Are Psychoactive Drugs a Hoax?

It seems America is being ravished by the epidemic of mental illness. Those qualifying for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) has increased from 1 in 184 Americans in 1987 to 1 in 76 Americans in 2007. Mental illness is now the leading cause of disability in children over cerebral palsy and Down syndrome. A National Institute of Mental Health survey (NIMH) found that 46% of adults met criteria for having at least one mental illness at one time in their lives. Treatment today almost always means psychoactive drugs. Gone are the days when psychiatrists would actually talk to patients. The shift to prescribing drugs instead of talk therapy, which is now relegated to social workers and psychologists, correlates with the belief that mental illness is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain not the Freudian concept of unconscious conflict stemming from childhood. Psychiatrists diagnose patients based on their symptoms as assessed in the DSM, which provides diagnostic criteria for all mental illness and basically a justification for prescribing meds to treat these illnesses. And each year the DSM expands its boundaries for diagnosis so that more and more people will fall within categories of mental illness. Often patients are prescribed with a cocktail of drugs, one to offset the side effects of the next. But are these drugs effective? While it seems the positive studies are the only ones promulgated, there have been other studies that suggest psychoactive drugs have no more than an activated placebo effect, merely ineffective except for the side effects which may temporarily camouflage the symptoms. Some studies link these psychoactive drugs with shrinkage of the brain where the prefrontal cortex just shuts down. The symptoms are reduced but so is cognition. Because the cause effect relationship is still unclear when it comes to neurotransmitters and mental illness, it is difficult to assess the effectiveness of the drugs. In the meantime, the alignment of the pharmaceutical industry with the world of psychiatry ponders the intentions of our medical practitioners. Why are these drugs so encouraged when our malaise seems to be getting worse?