Don’t Always Believe What You’re Told – Even When it’s Reported in the New York Times
And don’t always believe what you read in the paper – not even in the venerated New York Times.
According to a recently aired, soul wrenching documentary, entitled “The Lobotomist”, The New York Times once hailed pre-frontal lobotomy as “surgery of the soul”. This was a period of time when the medical establishment viewed severing the frontal lobe of the brain from the thalamus as a groundbreaking treatment for those with agitated depression, dementia, psychosis and other problematic symptoms.
As with many things that turn sour, Dr. Walter Freeman, who became a celebrity physician due to his miracle cure, started operating with good intentions. With no treatments to calm agitated patients in state hospitals, lobotomies promised hope to those who were most distressed. And the operation did indeed help alleviate their distress.
But at what cost?
That’s the question we must always ask ourselves when advocating new medical treatments – particularly those that are irreversible or may have negative effects on our brain chemistry that may not be revealed till years later.
Though nobody today advocates for prefrontal lobotomy, it’s important to remember that at its prime, it was hailed as a great advance.
Its reputation was so exalted that in 1941, the parents of JFK took their mildly retarded 23-year-old daughter to Dr. Freeman for a lobotomy that would “calm her mood swings”. The results were devastating. A spirited, rebellious young woman became so mentally incapacitated that she required institutionalization for the rest of her life.
Did that tragedy create an end to the procedure? Not at all. It wasn’t until 26 years later that prefrontal lobotomies were jettisoned. The primary reason: the beginnings of psychotropic drugs to treat emotional distress.
If you think that the story of prefrontal lobotomy is an anomaly, you would be mistaken. Numerous medical procedures and medications originally hailed as “miraculous” were vilified years later.
Two examples:
When heroin was first brought to market in 1898, it was considered to be a miraculous cure for morphine addiction. Over time, it also came to be seen as a drug for treating other ailments, such as coughs, bronchitis, asthma, and tuberculosis. For more than 14 years, heroin’s sedative qualities were promoted while its addictive qualities were downplayed.
A similar story is true for cocaine which had its own celebrity physician advocating it. None other than Sigmund Freud was a frequent cocaine user, believing it to be a wonder cure for neurotic symptoms – including his own.
So, what’s a person to do? Be a disbeliever in medicine and medication? Absolutely not! Yet, developing a healthy dose of skepticism and sound judgment is a good idea. Here’s why:
Many medications, which may be helpful for one ailment or one segment of the population, are quickly prescribed for other ailments and other populations without sufficient testing.
Here are a few current examples:
Statins are routinely prescribed not only for those who have heart disease but also for those whose cholesterol numbers are high, yet show no sign of heart disease. Research, recently reported in Business Week, suggests that this is overkill. Side effects of statins are minimized while efficacy is blown out of proportion.
Gastric bypass surgery is now being talked about as a radical procedure not only for the morbidly obese but also as one that could be promoted as a treatment for the obese who are at risk for developing diabetes.
Six million children in this country are being treated with psychotropic medication despite the fact that no research studies have been done on the long term side effects for children who use these drugs.
And perhaps, what’s most disturbing of all is our increasing reliance on medication and operations to treat behavioral and emotional issues. What ever happened to the idea of putting in effort (with and without professional help) to gain control over harmful habits, noxious behaviors, over-the-top emotions and basic sleeping, eating and exercise patterns?
Copyright 2008
Linda Sapadin, Ph.D. is a psychologist in private practice who specializes in helping people enrich their lives, enhance their relationships and overcome self-defeating patterns of behavior. For more information about her work, contact her at lsapadin@drsapadin.com or visit her website at http://www.psychwisdom.com/
LINDA SAPADIN, PH.D.
Dr. Sapadin is a clinical psychologist, author, columnist, educator and motivational speaker. Her expertise is teaching people how to master debilitating fear, anxiety, procrastination and other self-defeating patterns of behavior. She also specializes in enriching relationships and enhancing self-confidence.
PUBLICATIONS
Now I Get It! Totally Sensational Advice for Living and Loving (Outskirts Press, 2007)
Master Your Fears: How to Triumph Over Your Worries and Get On With Your Life (John Wiley & Sons, 2004). (Also published in Korean and French)
Beat Procrastination and Make the Grade: The Six Styles of Procrastination and How STUDENTS can Overcome Them (Penguin, 1999).
It’s About Time! The Six Styles of Procrastination and How to Overcome Them (Penguin, 1996). Also published in Japanese.
MEDIA EXPERIENCE
Today Show, Good Morning America, Fox Morning News, National Public Radio, the Voice of America, Good Day New York, The New York Times, USA Today, Newsday, The Washington Post.
About the Author
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