Is It Acceptable To Test Chronic Pain Sufferers

[daredtowork]

45. I had to shift my thinking on this

I used to think Big Pharma was automatically bad, and most drugs didn't really do anything but get people hooked on them. Most problems could be handled through adjusting my diet and taking the right vitamins, etc. I had taken some big name anti-depressants during a stressful time in grad school: not only did they do nothing to lift my mood: they caused a ton of side effects, and I suspect were partly responsible for my decision to leave grad school just short of getting my doctorate. So I have reasons not to be a fan.

(Tangent: When it was announced Robin Williams had Parkinson's Disease, I realized something from my own experience: if a psychiatrist had prescribed him SSRIs for his depression, but his depression was caused more by dropping dopamine levels from the PD - which SSRIs would exacerbate - well, perhaps the wrong prescription for depression played a role, just as it messed me up in grad school.)

Anyway, I was on board with the Big Pharma Prozac Nation conspiracy. But then recently, I got a particular drug that took care of a lot of my problems for real. So now I believe the right drugs can do stuff and patients should get them. And doctors should make the effort to learn about them and prescribe the right ones instead of using patients as guinea pigs (which may cause them to drop out of grad school or lose their job or otherwise mess up their life). But the right drugs can make a huge difference, and not all of them make you a zombie or a pot head. I'm a believer now.

Now to figure out how to get the prices down!