It’s reported in Epidemiologic Catchmat Area Study that the point prevalence (the proportion of the population who have an illness at a given point in time) of psychiatric illness in the U.S. population is 20% (about 60 millions), and the lifetime prevalence (the proportion who have ever had a psychiatric disorder) is 30%. Why are we so sick ? What can we do to prevent it, not just wait to treat it ?

The first time I saw patients with psychiatric illness was in a hospital during my internship in medical school. Those patients were slow, sedated, with tremors, and no light or hope in their eyes, no smiles on their face. Those pictures are always with me, like happened yesterday. It’s understandable that when patients just got into hospitals, they may need higher doses to control an episode. However, do we want or should patients always on high doses, even toxic doses all the times ?

Or should patients be on a dose higher than therapeutic dose, but less than a dose with a lots of side effects ? Therefore, they can manage their daily life, or even do their daily job. Is this an idealism or could it happen in our daily life nowadays ?

It is possible and will be very useful to let patients find their toxic responses to a given drug, then they could have a limited flexible dosing with the help of his or her doctor. By this way, toxicity could be reduced and survival ability could be increased in patients. I believe more patients will be happy to take a non-toxic and effective dose for long therapeutic terms. Therefore, they are able to keep their work and wouldn’t be disabled, a so called “normal person taking medicine”.

Due to the possible special effects of music on human soul, if happy or peaceful music or songs can modulate mood, it is likely that music might play a role in human mood illness. The role of music, especially Sarah McLachlan’s songs, as a mood modulator, with a special case of preventing depression, was discussed in Music and Human Health at sjmedmusic.com.