At 8:56 AM -0700 4/24/02, Harry Avis wrote: >>The following article has been circulating on various listserves. Does >>anyone here on TIPS have any idea about the validity of the claims made in >>this article? > > >While it may be true that John Nash has been able to stay off of psychiatric >meds, it by no means implies that everyone can. Most schizophrenics are >helped by their meds (ask virtually any family member). To be sure, there >are side effects which can be dangerous or even fatal, but these are >becoming more rare. To be sure, the pharmaceutical industry is promoting >these and other drugs (sometimes unnecessarily), but without them many of >our lives would be miserable (myself included) The problem is that >schizophrenics or family members who read about Nash think that they too >could go off their meds. When you consider that schizophrenic thinking is >not logical by definition, the problem of untreated schizophrenia increases >exponentially. The author of the article clearly blames the meds for his >problems and implies that drugfree is the only way to be. I disagree.
I haven't had a chance to read the article, but ..... The fact that John Nash was able to function (minimally) in a highly supportive environment (I don't believe that he held a regular faculty appointment after his diagnosis) does not mean that he might have done better with medication. There is also the question of representativeness. Given our limited knowlege of the etiology of mental illnesses, it is hard to say how typical Nash's problems were, and to what extent his experiences apply to (which) other individuals. * PAUL K. BRANDON [EMAIL PROTECTED] * * Psychology Dept Minnesota State University, Mankato * * 23 Armstrong Hall, Mankato, MN 56001 ph 507-389-6217 * * http://www.mankato.msus.edu/dept/psych/welcome.html * --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
