Mental state treatment principles

Despite the deeply held convictions of drug proponents, there are no specific psychoactive drug treatments for specific mental disorders. There is, of course, a certain amount of biological and psychological variation in the way people respond to drugs, shock treatment, or even lobotomy or an accidental head injury. However, as a general principle, biopsychiatric interventions have a nonspecific impact that does not depend on the person s mental state or condition. For example, it will be shown that neuroleptics and lithium affect animals and normal volunteers in much the same way as they affect patients, in part by subduing their overall emotional responsiveness. 

So we have established that there were powerful interests behind the adoption of drugs as the principle form of psychiatric treatment and behind the transformation of views about drugs from chemical restraints to chemical cures. The question we now need to address is whether the evidence supports the idea that modern drugs are disease-specific treatments. Do psychiatric drugs deserve the prominence and respectability that they have now achieved And if the evidence does not suggest that they act on disease processes, then how do they act What are the characteristics of the psychological state they induce and how does this impact on normal mental functioning ... 

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