STRONG SILENT TYPES-STUFF ABOUT MEN

Rattehalli RD, Jayaram MB, & Smith M (2010). Risperidone versus placebo for schizophrenia. Cochrane database of systematic reviews (Online) (1) PMID: 20091611

When my da came back from killing lots of young Japanese men in the jungles of New Guinea during World War II, he did not even know nor had no personal ill will against, he quickly and dramatically shattered into a million pieces. What we would now easily recognise as the untreated symptoms of PTSD, was then called ‘battle fatigue’ or ‘shell shock’ but most especially, was equated with a lack of ticker. The label that Veterans’ Affairs erroneously and perpetually slapped upon my da’s condition was ‘paranoid schizophrenia’, a label that stuck with him until his death in 1992. He died solely from the effects of lung cancer, but paranoid schizophrenia was written on his death certificate as contributing to his demise. Even though he never presented with the classic symptoms of that disorder, even though Veterans’ Affairs finally conceded, in 1984, that my da did not suffer from paranoid schizophrenia, that is the only disorder that they ‘treated’ him for over the course of 40 years or so. Treatment consisted solely of medication. So what, you might say? Well, atypically and incorrectly prescribing someone mega-doses of a powerful antipsychotic agent (chlorpromazine) over such a long period of time calls into question psychiatry’s claims to be a practice based on sound, scientific methods. Ditto, in this review, by Rattehalli et al. (2010), questions are raised about the widespread, atypical use of risperidone, another powerful antipsychotic agent. As I have discovered myself when working therapaeutically with people who are mentally unwell, risperidone can be useful for some people for short periods of upset in their lives. In common parlance, it can take the rough edges off (subjectively and/or objectively) disturbing or distressing symptoms. However, the pharmacological creep that sees this potent medication used for longer periods of time, even before the onset of demonstrable symptoms, begs the question: why? Antispsychotic agents have serious side-effects. Their use should be both strictly monitored and severely limited. Most disturbingly, here in Australia, risperidone is used atypically and commonly as a de-facto behaviour management tool in nursing homes, effectively quietening the oldies and arguably hastening their deaths. I wholeheartedly support Rattehalli et al. (2010) in their calls for more research on this medication, please.