First of
all thank you for inviting me to write something- I will make my contribution a
regular one and I will reflect upon aspects of treatment refractory depression
or psychopharmacology.
While this
blog site has been started to help people who will be abandoned by the
unilateral decision of the Avon and Wiltshire
Partnership NHS Trust not to support our twenty-two year old psychopharmacology
clinic, I will make no direct comments about it. I am still trying to find
alternative solutions and a polemical approach may distress potential ‘white
knights’.
As we
approach a long bank holiday week-end for Her Majesty’s diamond jubilee, I
thought I would post my first blog for this site. People around the country are
preparing for a ‘fun break’. I am also aware that this could be one of the
worst times for people with severe and chronic depression. The inability to
feel alive, described by someone recently as ‘being like a piece of furniture
that is capable of breathing and excreting’ can become even more painful when
others expect the ’normal’ range of emotional reactivity. I know many of you
will be either steer clear of contacts or put on a ‘brave face’ and feel
exhausted afterwards.
I have
worked in this field for about 25 years and what is clear to me is that the
‘local’ problem is the product of generic misinformation and misunderstanding
complicated by the peculiarities of the modern NHS. So while I have seen some
progress in the treatment of chronic and severe depression/anxiety or of disorders
of sleep/wakefulness in other countries, the situation has become even worse in
England;
GPs report great difficulty in getting help from secondary care for these
disorders. This gap is compounded by ‘therapeutic nihilism’ whereby even the
secondary services who take on people with these conditions soon say that
‘nothing else’ can be done.
I went to
see Bob Geldof perform with the ‘new Boomtownrats’ at St
George’s in Bristol
on Tuesday night. It was great and it
made me reflect upon the fact that nobody has taken on the illness of
depression as being something worth shouting about and getting money for in spite the fact that when
severe and or chronic it has enormous impact on people’s lives. I have many
explanation for this which can be grouped into
the nature of the illness,
what the public thinks of depression
how people and relatives feel when they have
this illness
perceptions about treatments and
outcomes.
Next blog
is going to explore these; in the meantime contribute, if you can, by
commenting on the above. If you want to read something else relevant go to http://www.colorsmagazine.com/stories/magazine/83/story/switch-on-your-brightest-smile I am sure that you will identify easily with
it.
Keep up the fight
andrea malizia
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