Robert Whitaker Answers Reader Questions on Mad in America, the Biopsychosocial Model, and...

On the Mad in America podcast this week we have Robert Whitaker with us to answer questions sent in by readers and listeners. Thank you to all of you who took the time and trouble to get in touch. You sent some great questions and on this and our next podcast, we will be talking with Bob about Mad in America, the biopsychosocial model, the history of psychiatry, pharmaceutical marketing, and issues with psychiatric treatments including psychiatric drugs and electroconvulsive therapy.
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To find the Mad in America podcast on your preferred podcast player, click here: pod.link/1212789850

[@juliaschlegel7175]

I'm poor and really careful who I subscribe to, but what you do is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT and i would happily pay a subscription to keep it running. So grateful .

[@haileysmom2358]

I have learned so much from MIA I’ve been tapering for 1.5 years & the quality of life has improved significantly. My doctor has not supported my tapering & continuously tells me that I MUST continue the drugs or I will fail miserably & he won’t be able to SAVE me. He is more committed to the drug lords than towards the patient.

[@stevekaylor5606]

Mental Health is the development of a mental + emotional dedication - a cathexis!

[@claireh.7605]

If I knew I had to taper for months I would have never bothered starting the med! Discontinuation was never discussed when it was prescribed

[@ancabostinariu6550]

A big part ofvtreatment in psychiatry is psychotherspy however in the last years is less anc less used. There are programms of training psychiatrists which do not emphasise it. I think it should be reintroduced and developed

[@juliaschlegel7175]

I find it interesting that India, a spiritual culture handles alternative states better than anyone else. Maybe we should stop fearing what we don't understand and start listening to those who you call mad.

[@rickp.6251]

Al Jazeera, Abby Martin, Chris Hedges and others might have some funding advice ? They seem interested in evidence based journalism.

[@replaceablehead]

I think Nassir and Healy are closer to the mark on the disease issue.The issue is scientifically invalid diagnosis, therapeutic bandwagons, and ignoring patients. If treatment, any treatment, proceeds from a scientifically invalid diagnosis and a overhyped treatment is used, it will lead to a poor outcome. It's not that the disease model is always wrong, it's that our disease categories and treatments suck. We're using a pop quiz for diagnosis and a blue dye for treatment and we're confused that it's not working and that healthy people are receiving treatment. Think about all the healthy people that endured blood letting and leeching. That wasn't because diseases don't exist, that was because we didn't have the ability to diagnose them and treat them with any real degree of accuracy.. Case in point, my wife received DBT during a manic episode. This talk therapy and the context in which it happened was almost as distressing as many of the medications. Had treatment proceeded from a more objectively accurate view of the situation, I think it would have been more successful.