Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy said mental illness may be best treated using "faith-based approaches" as opposed to pharmaceuticals.

He gets so close-

Violent crime has risen over precisely the period we have shuttered these psychiatric institutions. And you know what? The number one psychiatric institution today is jail. It’s prison. And they don’t do a very good job. And now you then get the calls to clear the jails or to have commuting of sentences or shortening of sentences. People leave those jails in a worse psychiatric condition, often, than when they even entered.

Yes! Yes!

We can do this again learning from past mistakes without those abuses. I don’t think I want to be pumping psychiatric institutions with pharmaceuticals into people.

Seems reasonable.

Faith-based approaches – there are better ways to do this.

Oh for fuck’s sake.

And, of course, the ironic thing is that Ramaswamy is a pharma bro.

    • Flying SquidOP
      12•1 year ago

      Yes, the ‘community approach’ will definitely treat schizophrenia better than drugs. For sure.

        • Flying SquidOP
          11•1 year ago

          Well I could give you the entire DSMV instead, but I thought one example would make my point quite well.

          Please provide evidence that “most” mental illness is not severe enough for medication. Is this based on your professional medical opinion?

            • Flying SquidOP
              5•1 year ago

              How is that in any way relevant to the claim that “most” mental illnesses are not severe enough for medication? You seem to be confusing “most mental illnesses” with “most people diagnosed with one type of mental illness.” And even if it is the latter, what is the evidence that medication doesn’t treat it?

                • Flying SquidOP
                  5•1 year ago

                  What I consider it? No, what psychiatrists consider it. That’s why the DSMV exists. You know what that is, right?

            • @OneOrTheOtherDontAskMe
              4•1 year ago

              Most common? Most likely depression or attention based disorders. Most common treatment? Evaluation of physical health factors, recommendation of increased exercise, change in diet, and social structure is usually the first step. If those challenges are daunting or already addressed, then medication management comes into play. If they can’t confirm a specific deficit in your hormones, they usually start very low on the medication scale and then begin turning it up after seeing how the patient adjusts. Unless it’s ADHD meds, in which case there’s so much of a shortage they’ll STILL tell you to try all the other things first at least one more time because they can’t order you the pills anyway.

              I’d back my argument up with a source or two if you wanted it, but it didn’t seem like that was your vibe in the other comments. “Community based” approaches like getting people outside more, to see other people in person if they can so they can get some socialization, engaging them within their community so they can feel apart of something, those are all very good and awesome ideas that have legitimate backing from the scientific community to reduce the symptoms of the most commonly diagnosed disorders.

              But you know what makes engaging in my local community easier? 5mg of D-Amphetamine for me, so I can keep my squirrel brain in check long enough to say going outside is my plan and that I want to tolerate hearing other people talk around me while I’m trying to think. For some, the added protection of an anti-depressant that stops them from reaching the same “basement” of emotion, keeping them baseline long enough to do their job, get the groceries, and sign a kid’s report card until they’ve gotten themselves into a routine that doesn’t lead to as many drops.

              Sure, some things are societal, but a very good portion of it is chemical and denying it would be silly. Now, WHY there is a rising number of diagnoses compared to previous generations? My first assumption is stigma, more people are just being honest or feeling more comfortable sharing. But there’s also the factor of microplastics, pollution factors, unregulated food industry, etc. that play a large role.