Medicating the mentally ill is humanistic - letters to the editor

Humanist, Nov-Dec, 2003 by Carl N. Brownsberger

I found problematic Heidi Lypps' column "Better Justice Through Chemistry," published in the September/October 2003 issue of the Humanist, about the Sell decision in which the U.S. Supreme Court limited the government's power to involuntarily medicate a mentally ill defendant. Lypps' account says much that is fair and valid but this is diminished by her apparent belief that the dangers and discomforts of antipsychotic medications are generally worse than being mentally ill. From my observations in over forty years of caring for psychiatric patients, I would say that is simply contrary to fact.

Real mental illness is a cruel disease. To think of it as "cognitive liberty" is like thinking of oxygen for a pneumonia patient as an abrogation of his or her right to breathe for him or herself. It should be obvious that any decision to force treatment on someone is a grave responsibility but coerced treatment isn't always wrong. I am aware of several young people dying unnecessarily in hospital emergency rooms while bleeding from stab wounds. Frightened and angry, they were refused treatment and their civil rights were being carefully considered. In all cases common sense and kindness should prevail.

Carl N. Brownsberger, M.D.

Watertown, MA