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An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

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Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#101

Post by Retric »

asdfologist wrote: post #99
stefantalpalaru wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not long ago, the free market solution was snake oil. Literally.

And it should be my right to buy snake oil, just as it is my right to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for Scientology courses.

You can buy snake oil. The limitation is you can't market it as curing cancer and doctor's can't prescribe it. Which is a vary important distinction.

Herbal infusions, Homeopity, and a host of other 'options' still, but if you call yourself a doctor and not just a 'faith healer' they effectively don't which is a good thing.

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#102

Post by mindslight »

KC8ZKF wrote: post #94
mindslight wrote: post #87

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why should he have to?

It was a question, not a suggestion or an argument. However, if I was suffering anxiety, or any other disorder, to the point where I wanted to take medication, I would see a doctor. I would not trust myself to diagnose myself, let alone prescribe a course of treatment.

The question has some pretty strong assumptions, and OP should not have to justify why he doesn't wish to spend resources to be analyzed by a government agent to obtain medication he wants.

Depending on severity, OP may be stupid in this desire. But it is one's right to make stupid decisions for themselves, and produces better long-term outcomes than binding people to the stupid decisions of others.

Does your distrust of yourself mean you abstain from caffeine (for alertness) and alcohol (for social disinhibition), etc?

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#103

Post by jotm »

KC8ZKF wrote: post #66
jotm wrote: post #62

I'm more worried about the fact that more and more drugs are reclassified as prescription only. Right now, I can only get green tea or alcohol without a prescription for anxiety - not exactly the best choices. No Adderall, Xanax or Provigil for me either - the only things I can get right now are Tofranil from a friend (which is technically illegal) and racetams from eBay.

Why can't you see a doctor about your anxiety?

I'm abroad most of the time. Sure, I could go see a local doctor, but it would be much easier if I could just get the medication I need (and know to be working based on previous prescription) instead of wasting time and practically begging a doctor for those specific pills.

From experience, shrinks will prescribe whatever they want instead of what I ask for, since they know better and I'm a dumb foreigner who can't even explain things properly.

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#104

Post by KC8ZKF »

mindslight wrote: post #102
KC8ZKF wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It was a question, not a suggestion or an argument. However, if I was suffering anxiety, or any other disorder, to the point where I wanted to take medication, I would see a doctor. I would not trust myself to diagnose myself, let alone prescribe a course of treatment.

The question has some pretty strong assumptions, and OP should not have to justify why he doesn't wish to spend resources to be analyzed by a government agent to obtain medication he wants. Depending on severity, OP may be stupid in this desire. But it is one's right to make stupid decisions for themselves, and produces better long-term outcomes than binding people to the stupid decisions of others. Does your distrus…

I'm not treating a disorder when I drink coffee or a bourbon.

And again, I was not asking anybody to justify anything. You read some "strong assumptions" into my question, Ms. Rand.

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#105

Post by refurb »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #100
refurb wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The drug industry is very different from other industries because of generics. The FDA has an approval pathway that allows you to say "my drug is identical to that other drug". Also, many states have legislation that requires pharmacists to fill Rx with generics. Marketing won't do a whole lot to help that. If the same thing happened to the tech industry, it would work like this... you create an awesome new gadget an…

Funny, my pharmacist has never done this. My doc prescribes, and she asks me if a Generic would do? Usually she advises against it.

It all depends on your state's laws. Some go as far as requiring the pharmacist to dispense the generic unless the doctor writes "DAW" (dispense as written) on the Rx. Others just have to ask if the generic is OK.

Most of those laws are on the books because gov't funded health insurance (Medicare, Medicaid) don't like to pay brand name prices when generics are available.

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#106

Post by lilsunnybee »

tim333 wrote: post #24

Maybe the FDAs mandate could be changed to regulate drugs to maximise the benefit to society. That way things like Melatoin should be allowed and the shenanigans detailed in Bad Pharma (book by Ben Goldacre) should be dealt with. There seems a lot of stuff that is not entirely in the public interest at the moment.

Melatonin is already easily and cheaply available on any pharmacy or grocery store shelf in the US. Regulation of many older drugs still classed as 'supplements' is in fact very lax.

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#107

Post by lilsunnybee »

jotm wrote: post #62

I'm more worried about the fact that more and more drugs are reclassified as prescription only. Right now, I can only get green tea or alcohol without a prescription for anxiety - not exactly the best choices. No Adderall, Xanax or Provigil for me either - the only things I can get right now are Tofranil from a friend (which is technically illegal) and racetams from eBay.

I understand Xanax, but why Adderall and Provigil? Both of those are stimulants, and if anything they would only increase the anxious tension you are already feeling. Maybe you meant Ativan? Not sure about the modafinil though.

Are you dealing with EDS as a significant symptom in addition to anxiety? ADHD?

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#108

Post by lilsunnybee »

guelo wrote: post #83

The solution is to have a public pharma: someone, maybe the NIH, that takes unpatentable, unprofitable drugs through the FDA process.

That would involve maintaining healthy research funding levels, rather than continually making cuts.

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#109

Post by monochr »

pinkyand wrote: post #61
monochr wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Believe it or not there is a respectable number of scientists, physicists no less, who make a living doing nothing but bringing 80 year old Soviet Science to the west. Every so often they get the front pages of nature for essentially finding anti-gravity: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/012345/full/news.2008.1185.h... Or you find actually build computer architectures and languages which American theoretical computer…

I have great appreciation for russian technology, but aren't those exaggeration ? If setun , the ternary computer was so efficient - how is ithat today we use binary machines(and that in general the russians didn't have a moore's law ) ?

The industrial spies in the West send back information that binary was used exclusively and the Soviet bureaucracy, like usual, decided that the West knows best and shut down that area of research.

One thing people in the West don't understand is that the Soviet Union after Stalin believed it was a second rate power and acted like one. In many ways the Politburo was a US cheerleader, they only challenged the US tactically while strategically accepting most of the propaganda more uncritically than US dissidents.

Re: An Iron Curtain Has Descended Upon Psychopharmacology

#110

Post by StuffMaster »

monochr wrote: post #9
fabian2k wrote: post #5

The analogies with room temperature superconductors and antigravity suggest that bromantane is some kind of super drug. But the only thing the author bases this on is the summary of a study in russian that the author can't even read.

Believe it or not there is a respectable number of scientists, physicists no less, who make a living doing nothing but bringing 80 year old Soviet Science to the west. Every so often they get the front pages of nature for essentially finding anti-gravity: http://www.nature.com/news/2008/012345/full/news.2008.1185.h... Or you find actually build computer architectures and languages which American theoretical computer…

One of the many disadvantages of a closed state...
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