Cuba and psychiatry
Rachel Evans' rejection of drug therapy (Write On, GLW #640) is akin to blaming all industrial technology for ecological destruction. The most enlightened country, Cuba, uses psychiatric drugs such as the generic version of Prozac (fluoxetine) and risperidone, as a key part of a rounded treatment strategy that is the envy of the First World.
Cuba does not throw out the baby with the bathwater in other respects. It uses community-based psychiatry, not as a cost-saver like in Australia, but with the resources to fulfil its inherent usefulness in rehabilitating the mentally ill. Cuba also uses electro-convulsive therapy, like elsewhere, but in its correct place and proportion.
Alongside these traditional methods, Havana Psychiatric Hospital has pioneered the use of ballet therapy. The devotion of Cuba to mental health is long-standing. Shortly after liberating Havana in January 1959 the July 26 Movement leadership charged guerrilla leader Dr Eduardo Ducunge to transform Havana Psychiatric Hospital into the world-class facility it is today. Dr Ducunge continues to head it.
The answer to capitalism's abuse of those psychiatric drugs proven to be useful is to eradicate the profit-motive — not the drug.
Iggy Kim
Marrickville, NSW
Selling Sickness
Phil Shannon reviews Selling Sickness: How Drug Companies are Turning Us All into Patients in "Corporate power threatening our health" (GLW #641) but fails to take a critical approach to the claims made by the authors.
The reviewer repeats the authors' statement that nine of the 11 members of the panel that lowered the threshold for blood pressures deemed hypertensive had financial links with pharmaceutical companies, with the implication of a conflict of interest. However, no evidence is presented that recommendations were substantively affected because of these links.
Hypertension is a very real risk factor for heart disease and even modest reductions in high blood pressure are beneficial. In fact, an increase of 10mmHg in systolic blood pressure over the normal rate increases risk of death from cardiovascular disease as much as 40-60% (F. Thomas, K. Bean, L. Guize, S. Quentzel, P. Argyriadis and A. Benetos (2005). Combined effects of systolic blood pressure and serum cholesterol on cardiovascular mortality in under 55 year-old men and women. European Heart Journal, 23, 528 535).
The authors also make much of the prescription of psychiatric drugs. Although there is a case to be made for the overprescription of Ritalin, for example, it has documented benefits for children with genuine ADHD. If ADHD is too readily diagnosed in children, that is an issue with the training of medical health professionals.
I am no fan of pharmaceuticals corporations and their never-ending quest for increasing the bottom line. Many genuinely greedy practices are pointed out. However, Moynihan and Cassels seem to employ the same scaremongering and sensationalism they decry, including the demonisation of psychiatry - something already amply and unjustly demonised by America's foremost authority on psychiatry, Tom Cruise.
Zlatko Spralja
Kingsford, NSW
Vietnam
Eva Cheng's article about Vietnam 60 years after their successful liberation struggle (GLW #642) was somewhat ironic. She says the visitors at the international conference last week applauded Vietnam for its economic growth over the past 10 years, without saying that the growth was bought at the expense of a headlong drive away from socialism.
For the past 20 years Vietnam has systematically dismantled its socialist system and put in its place a market system, opening the economy to every multinational corporation looking to make a few bucks. The government is hellbent on joining the WTO as quickly as possible and making vast changes to its economic and political system so it can fit in. Is Vietnam really on the road to building socialism or destroying it? All the meetings and speeches with solidarity groups can't change those facts.
Peter Toren
Bangkok, Thailand
Thought provoking
I love your articles on your website. Very thought provoking and so true. Well done, that's how the world should be organised.
Tony Livanios
Melbourne
Denis Kevans
The sudden death of the outstanding poet Dennis Kevans is a tragic loss to the Australian labour movement.
Dennis first started reciting his poems from the Communist Party platform in the Sydney Domain in 1961 and continued to make his services available whenever required. He spent a considerable time on the picket line at Port Botany in 1998, and also appeared on the platform giving heart and hope to the Maritime Union of Australia and their thousands of supporters.
From time to time his well-written letters appeared in 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly. Dennis dedicated, and devoted his life to the service of the labour movement. He was a comrade of the highest standard of integrity and decency and his literary work will continue to inspire all those who are concerned with the cause of social justice and socialism.
We can best honour his memory by making his writings known to a wider section of the Australian community.
Bernie Rosen
Strathfield, NSW
Asylum seekers
In the villages of Afghanistan many people are illiterate. They may not even have a surname, or know their birthday, and they may have little knowledge of world affairs, of politics. Now suppose a family tries to save a young son from being taken by the gangs. They pool all their resources and manage to send him on a dangerous journey, carrying all their hopes.
A young boy like this could be in his twenties now and still locked up in Australia's detention camp in Nauru.
How will he ever prove his identity, provide documentation, and explain the power struggles in his country that put his life in danger? Will Australia continue to keep such young people in detention? When is enough enough?
There are still 27 people held in the isolated camp on Nauru. They are too frightened to return to their countries, so we Australians hold them there for a fifth year while they lose their youth, hopes and sanity. It is time to close the Nauru camp and give them protection and a safe life in Australia.
Elaine Smith
Laurieton, NSW
Democracy
The prime minister should be congratulated for offering $5 million to promote model democracies. Perhaps he should start in Australia, where due to the political dictatorship resulting from his control of both houses of parliament, more than 50% of Australians (based on electoral figures from 2004) have no effective political voice. Introduction of the New Zealand system of democracy where proportional representation accounts for 50% of the seats would seem a far more democratic system than we have in Oz.
Dr Colin Hughes
Glen Forrest, WA
Scott Parkin
I write to express my concerns that I may be debarred from re-entering Australia given the appalling treatment meted out to US citizen and peace activist Scott Parkin.
My background is similar to his although I have a more extensive history of arrests for peaceful anti-war and East Timor protests. Am I to assume that, like Parker, I am considered to be a threat to Australia's national security? Will I be stopped from re-entering Australia and deported to the UK?
Chilean friends and I are appalled at what we may label "creeping Pinochetism" in Australia. I cannot believe that a man who espouses non-violent peaceful protest and was arrested once for dressing up as a tiger can conceivably be considered a threat to Australia s national security. I tell Chileans that I am a refugee from the repressive, anti-democratic and dictatorial policies of the Howard government. How ashamed of my country this whole farcical event makes me feel.
Gareth Smith
Byron Bay, NSW
From 91×ÔÅÄÂÛ̳ Weekly, September 21, 2005.
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