Killing me softly

This is a terribly boring title for a scary truth. Ordinarily I'd write something like, "Stop killing my people you bunch of fucking cunts. It's not an illness to be different" but I'm trying to get a grip. While I've tried to maintain a blogging character it's affected my real personality and made me a total arsehole.

Anyway, let's go through a few things. I grew up with a cranky old grand dad. I had the privilege of a 3 generation household. It was a totally fucked up one but perhaps not different from any other in that respect. My grand dad was an angry man but we put up with it.

A few years ago I came across the information that 1.800 old people with dementia had been unnecessarily killed when doctors used antipsychotics on them. That's 1,800 old people every year in the UK.

This figure is pretty awful. I must admit I've not read the Royal College of Psychiatry report where the figure comes from but I had a look at the study which showed the drugs reduced life expectancy by 50% in the very elderly, the study which prompted the RCPsych report. The figure was generally reported in the media but there's not a huge amount of coverage nor is there general awareness of the high number of unnecessary deaths.

Dementia is a classic organic mental illness. In fact back in the day serious mental illnesses like bipolar and schizophrenia were called dementia praecox because one of the early people in psychiatry, Emil Kraeplin, saw similarities between organic dementia and dementia praecox. by classic organic mental illness I mean there is a definition difference and deterioration in the brain. I'm not 100% about Kraeplin's mean for dementia praecox but I think he meant that he saw schizophrenia/bipolar/psychotic disorders as like organic demenita come early.

And so doctors treat these behaviours and call them illnesses. But here's the thing: current treatment for mental illness based on the biomedical model is bullshit. The biomedical model was the only reason for behaviour and difference to be called an illness. What that means is that the only way different people can be pathologised using the idea of medicine and treatment by doctors is if there is a biological root. Latter on the psychosocial stuff came to hold a little more sway but the one of the central tenets of the dogma of psychiatry is biological cause. Admitteedly this is finally changing at the turn of this century as the biopsychosocial model is become accepted but this is more problematic (which is a long complex story...basically the biopsychosocail model doesn't make it an illness. It's just part way to explaining how people become who they are...that probably doesn't make sense..argh.).

To biomedically treat dementia in old people doctors need to regrow the brain.There are technologies coming out which can do this but they're in their infancy.

Importantly, antipsychotic treatments don't heal any bit of the brain directly.

None of the measures of antipsychotics I've seen relate to their ability to 'heal' the brain illness at a biological level. the antipsychotic is measured on it's ability to treat behaviour as well as psychosis though the weighting for the effect on psychosis is relatively small for what people would expect.

Though they aren't true medicines the antipsychotic became used on the elderly in the community in the UK. Their purpose was not one which any doctor would want to be involved with: offering options for behavioural control. Unfortunately society is severely ill and could not accept cranky old people. So doctors - primary care doctrs - started handing out antipsychotics like drug dealer at a rave.

They did this because of the convenience the drug offered. I also think that many people would react badly if they saw their elders gagged and put in a straitjacket. They made the elderly docile. The drugs were used purely as a chemical cosh. The drugs were used to treat 'behavioural symptoms' which is really just behaviour. The purpose of the drug was exactly the same as using a straitjacket and gag.

Doctors who treat behaviour aren't doctors

I don't know enough about medical ethics but for a lay person perhaps that's useful. First do no harm. this is the oath a doctor takes. It is the first words they say on becoming a doctor. In the treatment of real illnesses they have to make difficult decisions to treat by harming. But mental illness is different. It's not really an illness and I think most psychiatrists know this or should know this. As far as I can come to understanding it simply it is control of different types of humans (by different I mean not normal but this is where langyage and my ability to communicate become a problem). Essentially all mental illnesses are like homosexuality.

Simply, those doctor who prescribed antipsychotics were causing real physical illnesses, death, reduced life expectancy and loads of other bad stuff. They could have used a straitjacket and gag. Instead they had an invisible tool of control. The antipsychotic. The drug which tehy've been suppressing the expression of the schizophrenic for years.

GPs are currently measured on how few antipsychotics they prescribe to people in the community. This is after the report showing that 1,800 old people died. These GPs are not doctors. They're murderers.

The profession of medicine is not about social convenience. And yes, cosmetics surgeons aren't really doctors either. But those still prescribing antipsychotics in the community for carer's convenience...well...they know the evidence and they continue to do it. They have breeched the oath they took upon become a doctor.

These antipsychotic drugs can be used on children or adults for life. The so called illness they are used to treat, an ever expanding range of behaviours, are not organically healed by them in that they don't regrow brain matter. They are a convenient way to subjugate and suppress symptoms which are socially inconvenient in a time or culture where different behaviour is considered worth treating rather than accepting.

The significant argument for the use of antipsychotics is the risk of death by homicide by a mentally ill person or suicide. But i'm meant to be taking a break so I'll get to think about this bit another time.