It isn't just quacks who are selling snakeoil, and at least theirs is mostly harmless

My very good friend Ruth posted this video on facebook recently, and it has prompted a short exchange between a friend of hers (whom i've never met... aren't t'interwebz marvelous?) and myself. It's an issue i feel quite strongly about, and suitable for my first post here, i think. I was going to get into an explanation of my political and philosophical leanings (especially pertaining intoxicants & ranged weapons, and the prohibition thereof) by way of introduction, but i am lazy (hence a lack of references to research, but then this page will always contain just opinion pieces), and i am reasonably pleased with this short essay (aren't i smug?)


Ruth's friend was telling me about doctors pressuring her to accept medication to treat her four year-old son's diagnosed Autism/ADHD, and assuring that she wasn't going to accept this recommendation. This gladdened my heart, i feel all too often doctors are pressured to prescribe unnecessary medical treatments, but parents are usually unlikely to question this... after all, what is the hypocratic oath for if one can't trust a doctor? I do not blame doctors for this at all (in the same way i would never blame an individual soldier for being involved in an immoral, criminal war). I shall copy my reply to her below, almost verbatim... brace yourselves for some tedious, hyperbolic ranting:


It saddens me to hear about the doctors' strong recommendations for drugs, especially because i was under the impression there are an extremely limited range that are in any way useful, and that a lot of psychoactive chemical therapies are hazardous for people with ASD because of the chance of an atypical reaction. I am sure you'll choose what's best for him, and i wish you both the best of luck!

While i have respect for the medical profession, and the importance of rigorous clinical trials, i feel the root issue is in the application of capitalism to healthcare. Manufacturers of medication wield far too much influence over physicians in many places, yet their only true loyalty is to the shareholders and their dividends, it is the GP or consultant in the field who is responsible for their patient (and most of those DO want to do the right thing, but they are subjected to huge pressures from pharma companies, i cannot blame them for succumbing sometimes). Most are also based in the US, where it is accepted practice for patients to request certain prescription medicines from their doctor and so billions are spent in useless television advertising, and also where any questioning of the capitalist system is likely to draw for oneself comparisons with Stalin (as demonstrated by their abject fear of "socialist" healthcare and subsequent Republican castration of Obamacare, turning it into an exercise in filling insurance company coffers while he takes the flak for it not working adequately).

They have to keep the profits rolling in, keep filling the fat, chirping, ever-hungry baby-bird beaks of their shareholders as number one priority; and with the decreasing number of potential "miracle" cures for diseases combined with the necessarily short patent a company may hold on a drug once released, they have to turn to other means to ensure the tills keep ringing. Pushing chemical interventions for existing conditions despite their unsuitability (and potential danger), exaggerating their prevalence and trying to increase numbers of diagnoses, and inventing new disorders (female sexual dysfunction, for instance) for existing medications are some of the less savoury methods of doing so. Psychiatry is a field in which it is nearly impossible to diagnose conditions by observing physiological symptoms, so it is an obvious area for them to apply these tactics.

Ruth loaned me a book on applying Darwinian principles to medicine,it makes for absorbing reading. In it the authors (Dr Randolph Nesse MD and Dr George Williams PhD) lament the lack of research it has had. I think part of the reason is that Darwinian medicine seems mostly concerned about understanding and avoiding environmental causes for certain conditions, and that just doesn't sell pills, powders and potions, so Big Pharma is obviously going to drag its feet spending money researching and developing methods of preventing illness and reducing their already dwindling customer-base. We need governments (if we are to be saddled with them, and i don't think that is going to change in the near future) to fund university studies in this area, partly for the health of humanity, and partly to wrest some of the enormous influence these bloated capitalist entities have acquired.

welcome and apologies

Hello mental masochists! Thank you for paying heed to the verbal diarrhoea i intend to spray across these pages. Topics will most likely vary wildly, running the gamut of politics, philosophy, popular culture, private parts and various other things beginning with 'p'. So, strap yourselves in, and be prepared for a wild ride... akin to driving a citroën deux-cheveaux through a ploughed field.