Mental "health" medications....

Just saw the film "A Beautiful Mind", which had great acting and directing, but fell a little short on the medical consultant input. Before the increased use of electric convulsant (read 'shock") therapies, insulin shock was used to bring about grand mal seizures, which for some with severe illness, helped reduce symptoms, but we still aren't sure why. Insulin abruptly reduces blood sugar, among other things, and the brain responds with generalized seizure activity, with the muscles of the body following suit. Before electroencephlograms, watching the muscles move, especially the feet moving downward, was the way to monitor seizure duration. Now such crude approaches to treatment are rarely used for psychotic symptoms, but inducing such seizures, these days with electricity to the head, is considered the most effective way to break severe depression, in folks so sick, that if let out of your sight, will off themselves, actively or passively, in short order. It seems to work in a few other restricted situations, but like almost all medically oriented treatments to mental health issues, comes with tons of side effects. The film does briefly hint at the s*xual problems of treatment with thorazine, our oldest such agent. But perhaps the worst of such problems is severe weight gain, which often reduces overall health and life span for many. If you see someone balloon up over a short period of time, having formerly been slim, think treatment with one of these medicines. Most medicines have their place, but rarely work without causing their own issues. Just watch a TV advert for such treatments, and hear the list of potentially deadly side effects read to us, while we see smiling beautiful people enjoying the help from a given medication. Marketing, medical capitalism, lawyers. Aa-V.