HLTHAGE 1CC3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 12: Disease Mongering, Miracle Drug, Imipramine
Document Summary
Lecture 12: the psychopharmaceutic revolution- past and present. Chlorpromazine: laborit discovers- chemical lobotomy"- psychiatry"s penicillin"; antibiotic that revolutionized medicine psychiatric equivalent. End to massive institutions; people became easier to manage; people questioned if people should even need to be in mental hospitals at all. End of therapeutic nihilism; once a person was diagnosed that was it its just going to get worse with nothing to be done. Start of medical model dominance: he tries chemical compound- turns out not very good as anaesthetic, gives it to psychiatrists, they start whispering about miracle drug- overnight they were talking about laborit, early 1950"s. Better living through chemistry: explosion of curiosity in biology of mental illness in 1950s. Industry and pharmacies could not keep up with demand. Miltown is minor tranquillizer: huge hit with average man/woman. Many people had prescriptions for this drug.