In less than a years time, Kyle Warren had been seen by four different medical doctors, each one

The book, Crazy, is an interesting, and informative non-fiction book, about the struggles that mental health patients and their family members encounter. Pete Earley starts off the story by talking about his son Mike, who started to act strangely in his senior year of college. (Earley page 9). It turned out that Mike would be diagnosed with bipolar disorder, and was prescribed medications. Mike thought he was fine, therefore would frequently stop taking his medications. Mike refused treatment from a hospital that he was admitted to. Because he was not a danger to himself, a danger to others, or gravely disabled; the doctor could not force him into treatment. Because, Mike stops taking his medications, his symptoms got worse. Pete discussed

Throughout the centuries mental illness has been treated by countless treatments. Modern treatments have created an argument over which treatment options are best. the most debates treatments today are medication and therapy. the argument of medication versus therapy as treatments for mental illness is fairly new. Yet, proponents of both sides have strong arguments stating the advantages of their treatment option. proponents of medication believe pharmacogenetics, tailored treatments, and medication's ability to treat severe disorders makes medication the better treatment option. proponents of therapy believe drug addiction, suicide prevention, and need adaption establishes therapy as the better treatment choice.

During my psychiatric clinical rotation at Carney Hospital I had the opportunity to help run group therapy’s where I was able to understand some of the patients better. During this time I was also able to learn more about my patient F.S. The patient is a fifty-two-year-old divorced Chinese woman with a lengthy history of bipolar disorder and a persistent associative history of schizophrenia and attempts at suicide. The patient has one daughter that is 24 years old who noticed F.S. was throwing her pills down the toilet and hiding them in her pockets so she didn’t have to take them. . During her admission, the patient displayed increased levels of incredible energy and mood activities, an approach that was thought to have been instigated by the worsening of her health condition.

Although we tend to think that drugs are here to comfort and heal people, we must also take into account that behind every drug, we have a drug company that is making millions of dollars off of consumers who by their products. Behind every consumer, we have a doctor that is recommending and prescribing the medication. In “The Medicated Child,” we learn that the researchers who advocate the use of psychiatric medications, receive enormous support from drug companies. Firsthand doctors inform us that theses drug industry funded studies influence their decisions on what drugs to “push” or prescribe. This is a major conflict of interest because the decisions and results of the studies are

Medical technology is one change that has led to advanced treatment of mental illness since the early 1900s. Firstly, “images produced by positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resources imaging (MRI) technology have revealed that a lot of the mental

One out of every four Americans suffered from a mental illness, yet 60% of them never received treatment (Berkowicz, 2013). An increased awareness of the effect of psychiatric drugs led some to believe that use of them by teen led to violence. In the last several years 31 acts of school violence occurred by people taking, on withdrawal of, or abusing psychiatric drugs. These

In the United States, 79 million people live under the dependence to some sort of psychiatric drug (of which 1,080,168 are children in between zero and five years old). Some of the most commonly diagnoses being ADHD, depression, bipolar disorder, and ect. Drugs being taken for this disorders are Xanax, Celexa, Prozac, Amphetamine salts, Zyprexa, Zoloft, among others. The drugs side effects alone are far more harmful than the illness itself. The United States has a higher rate than any other country with diagnosing mental disorders and the consumption of psychiatric medication. In fact, in the last years it has only increased hand to hand to the release of new mental medication, rising 43 percent from 2001 to 2010, ( Hanekamp ). There are also huge gender and racial disparities among who gets diagnosed with ADD and ADHD: the CDC reports that 13 percent of boys are diagnosed with ADHD, compared with 5 percent of girls. And twice as many black boys are diagnosed with the disorder as white boys, ( Lewis ).

Over the past thirty years, there has been a 500% increase in the U.S incarceration rate. (The Sentencing project, 2014) Advances in medicine, such as the discovery of psychoactive drugs, led to the deinstitutionalization of mentally ill patients from psychiatric hospitals. With a long record of horrific abuse,

Nearly five years ago, Kyle Craig, a well-rounded and bright student at Vanderbilt University, took his life at the young age of 21. Kyle was described to be a “confident, but not arrogant” young man. He had a solid 3.5 grade point average and was extremely active in his fraternity. His parents said he was, “…a thrill a minute, focused, happy, achieving and social” (James). Kyle, in short, seemed to have it all together. What no one knew is that Kyle illegally looked to Adderall to keep up his “I’ve got it all together” act. Adderall is a stimulant prescription drug for those with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, also known as ADHD (FDA). Kyle took Adderall illegally and abused it much too often just to perform better academically and socially. While abusing the drug, Kyle slowly began spiraling into a dangerous state of psychosis that no one seemed to catch on to. That dangerous spiral led Kyle all the way in front of a train, taking his own life (James). Kyle is not the only young college student to suffer from the effects of stimulant or amphetamine drugs like Adderall. Almost 1,000 cases of psychosis were found to be linked to medications such as Adderall or Ritalin between the years 2000 and 2005 (FDA). Stimulant and Amphetamines are also known to heighten or produce suicidal and depressive thoughts (FDA). With all of these unsettling facts, 1 in 5 college students abuse these drugs and use them as study aids (CBN News). For the last

While understanding of mental illness has increased since the 1950s, public opinion has only become worse. Another change since the 1950s, is the medication given to patients.

Through the course of time, mental illnesses have always been in existence due to varying factors and causes. However, as time has passed, the perceptions and available treatments for mental illnesses have also changed as new technology was developed. By looking at the treatments and perceptions of mental illnesses in the early 20th century, we can learn how to properly treat and diagnose not only mental disorders but also other conditions as well as show us the importance of review boards and controlled clinical trials.

Katie had been in a car accident in her mid-20’s and was prescribed pain medication that she became more and more dependent on. “When abused, all of these classes of drugs directly or indirectly cause a pleasurable increase in the amount of dopamine in the brain’s reward pathway. Repeatedly seeking to experience that feeling can lead to addiction” (Prescription and Over-the-Counter Medications). As life began to unfold and become more complicated Katie began seeking out pills. Three years ago Katie went to a residential treatment center and spent four weeks in the program. Katie and her husband Lewis had their youngest child approximately six months ago and Lewis has noticed the return of concerning behaviors in the last few months (Case Study 3).

Counselling and Psychotherapy began in the early 18th century. The shift in how society dealt with mental health issues came about primarily due to the advent of the popularisation of science through the beginning of the industrial revolution. Society became increasingly transient and anonymous and the responsibility for behaviour became from the individual rather than from the community as a whole.

Today, mental issues like ADHD, schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, and depression are better understood thanks to past experience and seen as a minor neurosis. Unfortunately some treatments depersonalize these individuals leaving them empty and plain. There are clear examples of negative connotations attributed to medications. In his autobiography, the

Psychodynamic Therapy was the first therapy used in attempting to explain mental illness and has had great