Psychotropic drugs cannot alleviate symptoms of mental disorders, say researchers

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Sep 12 2016

Drugs don't lead to sustainable alleviation of mental disorders, as the psychologists Prof Dr Jürgen Margraf and Prof Dr Silvia Schneider claim in a commentary published in "EMBO Molecular Medicine". The researchers from Ruhr-Universität Bochum have compiled numerous studies that question the long-term effectiveness of psychotropic drugs; some even document negative effects after prolonged application. Psychotherapies, on the other hand, are effective in the long-term. The authors postulate that it is necessary to interlink the research into the biological, psychological and social factors, rather than reduce mental diseases to biological causes alone.

The currently available drugs cannot permanently alleviate the symptoms of mental disorders. This is the conclusion drawn by psychologists Prof Dr Jürgen Margraf and Prof Dr Silvia Schneider from Ruhr-Universität Bochum in a commentary published in the journal "EMBO Molecular Medicine".

Effect of drugs are only short-lived

Margraf and Schneider have compiled ample evidence suggesting that anti-depressant, anti-anxiety and anti-ADHD drugs have only a short-term effect; if patients discontinue treatment, their symptoms return. The authors suspect that medication for the treatment of schizophrenia would yield similar results.

Long-term application of the drugs might even have a negative effect, for example increased risk of a chronic illness or higher relapse quota.

Psychotherapies are not available for many patients

According to the authors, psychotherapies such as cognitive behavioural therapy yield much better and more sustainable results in the long-term. "The main problem with psychotherapy is not its effectiveness or costs," says Silvia Schneider. "Rather, it is its insufficient availability." While psychotropic drugs can be applied straight away, patients often have to wait a long time for their first appointment with a therapist.

Biological concepts are insufficient

In their article, the psychologists from Bochum also discuss the question why better therapies are still non-existent, despite 60 years of dedicated research. According to their opinion, one reason might be the ill-advised notion that mental disorders can be explained by biological concepts alone.

"Today, it has become standard to tell the patients and the public that mental disorders are caused by an imbalance in the neurotransmitter system," elaborates Jürgen Margraf. However, it is not yet clear if that phenomenon is the cause or the effect of the diseases. Social factors should not be neglected. According to Schneider and Margraf, the rigid categories of "ill" and "healthy" are not helpful at all with regard to mental disorders, which manifest in many different forms.

Fewer psychotropic drugs, more psychotherapy

The authors postulate that it is necessary to link research into the biological, psychological and social factors and to broaden the narrow view of possible biological causes. Large pharmaceutical companies should reduce the marketing of psychotropic drugs. Moreover, patients should be given access to psychotherapeutic services more quickly.

Source:

Ruhr-Universitaet-Bochum

Posted in: Medical Research News | Medical Condition News | Pharmaceutical News

Tags: Anxiety, Chronic, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, Drugs, Medicine, Mental Health, Pharmaceuticals, Psychotherapy, Research, Schizophrenia

Comments (14)

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Been taking bipolar meds for years. When I try to stop I get very ill and

Doctor Nitro says:

September 13, 2016 at 8:40 AM

Been taking bipolar meds for years. When I try to stop I get very ill and usually end up detained or hospitalized against my will. I still hate taking them, always found them to be suspicious.

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- My reply to you and to this article is: would you stop taking insulin if
  
  Robin Rosenberg Wernick says:
  
  September 21, 2016 at 3:22 PM
  
  My reply to you and to this article is: would you stop taking insulin if you had diabetes? do you think your symptoms would return if you stopped taking your insulin? Might you feel very sick and get worse without it?
  
  My issue with this article is that it is clearly written by researchers who have not lived with mental health disorders themselves or with family members who have mental health disorders. I have lived with both, and it is clear to me that for certain mental health disorders, medication is necessary for
  1) survival, and
  2) effective functioning.
  
  I will be happy to explain further if interested.
  
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I would like to see the peer review this study and see it replicated before

Charles Donaldson says:

September 13, 2016 at 10:47 AM

I would like to see the peer review this study and see it replicated before drawing hard conclusions. As for mental disorders this article does not differentiate enough and over generalizes. Without drugs and blood test monitoring persons with bipolar disorders would not be able function in various types of therapies. Same with schizophrenic patients. I would agree that from my limited experience that those who are under both psychiatric and psychological supervision do the best. That suggest the statement, "necessary to interlink the research into the biological, psychological and social factors, rather than reduce mental diseases to biological causes alone" is true and is already known in the community.

Part of the problem is that it easier to prescribe a pill than for the patient to got to weekly therapy sessions even if these sessions are readily available.

Also, the study does not deal with the severity of the illness. An elderly patient who shows some signs of depression often is helped with a prescription since traditional talk therapy is difficult to arrange or be accepted by the patient. When the sleep pattern is restored and person becomes more active during the day, the patient does better. This is the place that the caregivers and family members can help the doctor to adjust the prescription.
necessary to interlink the research into the biological, psychological and social factors, rather than reduce mental diseases to biological causes alone" is really commonsense but the reality as shown in the article is that the availability of a psychologist or other therapist requires long wait for appointment.
"...

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Is talking about access in Germany not United States

Oliver Lu says:

September 13, 2016 at 2:45 PM

"The main problem with psychotherapy is not its effectiveness or costs," says Silvia Schneider. "Rather, it is its insufficient availability." While psychotropic drugs can be applied straight away, patients often have to wait a long time for their first appointment with a therapist."

This is true of the system in Europe, generally speaking, in the U.S. the problem for most people is affordability (in my experience).

(But I agree otherwise that the drugs just cover up the symptoms and aren't a great long-term solution, although many people believe they can't do without them).

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- Please see my reply to Doctor Nitro. People with severe and persistent
  
  Robin Rosenberg Wernick says:
  
  September 21, 2016 at 3:24 PM
  
  Please see my reply to Doctor Nitro.
  
  People with severe and persistent mental health disorders cannot utilize psychotherapy until they have been stabilized with medication. At that point they are thinking rationally and their symptoms have been alleviated. They can then use other strategies just as well as anyone else.
  
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  - That's quite the assertion
    
    Doug Balz says:
    
    October 4, 2016 at 6:11 PM
    
    You are making an assertion that has no bearing in evidence. That is an industrial more, not a medical fact.
    
    There are many therapists who do not use drugs at all and many patients who have recovered without needing to be sedated by brain disruptive medication.
    
    Dr. Peter Gotzche of the University of Copenhagen released a comprehensive meta study of the effectiveness of psych meds and concluded that beyond acute intervention, with a withdrawal plan to limit withdrawal symptoms, including withdrawal psychosis (which is often blamed on the "disease"), these drugs are far more harmful than helpful.
    
    The insulin analogy does not hold. It can be demonstrated via empirical medical testing that somebody's pancreas does not produce insulin.
    
    There is no reliable bio marker for any current mental illness, but rather a vague definition of certain behavioural clusters that are then termed illnesses.
    
    It is quite informative that the National Institute of Mental Health in the US has stopped funding the APA and DSM criteria because they have no medical relevance whatsoever.
    
    This goes without getting into detail of the admission of almost thirty years of misleading the public about the chemical imbalance myth. It has since been discovered that this myth was developed for two reasons: compliance and marketing.
    
    Further, if this model was effective, the incidences of diagnoses would be expected to taper off at some point and out of the 300 odd diagnoses, at least one would expected to have been cured by now if there was a biomedical cause. This has not happened.
    
    I could go on about the fraud convictions that have befallen pharmaceutical companies and psychiatrists world wide, the fact that homocide and suicide are documented side effects of many SSRIs and Benzodiazapenes, the role of regional trends in diagnostics and the admitted problems with relying on clinical subjectivity without any mechanism for bias correction.
    
    In short the biomedical model of human behaviour is a bunch of horseshit, regardless of how embedded it is in society or the comfort it provides some to think that their behavioural and coping issues are caused in the same way as the flu.
    
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So the study says that meds don't work because if people stop taking them

Gabe Castillo says:

September 13, 2016 at 3:30 PM

So the study says that meds don't work because if people stop taking them their symptoms return?

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- Exactly! Kind of like if you stop taking your asthma medication you have
  
  Robin Rosenberg Wernick says:
  
  September 21, 2016 at 3:26 PM
  
  Exactly! Kind of like if you stop taking your asthma medication you have more difficulty breathing.
  
  But that doesn't mean psychotherapy will do a better job of helping you breathe.
  
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Wow. You are drawing very hard conclusions. Everyone has different

Taylor F says:

September 13, 2016 at 4:26 PM

Wow. You are drawing very hard conclusions. Everyone has different experiences, illnesses and reactions to drugs. Shame on this article.

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Proof Psychiatry is a fraud

Mike Knife says:

September 13, 2016 at 9:02 PM

This news is proof that psych meds are a fraud that kills people while making money off of suckers who buy into their lies.

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- Actually, this article is proof that psychotropic medication works when
  
  Robin Rosenberg Wernick says:
  
  September 21, 2016 at 3:28 PM
  
  Actually, this article is proof that psychotropic medication works when taken as prescribed, and that stopping your medication makes you sick.
  
  I have seen evidence of this.
  
  Do not believe anyone who says psychotropic meds are a fraud. I have two family members who would be dead now if they did not have their medication.
  
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Really?

Stacey Weeaks says:

September 14, 2016 at 5:52 AM

A large part of the problem with medications is compliance. When a drug is prescribed and it is either misused or not used at all, the results of a study like this are incorrect.

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Los psicofármacos son necesarios para mejorar la calidad de vida de las

GIL ANGEL CALERO says:

September 23, 2016 at 3:44 AM

Los psicofármacos son necesarios para mejorar la calidad de vida de las personas con enfermedades mentales, otro asunto es que la terapia psicológica también sea favorable en la mayoría de los casos.

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A psychological mess!

nushi says:

June 23, 2019 at 9:07 AM

This article exactly reflects my own experience with mental health problems, medication, & psychotherapy. But unfortunately, I've been taking useless psychotropic medication for 18 years, & I'm stuck with them, because when I stop them, my problems increase to disfunctioning degrees, or perhaps that's just the placebo effect! Also, I get intensive long nausea for months if I stop the drugs!
We live in a capitalist system that seeks increasing quick financial profits, & an irrationally rationalized scientific industry that reduces the explanation of phenomena to what may be quantifiable, materialized, & financially exploited (biological-chemical neuro-transmitters that pharmaceutical corporations profit billions to convince us that fixing them is the solution!). And of course, scientific research that promotes this reductionist explanation of mental health problems in our societies are funded by grants from these pharmaceutical profit-seeking corporations!

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