by Richard Mellor
One of my favorite lines from the movies is from Crocodile
Dundee. The wild Aussie has been brought
back to the US by his new upper middle class girlfriend. At a party in her rich
parents house she points out the guests.
One of them is a wealthy woman who is talking to her shrink.
“Is she nuts? the outback man asks.
The girlfriend laughs and explains that sometimes people
just need someone to talk to.
“Hasn’t she got any mates?" He replies.
The problem is that “mates”
don’t normally charge a fee for providing emotional support and
friendship. They also don’t prescribe
drugs. “Mates” in the way Crocodile Dundee meant it in the film, are
simply not good for business and for capitalism in general.
Health care in the US is a huge and very profitable industry. It is better described as the sickness
industrial complex. Prescription drugs are pushed on television through
aggressive advertising, something that is illegal in many countries. If it’s a football game or a male oriented
show the viewer will be bombarded by ads about erectile dysfunction and other newly
discovered diseases and the cure will be offered in the form of some sort of
medication that will ensure you are “ready”
whenever the woman demands you perform; just head down to the hospital if your
erection lasts more than four hours, it’s not a good sign. If it’s a more
sedate show appealing to older folks, the drugs being pushed might be for hair
loss (another syndrome) or for peeing too often. There is such a thing as peeing too often possibly related to kidneys but if you don't have it they'll convince you you do.
Excessive shyness, baldness, anger, restless leg syndrome;
we have them all and the pharmaceutical companies have the pill for these
medical conditions.
Then there’s ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder
an affliction that I have been accused of having. The symptoms are severe: “fidgeting” “overlooking
details” “difficulty remaining
focused during lengthy reading” “Taps
hands”. It took thousands of years
of human existence for psychiatrists and other scientists to figure out that
these symptoms are not connected to people losing their jobs and homes, or are
unhappy at work or who can’t get basic health care for them and their
families. Nor is the existence of ADHD
among children related to these social issues-----they have ADHD, and thanks to
the pharmaceutical industry they have the pill for it.
An op ed piece in today’s Wall Street Journal points out
that almost one in five boys in US high schools have been diagnosed with ADHD
according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention. Six million
children between the ages of 4 and 17 have been diagnosed with it and are
prescribed amphetamines in the form of Ritalin and/or Adderall as a cure.
Originally, amphetamines were pushed as the anti-depressant
of choice and were once given to US soldiers in WW2 to “boost morale and improve performance in combat” the authors tell
us. The drug was also used by some major
corporations for the same reasons; they can improve productivity up to a point,
until the addiction sets in that is. Amphetamines
were also pushed as the go-to weight loss pills. One prominent 1950’s ad for
the amphetamine AmPlus promised people that they would be “beachable by summer.”
The benefits of the drug as a cure for depression and as a
weight loss pill were soon found lacking as its addictive qualities became apparent
in the long term but “….the lack of proof
didn’t hold doctors back from liberally prescribing stimulants to millions of
housewives in postwar suburbs” the authors add, prescribing 120 mg of
amphetamine for each American. Despite
further studies revealing the dangers and addictive qualities of speed, the
drugs were very profitable and doctors continued prescribing them until some
restraint was introduced with the passing of the Controlled Substances Act in
1971. Between 1969 and 1972, prescriptions for speed to treat depression and
obesity fell 90%.
This was not a good development as far as big Pharma was
concerned and (just by chance?) before long a new use for the drug popped up as
a treatment for Hyperkinetic Reaction of Childhood now called ADHD. The problem was that the addiction qualities
kept prescriptions low along with the “watchful
eye” of the DEA say the authors; another example of “big government” regulation interfering with market opportunities. Something had to be done.
By the nineties various advocacy groups began making the
argument that speed didn’t lead to addiction in the treatment of children with
ADHD. In fact, using speed actually
helped prevent future drug abuse advocates argued. “ADHD itself” was a risk factor in future drug abuse and so by
treating ADHD wih speed actually reduced the chances of their children using
drugs in the future. Putting their
children on speed, parents were told, “…would
decrease the risks of future trouble with alcohol and drugs.” According to the authors of the WSJ piece this
was based on very flimsy evidence. But
we are taught if someone in a white lab coat or who is an accepted “expert” in their field tells us
something it must be accurate. They have
a white lab coat after all and are doctors.
It turns out now that ADHD does predispose children to
substance abuse later in life but there is “…no
evidence that stimulant medication reduces this rate any better than treating
ADHD with behavioral approaches” say the authors.
The first issue for me is whether there is such a disease at
all. The symptoms displayed by children
that lead to these diagnoses and the corresponding cures seem natural responses
to social conditions. Most of these
syndromes we hear about on TV now for which there is a corresponding cure in
the form of a drug are simply natural physical and emotional responses to the
degenerating objective conditions we find ourselves in, societal decay and lack
of control over our lives. One doctor friend once told me she was called by a patient
who claimed she had a syndrome/disease the doctor had never heard of. Her patient had heard about it on TV and was
told, as the ads always tell you, to “call
her doctor “ and ask if the advertised drug is, “right for you
The same with depression.
While I am sure there are real physical/mental imbalances that can lead
to depression, it seems it is a natural response to the world around us. Surely we have an abundance of reasons to be
depressed. The fierce competition for work; fear and anxiety caused by economic
insecurity; social isolation; the trauma of war, racism, sexism and all forms
of inequality all contribute to the increasing levels of stress in America
undermining the mental welfare of all working people. The message of the corporations
and the rich is for everyone to take care of themselves and to treat our
problems by buying pharmaceuticals.
This is compounded by the mass media that is designed to
demoralize and encourage a feeling of helplessness and that everyone is out to
get us. The general bent of mass propaganda tells us there is nothing we can do
to change things, we are powerless. There is nothing more demoralizing than
victimhood. And there is nothing more
liberating than fighting back, refusing to be just a victim of history but participating
in the making of some of it.
For the sickness industry the pill is a good business
decision. Health care in America is no
different than any other business; maximizing profits comes first. Here are
some thoughts on an alternative to the business model of caring for human
health and welfare.
A Socialist
Alternative for Universal Healthcare*
End Poverty
*Decent housing, food, and jobs for all
* A $20 an hour minimum wage and a 32 -hour working week
with no loss in pay for all
*All workers to have paid sick time
End Private profiting from healthcare
* One single health collective with publicly owned hospital
and pharmaceutical industries that are under the democratic management of
healthcare employees, patients and the communities they serve
Free accessible quality healthcare for
all
* Fully staffed clinics providing no charge, basic health
care in every neighborhood
Free Comprehensive health benefits with an emphasis on
preventative care:
* Vision care, dental and hearing aids . Women’s health care
including birth
control, morning after pill, and abortion on demand .
Alternative therapies with
proven medical benefit such as acupuncture and chiropractic
care . Mental
health care with emphasis on counseling, not just
prescribing pills
Take the profit out of medical research
* Create a publicly owned, democratically controlled
organization to do medical
research, widening and democratizing the current role of the
National Institute for
Health . The direction of medical research to be made by
elected councils of
researchers, health care employees, and community members
Unite and Empower Healthcare Workers
* Create an
industry-wide union of healthcare workers to include every worker
in a hospital from the janitor to the surgeon . Improve
working conditions for
healthcare workers: wages, shift lengths, nurse-to-patient
ratios . Free medical
education: Nurses, technicians and doctors to serve the
public without decades of
debt .
* Build an independent political party based on workers, our
workplace and community organizations and the youth as a mass political
alternative that can break the dictatorship the two capitalist parties have
over political life.
These are just some thoughts. But what do I know? I don’t have a certificate from the state that
qualifies me to have an opinion on such matters like the experts that work for
big Pharma and I don’t have a white coat.
* From Facts For Working People March 2007
