Doctorate Psychology

My colleagues and I obtained some of these hidden data by using the Freedom of Information Act in the US. We analysed the data and submitted the results for peer review to medical and psychological journals, where they were then published.5 Our analyses have become the focus of a national and international debate, in which many doctors have changed their prescribing habits and others have reacted with anger and incredulity. My intention in this book is to present the data in a plain and straightforward way, so that you will be able to decide for yourself whether my conclusions about antidepressants are justified. 

Distinguish the pharmacodynamic effects of a drug from the psychological effects of the act of medication and the circumstances surrounding it, for example, increased interest by the doctor, more frequent visits. 

Modern psychopharmacology is about 50 years old. Few doctors and nurses survive to relate how clinical and ambulatory psychiatry looked and felt before the first neuroleptic and antidepressant medications became available. Drug treatment is routine in today s psychiatric practice, and even some of the most severe mental disorders are no longer fatal In view of the dramatic therapeutic advances brought about by psychopharmaceuticals it is of interest to ask how the introduction of these drugs has affected psychiatry as a science and what impact psychopharmacology has had on psychology. 

In the fall of 1956 I participated in an experiment being conducted for a doctoral dissertation in psychology.1 Three... 

Silverthorn, Lee J., Jr. "An Experimental Investigation of Some of the Psychological Changes Associated with the Effects of Mescaline Sulfate." Unpublished doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas, 1957. 

Billions of doses of dangerous mind drugs are prescribed by doctors, sometimes because the doctors don t know how to handle normal psychological problems, sometimes because the patients demand some kind of medication. Most researchers estimate that more than half the American adult population has a serious problem with the abuse of mind drugs. 

There are a number of legal, safe uses for barbiturates, but they become a problem when a person misuses or abuses them habitually. First-time users can have severe, negative reactions, or even die, from barbiturates taken without a doctor s supervision. Regular abusers suffer from the long-term physical and psychological problems that make them unable to fully participate in society. Drug abuse affects not only users but also their families, friends, and everyone around them. 

Abrams, J. H., Doctoral Dissertation, in Progress, The Effects of Cannabis on Infant Development, California School of Professional Psychology. 

Rogers, J. M. (1971, September). Drug abuse—Just what the doctor ordered. Psychology Today, pp. 16-24. 

I didn t think places like this were around ary more. You know, small, femily doctor, home visits, all that sort of thing he said, looking around. His eyes settled on the bookshelves. Lot of stuff on psychology, I see. That an interest of yours ... 

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