Would you like to be held accountable for taking your meds? What if your doctor or your mom, for example, knew exactly if and when you took your pills? Yes, Big Brother is watching you, again.
A new version of the antipsychotic Abilify is in development. The so-called “smart pill” would tell your doctor or family members that you’ve taken your meds.
Here’s how it works. When swallowed, a microchip inside each pill sends a signal to a patch worn on the patient’s arm that communicates with cell phones, notifying you, your doctor, or your family that you’ve taken the pill.
Not only is this creepy, but it doesn’t make any sense. Who in their right mind would agree to wear the patch?
I’ve never had a problem with med compliance. I know what can happen if I don’t take my meds. I can slip into an uncontrollable crying-body-aching-sleep-deprived pit of despair. Or, on the flipside, I can turn manic, which can be fun — until it leads to scary hallucinations and paranoia. So I take my meds.
However, med compliance is indeed a real problem. Over the course of a year, about 75 percent of patients who are prescribed psychotropic medications will stop taking them, according to Psychiatric Times. But there is nothing that can force someone to swallow a pill. And a “smart pill” won’t change that.
It is illegal to force anyone to take medication against their will. In O’Connor v. Donaldson, a decision in 1975, the Supreme Court ruled that the state cannot constitutionally confine a person who is not a danger to themselves or others. In Rennie v. Klein the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey ruled in 1978 that a patient has the right to refuse medication.
“I have a real problem with this technology focusing on a mental health drug first,” Lucinda Jewell, former president of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance, told CBS Boston. “It’s further stigmatizing people with mental health conditions that they can’t be accountable for their health and well-being.”
According to Jewell, about half of all people prescribed medication of any kind (non-psychotropic) do not comply. So why do pharmaceutical companies prey on the mentally ill?
The Abilify “smart pill” is not available yet and is currently being evaluated by the FDA.
We who are bipolar or schizophrenic or depressed are not guinea pigs. We are not children. Bristol-Meyers Squibb can suck it.
