New Schizophrenia Research Saddens Me
I’m really getting disgusted with scientific research. I mean, I enjoy hearing about mind-blowing and even sometimes unnecessary and almost always dangerous developments as much as the next person (wow, has anyone else been keeping up with that new FOX show, Fringe? Walter is my hero), but usually only for entertainment purposes. You know, fiction. Science fiction.
When it comes right down to scientific and medical research here in the real world…well, I’m getting jaded. I guess I already am jaded.
I just read an article about how British researchers are using a ketamine (a drug that actually has legit medical uses, but is popular among club goers as “Special K”) to learn more about schizophrenia. Schizophrenia scares a lot of people, so more understanding of how if affects the brain, and possibly how doctors and patients can better manage it, is indeed a good thing.
The researchers chose to use Special K because it mimics symptoms of schizophrenia (which makes me wonder on earth clubbers would want to voluntarily bring on symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia is beyond me, but, whatever). As I was reading the article, I immediately wondered who the researchers used for this little experiment. Given the popularity of the drug, were people lined up around the block to take part?
No. The researchers used mice.
Now, this isn’t shocking to any of us. We humans have unfortunately been using and abusing animals in one way or another since the dawn of time. We do it for food, we do it for advancement, we do it to save lives. I know the reasons. I just keep munching my carrots and advocating for change.
Still, even though the article wasn’t shocking…it made me sadder than other similar research-related articles I’ve read. I don’t know why; it’s not that different. I guess it’s because I just kept thinking about the poor little mice. How scared they must have been to have giants looming over them with needles (or whatever tools scientists use - maybe they fed it to them in cheese). How terrifying it must have been for them to start feeling the effects of the drug. And, not just the effects of the drug, but schizophrenia-like symptoms:
[...] the team showed how the drug disrupted the same electrical brain wave patterns in rats that go haywire in humans with schizophrenia.
Good grief. It’s difficult enough for humans who actually have schizophrenia to learn about what’s going on with the illness - can you imagine how horrible it must have been for mice, who have no clue what’s going on other than something’s going “haywire”?
Does the success of mental health research rest on animal experiments?
POSTED IN: Mental Health Notes
1 opinion for New Schizophrenia Research Saddens Me
Jason
Dec 31, 2008 at 4:48 am
this article is heartlessly pointless. as one of your readers who could benefit from new research on this subject, i say to hell with the mice. i understand your moral code (in a healthy persons theory), and i promise that i dont torture dogs in my spare time. but, in all honesty, if testing on mice could help (or cure) these symptoms, i’d test the whole species to death. its unbearable, and unimaginable.. and if you knew what it was like in reality (with meds or without) you wouldnt be so sorry for the mice. and maybe your article would mention the PEOPLE it helps.
how about we see some articles on the advances in parkinsons, HIV, or Alzheimer’s that came from animal testing..
or maybe some of the documents from influenza testing that came from animals.. never had a flu shot alicia?
yea, right.
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