Pretty soon we may be medicating our way out of behavioural problems. The Times reports that science believes a pill may be just what the doctor ordered.
"Men and women who spend hours gambling may be medically unwell rather than simply indulging in bad habits; at least that’s what the Centre for Addiction in Toronto, Canada, is telling us. It has just started recruiting one-armed-bandit addicts for a clinical trial of a new drug to cure gambling.
"Gambling is one of scores of behaviours, traits and habits that are being regarded as treatable illnesses. Soon you’ll be able to cure your worst habits with a pill. Road rage, kleptomania, sex addiction, drinking, teenage tantrums and domestic violence are all being treated with drugs. And more could be in the pipeline, with new trials designed to define the symptoms of workaholism and acute boredom.
"With more than 1,000 trials under way worldwide on therapies for behavioural problems, there is growing concern about this process of “medicalisation”. Dr Derek Summerfield, a psychiatrist, writing in the British Medical Journal, has questioned the numbers of people being treated for such traits. Post-traumatic stress disorder, he says, exemplifies a growing obsession with turning emotions into conditions.
“'Originally framed as applying only to extreme experiences, it has come to be associated with commonplace events: accidents, muggings, a difficult childbirth, verbal sexual harassment,’' he says. 'Once it becomes advantageous to frame distress as a psychiatric condition people will choose to present themselves as medicalised victims rather than as feisty survivors.' There are also concerns that prescribing drugs for unacceptable activities gives disease status to simple bad behaviour. Others argue that if medication works, and can change lives for the better, it should be tried, and that any approaches that stop domestic violence, gambling and road rage are welcome. A number of studies have found that the impulsive aggression may have a link with serotonin levels in the brain and that antidepressants therefore may have some effect.
“Recent studies have shown that fluoxetine — a drug commonly used to treat depression and panic disorder — can decrease acts of aggression,” say the researchers carrying out the domestic violence trial.
"As the gambling pill trial gets under way in Canada, results from an earlier pilot study indicate that most of those taking part are going into remission. But the message for problem gamblers is that though it’s possible that the drug will be a cure, please don’t bet on it."
No comments:
Post a Comment