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(NaturalHealth365) It turns out talk is expensive and psychiatrists can’t afford to listen to their patients problems. Many of the nation’s psychiatrists, because of insurance will no longer provide talk therapy. The form of psychiatry popularized by Sigmund Freud and was the corner stone of therapy has just been marginalized. Instead a prescription pad is used to alleviate all that ails the patients. After a brief consultation with each patient, medication is prescribed and the patient is sent on their way.
More Drugs
Medicine is rapidly changing from a caring personal experience to one dominated by large hospital groups, and pharmaceutical interests. The doctor patient interaction is a key component to psychiatry, with that loss it has become a drug mill.
When Dr. Levin, 68, was trained as a traditional psychiatrist at Michael Reese Hospital a Chicago medical center that is now closed, talk therapy was the standard of treatment. He treated 50 to 60 patients in once-or–twice weekly talk therapy sessions that lasted 45 minutes each. Now, like most of the profession he treats 1,200 people in mostly 15-minute visits for prescription adjustments. At one time he knew his patients’ inner lives, now he usually can’t remember their names.
At one time his goal was to help his patients become happy and fulfilled, at this time it is to keep them functional. Dr. Levin has found the transition difficult. Now he resists helping patients manage their lives. A direct quote: “I had to train myself not to get too interested in their problems.” Also, he said: “and not to get sidetracked trying to be a semi-therapist.”
Brief consultations are now common, said Dr .Steven S. Sharfstein, a former president of the American Psychiatric Association and the president and chief executive of Sheppard Pratt Health System, Maryland’s largest behavior health system. Dr. Steven S. Sharfstein telling words: “They check up on people; they pull out the prescription pad; they order tests.
There are no more couches in psychiatrist offices, there is no time or space for patients to lie down or talk.
The switch from talk therapy to medications has changed psychiatry forever. A 2005 government survey found that just 11 percent of psychiatrists provided talk therapy to all patients, and the rate is falling. Psychiatric hospitals, which once offered patients’ months of talk therapy now, discharge them within days with bottles of pills.
Recent studies point to the fact that talk therapy may be as good as or better than drugs in the treatment of depression. Insurance company reimbursement rates and policies are part of the reason. A psychiatrist can earn $150 for three 15-minute visits compared with $90 for a 45-minute talk session.
In 2009, the median annual income for psychiatrists was $191,000 according to surveys by a medical trade group. Dr. Levin’s wife said: “This is about volume” and if we spend two minutes extra or five minutes with every one of 40 patients a day, that means we’re here two hours longer every day. And we just can’t do it.”
Today, psychiatry is about volume, as we become a nation of factory medicine, we will short change the patient, and fill the pockets of the pharmaceutical industry executives. The most profitable area of drug sales is psychotropic drugs. Mood altering drugs aimed at brain chemistry such as anti-depressants, stimulants, anti-anxiety and anti-psychotic drugs exceeded $82 billion a year in 2003. The new generations of anti-psychotic drugs are drugs that have been either settled recently for causing harm or are under investigation for health care fraudulent claims.
The truth is the profession of psychiatry has been co-opted by the legal drug cartels.
About the author Blanche has been a student of natural healing modalities for the last 25 years. She had the privilege of working with some of the greatest minds in Natural Healing including Naturopaths, Scientist, and Energy Healers. Having seen people miraculously heal from all kinds of dis-ease through non-invasive methods, her passion now is to help people become aware of what it takes to be healthy.
