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Dr Michael Scully Speaks to Rita O’Reilly on RTÉ Primetime Investigation – The Return of Scientology in Ireland
Dr Michael Scully appeared on RTÉ’s Primetime Investigation – The Return of Scientology in Ireland, 19/12/18.
Dr Michael Scully spoke to Rita O’Reilly who examined the return of Scientology in Ireland and refuted Scientology’s Narconon rehabilitation programme, considering this treatment for substance abuse and addiction as unsafe and high risk.
Scientology’s addiction treatment programme, Narconon, is a detox model which focuses specifically on a ‘non-medical’ approach where a person stops the use of drugs all at once, otherwise known as the ‘cold turkey’ approach, taken alongside a prescribed combination of vitamins with the aim of eliminating all drug residues from the body.
Dr Scully stated “I would have concerns about Narcanon’s underlying world view because the model was developed by Mr Hubbard and was perhaps outdated back in the 1950s, meaning it very certainly doesn’t chime with any understanding of brain functioning as we understand it in 2018.”
This ‘cold turkey approach’ supplemented with ‘mega-doses’ of vitamins has ‘no scientific basis’, and Dr Scully stated that this approach is singularly unsuccessful , carrying a very high risk of somebody accidentally and unintentionally overdosing and dying.
Dr Scully took Niacin as just one example from the Scientology recommended treatment plan and explained that going beyond the recommended daily dose of such a vitamin by such a significant amount as Scientology proposes, ‘one can develop significant medical complications, sometimes quite acutely.’
Dr Scully concluded that Scientology seemed, at times, “unbelievably cruel” as we have medications available that can alleviate chronic pain, alleviate epilepsy, assist with mood or anxiety disorders. Denying people the benefit that may come with the use of medicines when they are used correctly is a “sincerely held be-fault principle.”