Six Additional Brain-Disabling Principles

The last series of brain-disabling principles describe clinical phenomena associated with treatment-induced brain disability. 

Patients respond to brain-disabling treatments with their own psychological reactions such as apathy, euphoria, compliance, or resentment. 

There is some variation in the way individuals respond to drugs. For example, the same antidepressant will make one person sleepy and another energized. Ritalin quiets many children but agitates others. 

To the extent that a physical disorder of the brain afflicts the individual, currently available biopsychiatric interventions will worsen or add to the disorder. 

The currently available biopsychiatric treatments are not specific for any known disorder of the brain. One and all, they disrupt normal brain function, without correcting any brain abnormality. Therefore, if a patient is suffering from a known physical disorder of the brain, biopsychiatric treatment can only worsen or add to it. A classic example involves giving Haldol to control emotionally upset Alzheimer s patients. While subduing their behavior, the drug worsens their dementia (chapters 2-4). 

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