"Power tends to corrupt and absolute power corrupts absolutely." Lord Acton (1834 - 1902)
Introduction
There is a big battle going on over universal healthcare. The Republicans claim that this is
"socialized medicine". As usual anything designed to help the poor is called "socialism". However,
these same Republicans don't call the public schools "socialized schools" or the public libraries
"socialized libraries". Public schools give free education to all kids. Public libraries lend books for
free to everybody.
All of this does not mean that there will be no problems with universal healthcare. The drug
companies may not like it because they may no longer be able to gauge people with absurdly high
prices. Some doctors may not like it because they may not be able to charge as much. However,
there are very serious problems with our current system. Hospitals have been closing. Nursing
homes have been going out of business.
Elderly people can't afford dental care. The poor can't afford dental care. Medicare doesn't
cover it.
Mental Healthcare
There are disastrous problems in mental healthcare. Many people are homeless, often with
substance abuse. Many people who probably should be in state hospitals are on the streets. But what
are the answers? Do they cost more money, or less? The answer may be less. Orthomolecular
treatment is cheaper, safer, and more logical than xenobiotic treatment (drugs).
Drugs
"Similarly, it is unclear whether the neuropathological features relate primarily to the therapeutic
gear pump manufacturers action of antipsychotics or, more likely, to their predisposition to cause
tardive dyskinesia and other motor side-effects."
Harrison PJ.
University Department of Psychiatry, Warneford Hospital, Oxford, UK. paul.harrison@psych.ox.ac.uk
The quote is from Ref. 1. It seems that these drugs cause neuropathology. This has been shown
in studies with rats. This makes neuropathology studies of patients more difficult. One way to get
around this is to look at old neuropathology studies of patients before the drugs were invented.
Harrison himself, an Oxford scientist, did a little of this in Ref. 2. However, most of the studies he
reviewed in Ref. 2 were done after the advent metropolitan water reclamation district of psychiatric
drugs. Neuroleptic drugs came out in 1952. The first one was Thorazine.
One such study is Ref. 3 where Southard, a Harvard scientist, reported "lesions and anomalies"
in "dementia praecox", which is what schizophrenia was called at the time. These abnormalities were
7. Averback P. Lesions of the nucleus ansae peduncularis in neuropsychiatric disease. Arch Neurol
1981; 38: 230EUR"5.
8. Mettler FA: Anatomy of the basal ganglia, in Vinken PJ, Bruyn GW (eds): Handbook of Clinical
Neurology. Amsterdam, North Holland Publishing Co, 1968, pp 1-55.