Analysis of Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker - Essay Example

Number] Book Review: Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker The issue of treating mental illness using the psychiatric drugs has evolved as the centre point of heating debates for several decades. The experts arguing from both the sides use to present different evidences in support of their stance on this subject matter. During last three decades, there is record increase in the number of people roll for the government funding due to the mental illness. This increase appears to be critical moment of concern for the psychiatrists, social scientists as well as common people because it indicates the penetration of mental illness among the population on the country at alarming rate. There are numerous efforts made to identify the factors behind this increment. Likewise, the book Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America is also a significant attempt to uncover the leading factors that contribute towards the massive rise in the number of mentally ill people in United States over the last few decades. The book is penned by an American award winning journalist, historian and author of science and medical subjects Robert Whitaker in 2010. The book focuses upon the recurrent and controversial issue of psychiatric medication and put forwards the author’s stance regarding the usage of psychiatric drugs for the treatment of mental illness. The author takes the criticizing side and argues that the psychiatrics treat the mental disorders using drugs that have little positive impact upon the psychological well being of the people but in long run the patients have to encounter the side effects of these drugs in form of different diseases and health problems. Whitaker believes that psychiatric medication is the leading cause of increase in the mental illness among the American population over the last three decades and it is imperative to follow care model to prevent the long run harmful outcomes of the psychiatric drugs. Whitaker writes “If you expand the boundaries of mental illness, which is clearly what has happened in this country during the past twenty-five years, and you treat the people so diagnosed with psychiatric medications, do you run the risk of turning an anger-ridden teenager into a lifelong mental patient? (p. 30)" This starling book contains extensive information about the psychiatry history in the United States. The author of the book has spent years in the field and could be regarded a competent person to write on this subject matter. He goes deep inside the history of psychiatry in United States and explores the medical mystery with the help of the historical data, analysis and observations. The author informs that over the last two decades the cases of mental disorders are tripled and with each passing day there is addition of over thousand children and adults to the government disability rolls (p7). This increase indicates the spread of epidemic among the children and adults of the nation at alarming rate and it becomes imperative to discover and deal with the factors responsible behind it. The author discusses the issue by drawing the supposition on fifty years literature as well as by including the responses of the patients collected from in person interview. The author support his arguments by the evidences collected from different medical journals and research studies focusing on the issue of long term effects of drugs upon the mental illness patients. The book presents several astonishing facts that the readers might find difficult to believe because some of the arguments are not well proved with the literary or historical evidences however, most of the facts are proved and well supported with the help of evidences from the literature and research studies conducted around the topic. The book discusses the issue of treatment of numerous mental disorders like schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, and bipolar illness with the help of the literature conducted over the last four to five decades and examines the long run effects of their medicated treatment. The author points out that in 1955 Thorazine was introduced for the treatment of certain mental disorders. The introduction of this drug was widely regarded a revolutionary development and people started believing on the positive impacts of the drug. In 1988, the introduction of the Prozac further promoted the use of psychiatric drugs for the treatment of mental illness. There was general perception about these drugs among the public that these drugs significantly support the treatment of the mental disorders and there is little awareness among people about the negative consequences of using these drugs. The author compellingly urges the readers that they should also seek the information and knowledge about the potential effects of medication before acting according to the doctor advice and it is important for them to know the outcomes of the psychiatric medication done in the past. For instance, he point out towards the fact that children taking stimulants for ADHD are found more vulnerable to suffer from mania and bipolar whereas the prevalence of these disorders is lesser among the un-medicated children. He stresses that the parents have to take well informed decisions to prevent further mental illness in their children rather blindly following the psychiatric advised medication. Whitaker writes “all I could think about was how both sets of parents had needed to make their decision, on whether to medicate their child, in a scientific vacuum (p35)” The author explores the merit of the psychiatric medication after realizing that the fact that the cases of receiving the federal disability payment due to mental illness have considerably increased especially after 1987 (p7). The author pointed out that the introduction of Prozac has drawn major impact upon the number of mental disable people because it accelerated the pace of usage of psychiatric medication and in turn the cases of mental disorder also increased at alarming rate and took the shape of epidemic that not only affected the adults but children also appear to be the major victim of this epidemic. Whitaker criticises the psychiatrists’ decision to medicate the mentally ill people neglecting the harmful effects of the drugs. He writes “Psychiatrists saw that the drugs worked. They saw that antipsychotics knocked down psychotic symptoms, and they observed that patients who stopped taking their medications regularly became psychotic again (p108)” The book provokes a hot heated debate by putting forward some compelling but starling and astonishing arguments that might not receive appraise and validation from the psychiatric experts because some of the arguments lack sufficient support and evidences. In sum, the book could be regarded a useful addition to the literature focusing upon psychiatric issues and the treatment of mental illness. It gives deep insight to the psychiatric medication from different perspectives. It could also be regarded as a persuasive and compelling effort that strives to make people think and discover information about the effects of medication upon the mental health. The entire efforts has been directed by the motive to curb the growing rate of mental illness in the country by making people aware and well informed for taking wise decisions regarding the treatment of their mental illnesses. The author examines the issue by analyzing the literature for the past fifty years and studies the long term effects and outcomes of the psychiatric medications on people. The book searches the answer of the question that the drug usage has actually worked to make people feel better by bringing some level of improvement in their mental health or the physical and mental health is badly affected by these drugs. The study unveils that rather functioning well, most of the patients of mental illness witnessed downfall of their health conditions after some years of taking these drugs and the likelihood of becoming chronically ill also increases among these people. The author basically wants the readers to rethink and re-examine their perceptions about the psychiatric medication. He observes that many people think that these drugs have facilitated the treatment process of people with mental illness however, these people pay little attention towards the fact that after the introduction and usage of these drugs the prevalence of the mental illnesses has increased considerably and it seems that the usage of the drugs has become the deriving factor behind the increase of the cases of mental illness. The review of the past 50 year literature supports the main arguments posed by the author in the book because he took several evidences from the past research studies to prove his arguments. For instance, he refers to the long term study of Martin Harrow conducted in 1980s at the University of Illinois that studies two groups of schizophrenic patients. One of the groups was given the psychiatric medication whereas the patients of other group were not treated with the drugs. The study concludes that after four to five years there was considerable change in the conditions of the off med and medicated patients. Almost 40% of the off med patients were found recovered from their disorder whereas around 60% off med patients were in working conditions. On the other hand, only 6% of the medicated patients show the signs of recovery and very few were found in working conditions (p309). This major difference in the long term progress of the schizophrenic patients shows that the drugs have played vital role in determining the recovery level of the patients and off med patients show the positive signs of improvement as compared with the medicate patients. The researcher concludes that the antipsychotic medication treatment is much better for the schizophrenic patients. The book has used this example to show that the medication for the treatment of schizophrenia is not likely to have positive impacts and people must be aware about this fact before consulting the psychiatrist for the treatment of their mental illness. The arguments presented in the book are also supported by the stories of the children as well as adults who became the victim of the epidemic after the treatment of their mental illness. The stories of these people provide real world examples of the effects of drugs upon the people and let people realize that how their mental health is posed to serious risks when they are directed to take when they are by the doctors to take certain drugs. It does not means that the drugs never cause any positive effects to the mental health of the patients however, these positive effects are very minor when compared with the long term harmful effects of these medicines upon the mental health of the people. He proves this by including the story of Amy Upham telling that after taking the antidepressant and other psychiatric medications she witnessed serious physical problems and her mental health also became worst within some years of taking the medications. The book also tells that the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) has discovered this fact after studying the long run effects of stimulants upon the children with ADHD. He also criticized the authorities for hiding the facts about the harmful effects of the drugs from people and discloses that the study of NIMH discovered several eye-opening and astonishing facts about the outcomes of the drugs however, these results were not made public due to which there exist high level of unawareness among the masses about the after effects of the drugs usage for the treatment of psychiatric disorders (p310). The author not proposes to completely stop the psychiatric drug treatment but he is mainly concerned that the drug usage should follow a model of care so that the patients could avail the benefits of these drugs both in short and long terms (p343) The book is one of its kinds as it explores the merits of the psychiatric medications in terms of their long term effects upon the patients and compares the benefits of using the drugs with the potential negative consequences. It could be regarded a unique contribution to the existing literature around the topic of medication because it investigates the long term effects of the treatment of the patients using the psychiatric drugs and also gives food for thought to the readers and insists them to pose certain questions regarding the harms and benefits of medication for the treatment of psychological disorders. The author investigates the awareness among people about the biological causes of the mental illness and discuss if the psychiatrics fix the chemical imbalances or they create these imbalance by giving different medicines to the mental disorder patients. The book also informs the readers that the psychiatric drugs became popular among people due to the misconceptions they hold about the potential outcomes of the treatment of mental disorders through drugs. The author point out towards the fact that it was the period of pharmaceutical industry growth when several new medicines were invented and introduced for the public use. The people widely started believing upon the magical effects of these drugs and it is the irresponsible attitude of the pharmacists that they also don’t bother to make public completely aware about the negative consequences of the drugs and promoted their use by showing their short term positive impacts upon people. The reader of the book allows having deep understanding of some controversial issue associated with the psychiatric treatment and medication. The book contains some astonishing facts about the medication for the mental illness and it is clear that the author wants the readers to go deep inside the subject matter in search of reality rather putting the lives and health of their children and other people in intense danger. The overall approach of the book is informative and the readers have been motivated to seek knowledge at their own rather waiting for someone to tell the truth about the psychiatric medications. It is surprising to read the facts described in the book that why the national healthcare authorities have not paid due attention towards making people well aware and well informed about the harmful outcomes of the psychiatric medication due to which it has become common that people accept the psychiatric suggestions for treatment through drugs as they think it in their favor. However, the innocent people are not informed by the authorities and concerned people that they are actually destroying the mental and physical health of the patients with the mental illness by giving them medications having long run harmful effects. The author also clarifies that the basic purpose of the book is not just to criticize and condemn the treatment of the mentally ill people using the drugs but it actually intends to create high level of awareness among the masses. The book is an effort to motivate people that must study and discuss the potential outcome of the medicate treatment of their disorder before following the psychiatric advice of taking certain drugs. This awareness could not only improve the mental recovery progress of the individuals but in broader perspective the entire society would be benefited when people will make well informed decision about the medicated treatment of the mental problems. The book gives the lesson that one should also give attention towards getting some information and education about medications rather always depending upon the advices and recommendations of the doctors. It motivates the readers to become suspicious and quest for knowledge about medication by their selves and not merely following what the doctor says. In sum, the book could be regarded a significant effort that allows the readers to re-examine their current medication practice however, the author fails to provide compelling evidences to support the arguments presented in the book that ultimately added several impudent statements and affected the overall strength of the book. Work Cited Whitaker, Robert (2010). Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness in America. Crown publishing group Read More