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-Short Attention Span Theater-
Depressed, moi? Why the French are driven to drugs
2003-11-08
This is just too funny to EFL too much.
Nearly one in four French people are on tranquillisers, antidepressants, antipsychotics or other mood-altering prescription drugs, according to an alarming report published yesterday.
Funny, I could have sworn the figure was higher!
It revealed that an average of 40% of men and women aged over 70 in France were routinely prescribed at least one of this class of dependence-creating drug, as well as some 4% of all children under nine.
And about 90% in the Quai d’Orsay.
"The French now consume between two and four times as many tranquillisers and anti-depressants as the British, Italians and Germans," one medical expert, Martine Perez, said in Le Figaro. "The problem is not new, but this underlines the fact that it is getting worse."
The country smells like an armpit, they pour sauce over all the food, the women are castrating, the men are jerks, the wine is overpriced, jihadis are infiltrating the country -- nope, nope, no reason for anti-depressants!
The French are avid consumers of pills and potions of all kinds, to the extent that the health minister, Jean-François Mattei, faced with a budget overrun of €6.1bn (£4.2bn), this summer listed some 900 so-called medicines (out of a total of 4,300 prescribed in France) that would no longer be reimbursed by the health service because they had "little or no recognisable medical effect".
Does that include all the "enlarge-your-manhood" pills?
They included such popular Gallic remedies as "bronchial lubricants" for the lungs, "hepatitic protectors" for the liver, "veinotonics" for the circulation and "choleretics" for the bile. Panoplies of medicines exist here for ailments that do not appear to exist anywhere else, such as la crise de foie (liver crisis).
Wonder if Dominic deVillepin takes pills for ’prétendu être homme’ (being alleged to be a man)?
A dangerous dependence on mood-altering drugs is an altogether more serious problem. The question troubling some health professionals is whether it is the unique French attitude towards illness, most memorably portrayed in MoliÚre’s 17th-century comedy Le Malade Imaginaire, that has driven them to drugs, or the excellence of the country’s health system. The French are plainly not sicker than anyone else:
Debatable.
according to yesterday’s survey, while 9% of them were prescribed antidepressants in 2000, only 4.7% could be clinically diagnosed as suffering from depression. "Has the French approach to illness and the body brought about a health system that panders to le malade imaginaire, or has the efficiency and popularity of the system itself bred a whole nation of hypochondriacs?" asked one Paris doctor, Fabrice Henard. "Either way, it’s something we should worry about urgently." Edouard Zarifian, a professor of medical psychology, said both patient and doctor are to blame: patients because they will not be happy unless they walk out of a consultation with a sheaf of prescriptions, and doctors because they are happy to write them. But change can only come by altering doctors’ perceptions, he argues. "French doctors have become merchants of false happiness", Prof Zarifian said recently. "They are unable to resist the pressures of either the patients or the big drugs companies. They are the ones who really need educating."
Yeah, let’s blame the doctors!
Posted by:Steve White

#15  "What will become of those kids once they become adults? How will they enforce laws to criminals and dictators if they are unable to resort to violence due to the brainwashing they got from their teachers?"

-Maybe the parents can counteract such sentiments. I.E. - This is the best example I can think of off the top o'my head - My son will probably go to a private Catholic school. I am a Catholic but don't buy into 100% of everything taught (my own experiences of the guilt trip). I will always be there to clarify things for him when I feel the school is going overboard in an area, i.e. turning the other cheek to a bully.

-Are your schools accountable at all to the parents? Is that even feasible? Does the average French citizen see the other variables you mentioned the same way?
Posted by: Jarhead   2003-11-8 6:13:09 PM  

#14  Jarhead


I cannot tell the reasons. I notice that high consumption of drugs and high suicide rates tend to be the norm in "soft" socialized societies like the Scandivian countries. When people are busy working, taking decisions and trying to survive then suicide rates (and possibly use of antidepressors) drop dramatically: suicides are at their lowest during wars: people have better things to do than think about why their mom kissed them only twice a day instead of three a day for little sister.

Posted by: JFM   2003-11-8 6:02:27 PM  

#13  About nation on Prozac: remember that the 40% who have been prescribed drugs applies to people over 70 not the general population.

The reasons for the attitude of the French are not drugs but:

1) State-run schools: these has led to the professoral body leaning to the left. While french schools are supposed to be secular, there is no provsions stating they have to be apolitical. (Go to ttp://thedissidentfrogman.com for a truly revolting example, in english, of indoctrination at a french school). In addition those teachers are no longer the "black hussars of the Republic": the generation of teachers who instilled patriotism on the future soldiers of WWI: a couple weeks ago I saw a leaflet aimed at 7 years old telling them that violence was bad and that if they suffered violence they had to tell "it is forbidden". When I was their age we admired those who fought evil and tried to protect the "widow and the orphan" (at the age of three I tried to defend other child against the school bully). We didn't admire people who tell "it is forbidden". What will become of those kids once they become adults? How will they enforce laws to criminals and dictators if they are unable to resort to violence due to the brainwashing they got from their teachers? What will they be their attitude toward those who defend themselves instead of calling mom, the teacher or the UN?


2) Not having guns. I strongly believe that the fact of being powerless in front of an armed criminal leads to habits of passivity and cowardice even when in equal conditions and that the habit of not being powerless (due to possession of a gun) leads to looking for ways of turning tables even when you are unarmed and the bad guy is armed


3) Infiltration of the media by the far left. When Mitterrand reached power he tried to reequilibrate the media. But while the socilist party was wary on infiltration by communists and the communists on infiltration by the far left, the socialists weren't vigiliant on infiltration b y the far left (weak on voters, but proportionally striong on militants). Those far left militants supported one another in their ascension. Today directors of many important papers and TV chains are former far left militants and they use their media for distorting the facts they are supposed to report (As an example: a mock vote at Le Monde, the most prestigious French paper, showed a majority of voters for Besancenot, a trostskist candidate to presidency who got under 5% of votes in the general population)


4) The pan-Europeist dream: this contaminates the center and moderate right media: they dream of France losing its identity into a mega Europe and this one dominating world. This leads to confrontation with the US, in addition they need a war, a cold war, in order to create a European national feeling (today inexistant). The European dream has led to hostility toward US in people who were traditionally quite friendly to them.

Posted by: JFM   2003-11-8 5:54:39 PM  

#12  JFM, thanx. So is the reason that there's such a high use of medications due to easy access by the health care system, or is there an underlying problem not as easliy seen?
Posted by: Jarhead   2003-11-8 4:39:44 PM  

#11  I had a moment of distraction in my first post and wrote "while I am not as stunning as the Estonians",
should have read "while French women are not as
stunning as the Estonians".
Posted by: JFM   2003-11-8 4:21:34 PM  

#10  Jarhead

I remember that France is something like a world record for consumption of anti-depressors (and just this month a magazine is advocating for medical prescription of... marijuana, BTW marijuana is still illegal), I don't remember exact numbers but I believe these are true.

Yes I saw your post and we are good to go.
Posted by: JFM   2003-11-8 4:13:27 PM  

#9  See also this blog posting.
Posted by: Mike   2003-11-8 1:49:52 PM  

#8  Now we have the data to back up calling them delusional.
Posted by: Charles   2003-11-8 12:38:51 PM  

#7  Slightly off-topic, but worth a look: Elizabeth Nickson (the Peggy Noonan of the Great White North, IMNTBHO) writing in the National Post on the problems of being addicted to psychotropics.
Posted by: Mike   2003-11-8 9:33:43 AM  

#6  JFM,

these numbers seem exceptionally high....Does this sound accurate? I know we got a "prozac nation" going on over here but this article seems way high. BTW - We're you able to catch my last post to you the other day? Wanted to make sure we were good to go.
Posted by: Jarhead   2003-11-8 9:06:44 AM  

#5  How come the LifeBuoy Cartel can't penetrate France?
Posted by: Shipman   2003-11-8 7:56:45 AM  

#4  Ben, I don't think ergotism would be very conducive to a revolution, it would be more associated with convulsions and loss of body extremities.

"Convulsive ergotism is characterized by nervous dysfunction, where the victim is twisting and contorting their body in pain, trembling and shaking, and wryneck, a more or less fixed twisting of the neck, which seems to simulate convulsions or fits. In some cases, this is accompanied by muscle spasms, confusions, delusions and hallucinations, as well as a number of other symptoms.

In gangrenous ergotism, the victim may lose parts of their extremities, such as toes, fingers, ear lobes or in more serious cases, arms and legs may be lost. This type of ergotism causes gangrene to occur by constricting the blood vessels leading to the extremities. Because of the decrease in blood flow, infections occur in the extremities, accompanied by burning pain. Once gangrene has occurred, the fingers, toes, etc. become mummified, and will eventually fall off as a result of infection. If the infected extremities are not removed, infection can spread further up the extremity that has been infected. Gangrenous ergotism is common in grazing, farm animals.

http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wong/BOT135/LECT12.HTM


Posted by: Stotegobbler   2003-11-8 5:45:44 AM  

#3  A more prosaic explanation is that this led to high prices for bread and made people receptive to propaganda. The highest bread price in Paris for the whole XVIIIth century was July 13th, 1989. Bastille was taken the 14th.


A few years later Napoleon ever opened his working days by reading two things: the quotation of the Treasure bonds and the price of bread.

Posted by: JFM   2003-11-8 4:50:08 AM  

#2  Hmm. I remember reading something a while back that just before the French revolution, there was an outbreak of ergot fungus on grain crops in France.

The theory goes that folks ate the ergot infected grain, and while things sucked under Louis, that was the impetus for the revolution as well as the excesses of the reign of terror afterwards.

So, could French perfidy prior to the war, as well as their percieved need for a counter-pole to American power be the result of another drug problem?
Posted by: Ben   2003-11-8 4:39:35 AM  

#1  "The country smells like an armpit": was true in 1944 (most houses had been built during 19th century: ie had no showers, besides soap and heating were rationned), no longer true: most people I know bath or shower daily.


"Pour sauce all over the food": what are you speaking about? They don't put ketchup on it if that is what you are referring.


"Women are castrating": Mr Steve White, you have of-fended my girl friend, you have of-fended our daughters, tomorrow my witnesses will email you.
Seriously, while I am not as stunning as the Estonians, there tend to be very pretty, are rarely overweight and unlike in some parts of America they will not sue for harrassing just because you told they were wearing a pretty dress.


"Men are jerks". True. It would explain why French women are on anti-depressors.

Posted by: JFM   2003-11-8 2:38:35 AM  

00:00