Posted by Cam W. on March 5, 2001, at 7:20:02
In reply to Re: Thany You For Your Complements Steve and errata » Cam W., posted by steve on March 5, 2001, at 1:44:06
Steve - I have read the entire website. Not once does Mosher say anything that isn't being done or would like to be done. In the late 1960s and even sometimes today, ridiculously high doses of neuroleptics were being used to trat patients with mild psychotic disorders.
This Soteria House he talks about is just a good group home for those in remission from mild psychotic episodes or for those with nild mental deficiencies. Someone who is floridly psychotic could not be treated by this method. First, they wouldn't understand what you were talking about and would be very much a danger to themselves, and second, it is far from cost effective (ie who would pay for this treament).
I do note that no specific treatment modalities were mentioned in regad to Soteria House. If his psychosocial modalities were that effective, don't you think that every psychologist would be using these treatment. It sounds like Mosher is hiding something, possibly for a reason. The only way I could see to possibly control a psychotic patient in the middle of an episode, without medications, is with physical restraint (be it straight jackets or beatings).
Mosher's treatments sound a lot like Community Assertive Treatment programs, which do work, but still necessitate the use a psychotropic medication. Mosher himself states that people at his treatment facilities could not do without medications, completely.
Most psychiatrists today try to reduce the amount of medication given, but this does not address the many people who are treatment resistant. Sometimes ery high doses of multiple medications are need to keep people in the community. Why, I don't know; everything else doesn't seem to work (including multiple types of psychotherapies).
Mosher's ideas are nothing new and most have been integrated into most public mental health facilities. This may have been an issue 25 years ago, when patients were drugged into catatonias or 50 years ago, when insulin-shock therapy was themode of the day.
Until we can "reknit" nerve cells from the thalamus to the prefrontal cortex (etc). we will need psychotropic medication to help people lead as "normal" productive lives as possible.
Yes, psychotherapy is underused, but that is because people are not willing to go through a lot of pain for some gain. It is easier to dampen thoughts with a pill (but thses are people with emotional or affective problems, that I am talking about here, not true schizophrenia or bipolar disoreders). Psychotherapy can also help those with chronic mental illness live more prodcutive lives, but only if they are able to understand the therapy (which those with florid psychoses cannot).
- Cam
poster:Cam W.
thread:55421
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20010302/msgs/55598.html