DailyTution

" " education Since 1954 weâ��ve had effective antipsychotic drugs to treat schizophrenia, but beginning in the 1990s a series of new anti-psychotics emerged, now called the â��atypicalâ�� or â��novelâ�� anti-psychotics. Suddenly, the older drugs â�� all generic & therefore moderately priced â�� were no nice. Only the new, patented anti-psychotics were any nice & might even be guilty of malpractice if prescribed an older drug (or continued prescribing to a patient who appeared to be doing fine). Indeed, a generation of new psychiatrists cycled through training programs with this idea in mind, never writing a prescription for an older drug. The alleged superiority of the newer drugs was tested in the recently completed CATIE (Clinical Antipsychotic Trials in Intervention Effectiveness) study & found to be absent. The study compared newer drugs to an older drug, perphenazine, & the differences in outcome were minimal to none. Drug companies sell drugs. Therefore, when it comes to marketing their products, they have no interest in promoting â�� or even mentioning â�� non-drug treatments. There’s no salespeople making the rounds of doctorsâ�� offices to remind physicians of the rigorously proved benefits of stress management training for migraine & tension-type headaches, or of cognitive-behavioral counselling for depression.