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Surfing at CNN

© Ian Chovil

In my last column I commented on how sites about schizophrenia had become much more sophisticated in their design. Since then I have found two more that really shine, both about medications and both sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. Anyone who knows even a little about schizophrenia will recognize these two medications, Seroquel, - http://www.seroquel.com/ - and Olanzapine - http://www.zyprexa.com/ - two of the new atypicals modeled after Clozapine. In fact the three molecules are almost identical, even though they are each quite unique medications.

While I was surfing I came across a series of links to CNN. The first is the sort of thing you wish the media covered more often - somebody coping as best they can with schizophrenia, - http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9810/15/schizo... .

Several were related to the violence people in a psychotic episode have become so strongly associated with. And there are a lot of dramatic news reports of people in a psychotic episode being very violent. CNN at least reports these news items with reference to the fact that these people need treatment, and wouldn't be violent if they were receiving appropriate treatment. Example number one - Russell Weston Jr. and the capitol hill murders - http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/9807/30/mental... - Example number two, Theodore Kaczynski the Una bomber - http://www.cnn.com/US/9801/20/unabomb.la...

It is the twentieth anniversary of John Lennon's death, again at the hands of someone with schizophrenia. George Harrison was recently attacked and stabbed by an intruder in his house, an intruder who was in a psychotic episode caused by untreated schizophrenia. Up here in Canada Prime Minister Chretien, our less then venerable leader, had an intruder who was disarmed before he could do any harm, and yes, he also had untreated schizophrenia. A couple of years ago a young woman in Toronto who was engaged to become married, was pushed in front of an oncoming subway train and killed by a total stranger, who had untreated schizophrenia.

Even in my home town, Guelph there is a legacy of a man with schizophrenia who stabbed his common law wife to death. His wife was very well known in Guelph because she started the first shelter for abused women, which is now named after her, and located next to a public park that is also named after her. She will never be forgotten in Guelph and neither will anyone forget the man who murdered her. It does not matter per se that these people had schizophrenia, so much as the critical fact that they were psychotic and not being treated for their illness. Otherwise you would never hear about them because murdering someone would be the farthest thing from their mind. Psychosis is not good for anybody's health, and it has become very treatable with the medications and treatment strategies that are available now. You have to respect the destructive power schizophrenia is capable of, to both the individual who suffers from it, and the general public they live among.