Anatomy Of An Epidemic

Anatomy Of An Epidemic teaches you how to make better decisions about your mental health as it uncovers the questionable origin of medication and reveals the interesting connection between psychiatry and pharmaceutical companies.

One of eight Americans, including kids, currently takes some sort of psychiatric medication. With use so widespread, surely these medications have been thoroughly tested and developed for each illness they treat, right?

Surprisingly, not really. The drugs, said to treat things from mania to depression, weren’t intended for mental illness at all when they were created. They were created by doctors in the 1950s who were in search of a “magic bullet” to cure infectious diseases. It wasn’t until they were testing these new compounds that they found some had an effect on neurological and emotional responses.

This is an unusual way to find a drug. Usually, scientists search for a cure for a specific disease and do research from what they know about the disease, such as the discovery of insulin for diabetes. Because they were created without a specific disease in mind, they came on the market with minimal testing.

The first psychoactive drug on the market, Thorazine, was tested on less than 150 psychiatric patients beforehand.

One big problem that happens with limited drug testing is that there needs to be enough time for side effects to emerge. And when it comes to side effects, these drugs have many. Science has shown that long-term use of psychiatric medications can cause significant lasting changes to the brain. The most common drugs prescribed for depression are SSRIs, or serotonin reuptake inhibitors. These cause an increase of serotonin which helps with mood, but in excess, this can cause manic episodes. Antipsychotic drugs for things like schizophrenia can cause tremors and impaired motor function. Other side effects of psychiatric drugs are memory loss, suicidal thoughts, apathy, and weight gain. Often, doctors treat these symptoms with more drugs, and these tend to snowball. Some patients take around six psychoactive drugs every day. There is a connection between antipsychotic drugs and a reduction of brain size. Yet another problem is the dependency they can create. Withdrawal can make the brain’s chemical balances go into shock. And while they give short-term relief of symptoms, the long-term changes can stay long after when the symptoms would have faded naturally. Before taking the antipsychotics, patients with schizophrenia might experience episodes for a maximum of six months, followed by normal periods. But after treatment has begun with drugs, these episodes can become chronic or even lifelong. While these drugs improve the lives of some, many patients put on long-term drug therapy now find themselves chronically ill. All of this is to say that we…