolescents.
What if these drugs are often a long term solution to what may be a short-term problem? What happens to the brain when one discontinues or stops taking these drugs?
I think more research, less reliance on psychotropic drugs, and a better understanding of potential long-term side effects would benefit everyone.
However, when it comes to psychotropic drugs, the doctors and pharmacologists still don't know exactly what they are doing. I would compare the modern practice of psychiatry to the practice of medicine as it existed before Ignatz Semmelweiss developed the germ theory of disease. The chemical balances of the human brain are still too complex and unknown. They are getting closer to understanding it, but are not there yet to the point where I'd like to take any of their medications.
Strawman argument.
Drugs can benefit patients, no doubt.
And in some cases within state Family Services, parents Are compelled to ensure their children take their meds as a condition of maintaining custodym
My point that pharma doesn’t play by ethical rules is proven by the following facts:
Pharma and FDA oversight has been so untrustworthy that it took an act of Congress to address the following problems with incestuous self-intrested pharma-FDA relationship:
The ClinicalTrials.gov Results Database — Update and Key Issues
“KEY TRIAL-REPORTING POLICIES
Section 801 of the Food and Drug Administration Amendments Act (FDAAA)1
expanded the legal requirements for trial reporting at ClinicalTrials.gov.
*It was passed into law amid
concerns about *ethical and scientific issues affecting the design, conduct, and reporting of
clinical trials,2 *including the suppression and selective reporting of results based on the
interests of sponsors,3 unacknowledged alterations of prespecified outcome measures,4 “offshoring” of human-subjects research,5 and *failure to report relevant adverse events.6”
Per NIH study publication:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3066456/
No say you’re sorry to the 27,000+ people who were murdered by big pharma’s Vioxx scam, among numerous other drug scandals.
RE: “All drugs have adverse side effects and no one I know is forced to take them. I know a bit about drug development and it bears no resemblance to what you state. Drugs have actually saved millions of lives and prolonged millions more.”
A voice of reason on this sea of ignorance. Over 12 years ago I was diagnosed with anxiety depressive disorder. Life was not worth living (and yes I am a Christian and God was there for me) But a carefully proscribed regimen of SSRI’s and counseling helped lead me out of this dark place. I believe there is a role for carefully administered pharmaceuticals!
No, they just single out the most vulnerable people who are looking for help and tell them that the drug will make everything better. So of course people are going to take them voluntarily, under these false pretenses.
Children are forced to take them.