Ken Kesey and his Experience with Drugs

(Cobra, 2014)

“One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest would have never seen the light of the day” (Andrews, 2016).

Ken Kesey, the author of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, was a very interesting man. He considered himself a great leader “of the counterculture and beat generation” (Cobra, 2014). He was born September 17, 1935, and he, from a young age, loved reading and boxing/wrestling. He went to further his education at Standford University, and later he married Faye Haxby (Cobra, 2014); (“Ken Kesey Biography,” 2019).

https://nancysyogurt.com/our-creamery/history/

As Kesey grew older, he “experienced a dramatic life change,” where he took place in experiments (“Ken Kesey Biography,” 2019). These experiments where Psychedelic drug experiments known as “Project MKUlta” (Andrews, 2016). Kesey took many different psychedelic drugs including but not limited to LSD, cocaine, and mushrooms. These drugs are have said to played a major role in his life, altering who he was and what he wrote about (Andrews, 2016); (Cobra, 2014); (“Ken Kesey Biography,” 2019).

(Andrews, 2016).

After being a “medical guinea pig,” and sometimes participating in the sometimes illegal “Project MKUlta,” the author produced his first and most well-known work, One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s, (Andrews, 2016). Many of the ideas from the story came from parts on the MKUlta Project. Kesey continued these experiments later into his life, even after completing the writing of OFOCN (Andrews, 2016).

Works Cited

Andrews, S. (2016, December 20). Ken Kesey was Part of Psychedelic Drug Experiment. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/12/20/ken-kesey-was-part-of-psychedelic-drugs-experiments-before-he-wrote-one-flew-over-the-cuckoos-nest/

Corba, L. (2014, September 15). Ken Kesey, Writer of the Counterculture and Beat Generation. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://blog.bookstellyouwhy.com/ken-kesey

Ken Kesey Biography. (2019). Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.notablebiographies.com/supp/Supplement-Ka-M/Kesey-Ken.html

Cheeking Pills

“I got away once holding one of those same red capsules under my tongue, played like I’d swallowed it, and crushed it open later in the broom closet” (Kesey, 1962, p. 35).

Cheeking, “concealing a medication in the mouth,” is a way for not taking a pill while still going unnoticed (“Cheeking,” 2009). There are many reasons a patient would “cheek” their medicine. Often times, especially in Psychiatric Wards, patients may have great anxiety as to what the pills they are taking and what they might do. They will sometimes try to avoid taking the drug out of fear, misunderstanding, mistrust, worry, depression, or even out of curiosity (“8 Reasons Patients Don’t Take Their Medications,” 2015).

http://nursing-skills.blogspot.com/2013/12/procedure-of-administering-oral.html

In One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, there are many patients that show they do not want to take the medicine they are being asked to take. Chief Bromden cheeks his red pill once to see it later, but he is still unable to find out what it is, and why he must take it. He also tries to avoid taking the red pill in other ways such as pretending to be asleep when the nurses come to give it to him.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/148389033@N02/30150887170

In Kesey’s novel, the Psychiatric Ward Chief Bromden was in was very corrupted and messed up. Many patients had good reasoning as to why they would not want to take the medicines they were being given. It is actually an ethical issue according to Dr. Clarance Braddock, who wrote about the ethics behind giving information about the medicine being administered in “Truth-telling and Withholding Information.” “There are two main situations in which it is justified to withhold the truth from a patient:” “compelling evidence that disclosure will cause real and predictable harm” or “the patient him- or herself states an informed preference not to be told the truth” (Braddock, 2011). Neither of those were the reason for the nurses not telling the patients truely what medicine they were taking. So, they had every right to try and avoid taking those drugs.

https://www.ausmed.com/articles/when-a-patient-refuses-assistance/

Works Cited

Braddock, C. H. (2011, April 11). Truth-telling and Withholding Information. Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://depts.washington.edu/bioethx/topics/truth.html

Cheeking. (n.d.) Medical Dictionary. (2009). Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/cheeking

8 Reasons Patients Don’t Take their Medications. (2015, October 16). Retrieved January 28, 2019, from https://www.ama-assn.org/delivering-care/patient-support-advocacy/8-reasons-patients-dont-take-their-medications

Effect of Drugs on the Brain

In One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest, there is a lot of talk about medications. In the book, the narrator talks about how people come in being an Acute and they become a Chronic, and how a Chronic becomes a Vegetable. We know that drugs are bad, but do people know what they can do to us when they aren’t prescribed to us? “When a drug is taken repeatedly, some of its effects may decrease or show tolerance, while other effects increase, or show sensitization” (Crombag, H., & Robinson, T, 2004). In the book Mr. Taber questions on what the nurse is giving him to take. She just tells him to “just swallow it,” she gives no explanation on what it is (p. 34). This isn’t good for patients because the patient should know what they are getting. They might have a bad reaction to it or had a bad experience with it before. Drugs affect the nervous system (Roth, L., & Barlow, C., 1961). When taking a drug/medication of any kind, you must make sure that what you take isn’t going to affect you in the long run. “It is important to measure drug concentrations…of the brain…possible influences…disease and maturational, nutritional, physiological and biochemical states” (Roth, L., & Barlow, C., 1961). In the book, they talk about how someone isn’t taking their medicine and it had “disastrous side effects” (p. 177). So the moral of this is do your research and make sure you take the amount you’re supposed to, nothing less and nothing more.

Citations:

Crombag, H., & Robinson, T. (2004). Drugs, Environment, Brain, and Behavior. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 13(3), 107-111. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20182924

Roth, L., & Barlow, C. (1961). Drugs in the Brain. Science, 134(3471), 22-31. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1707518

Barbiturates

There were many drugs spoken about throughout the story of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, but one that was not directly addressed was the pill given to the patients at nighttime. “…most nights before they ran me to bed they gave me this pill, knocked me out and kept me out.” It can be inferred that the pill that was distributed was a barbiturate (Kensey, 162). What is a barbiturate? It is a pill that can cause sleep. Studies have been conducted that confirm a dependence can be formed from an everyday use. In Ken Kensey’s story there is not a way to tell whether or not the patients were tested on during their sleep. Also the “Chronics”, the “incurable” patients were strapped in to bed so that they would not cause any trouble during the night.

Some alternatives to barbiturates are melatonin, which also be used to improve sleep. But with melatonin it is a natural hormone so it does not work every time it is taken. Many studies have shown the inconsistencies of the success of melatonin. Lower doses of melatonin has shown to reset a patient’s circadian rhythm, which is the way your body responds to the natural light outside, making you feel tired when it is darker outside. This rhythm also works with the body’s natural melatonin so when you add more melatonin to your body it makes you feel fatigued.  

 

 

Works Cited:

Anlyan, W., Gillin, C., Solomon, F., Medd, B., Smith, R., Kripke, D., & Joseph, H. (1979). Sleeping Pills and Insomnia. Science,205(4401), 6-122. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1748487

Wise, M. (2006). Does Melatonin Improve Sleep? BMJ: British Medical Journal, 332(7540), 550-550. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25456300

Psychiatric Ward Medicines

One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest is set in a psychiatric ward during the 1950s. During this time, psychiatric wards were treating their patients with many different drugs. They believed that “antidepressants” were “to reverse biochemical pathways and antipsychotics are thought to act on mechanisms that produce psychotic symptoms” (Moncrieff, J., & Cohen, D., 2009). In this book, the people in charge mention something about “new drugs” (p. 111). During this time three new drugs were introduced to psychiatric wards: Chlorpromazine, Reserpine and Frenquel. Chlorpromazine was one of the most effective drugs that suppressed the delusions of paranoid patients. Reserpine was helpful in catatonic and hebephrenic patients. Lastly, Frenquel moderated schizophrenic behavior but lasted less than the previous drugs (Himwich, H., 1955). In this book, they also mention that the nurses would give out “nighttime pills to the men…” and would have “a hard time keeping straight who gets poisoned with what…” (p. 82). This is not a good in any way. You would think that when people go to psychiatric wards, the nurses and doctors would try to make them help you get better, but in reality it is the opposite.

Works Cited:

Moncrieff, J., & Cohen, D. (2009). How do psychiatric drugs work? BMJ: British Medical Journal, 338(7710), 1535-1537. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25671918

Himwich, H. (1955). THE NEW PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS. Scientific American, 193(4), 80-87. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/24943759

History of Drugs Used to Help Mental Health

Throughout the book One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest the use of psychotropic drugs is prevalent. A psychotropic drug could be anything that changes the patient’s state of mind such as a hallucinogen or an antidepressants. These drugs could be prescribed to the patient and taken at home daily or given to the patient in a hospital to better your mental state. There has been a lot of research done about the effectiveness of these drugs and most are found to improve the mental state of the patient taking the medication. In the book the mental institution that the narrator lived in and told many stories about was involved in an experiment about LSD and many other psychedelic drugs and it was conducted to see how it affected a patient’s mental health.

It has been a struggle for many years to be able to afford medical care and some prescriptions can have a large price tag. But for those who can afford the psychotropic drugs they can be extremely helpful. As proven in the book, some drugs work for certain people and those same medications can damage another person severely. Overall, the usage of medications to aid the healing of a patient can be extremely beneficial; you just have to find the medication that helps you the most.  

Works Cited:

Burns, B., & Burke, J. (1985). Improving Mental Health Practices in Primary Care: Findings from Recent Research. Public Health Reports (1974-), 100(3), 294-300. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/20056476

Frank, R., Conti, R., & Goldman, H. (2005). Mental Health Policy and Psychotropic Drugs. The Milbank Quarterly, 83(2), 271-298. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/30045615