>Susan wrote
>.
>>Other than the fact that you hate psychiatry and science, I don't see what
>>your problem is here. Shall we not diagnose and treat people who are ill?
>>Should we just take schizophrenics off their meds and stuff them into
>>padded rooms?
>
Bertvan wrote:
>
>Just because something is labeled "science", doesn't make it valid.
did anybody say it did?
>Even
>doctors are becoming disenchanted with psychiatry, which in my opinion rivals
>Neo Darwinism for pseudo science. Following are excerpts from one such
>doctor to the Surgeon General concerning his recent Report on Mental Health.
also, just because the opinions are those of a doctor don't necessarly mean
they are valid.
>Dear Dr. Satcher,
>
>Releasing your Report on Mental Health (December 13, 1999), you
>alleged:
>
>"Mental illness is no different than diabetes, asthma or other physical
>Ailments. Mental illnesses are physical illnesses . We know the chemical
>disorders we are treating."
>
>Having gone to medical school and studied pathology--disease, then,
>diagnosis, you and I, and all physicians, know that the presence of any
>bona fide disease, like diabetes, cancer, or epilepsy is confirmed by an
>objective finding--a physical or chemical abnormality. No demonstrable
>physical or chemical abnormality: no disease!
that is, of course, untrue. Lots of diseases require the patient to report
symptoms because no test for the disease exists. Also it's pretty darned
obvious when schizophrenia is the problem, and I'm pretty sure there's a
test for it.
>You also know, I am
>sure, that there is no physical or chemical abnormality to be found, in
>life, or at autopsy in "depression, bipolar disorder and other mental
>illnesses." Why, then, are you telling the American people that "mental
>illnesses" are "physical" and that they are due to "chemical disorders"?
because they are treatable with medication. Especially depression and
bipolar disorder (and schizophrenia).
<snip>
>Psychiatrists and psychologists, using interviews and pencil-and-paper
>psychometric tests, who tell patients they have diagnosed a physical
>state or disease, are charlatans.
again, there are several "regular" physical diseases that have no test and
the doctor must rely on the patient's report
>In what appears to be a further attempt to represent mental disorders as
>actual diseases, you say:
>
>"Mental disorders are not character flaws but are legitimate illnesses
>that respond to specific treatments, just as other health
>conditions. Mental illness includes a variety of disorders characterized
>by alterations in thinking, like Alzheimer's disease; in mood, like
>depression, or in behavior, like hyperactivity."
>
>Here, you disavow that our character and our emotional selves are
>shaped by parents, teachers, peers, hunger, want, fun, kindness,
>discipline, and whether or not we are given the essential tool of
>reading. You seem to be saying that however we misbehave or whatever
>painful emotion we experience, we have a disease, and there is medical
>treatment for it‹a drug.
here the report is talking about severe mental illness--not the kind of
neurosis that is treatable by talk therapy. The report is talking about
people who would have been institutionalized 30 years ago, but are now
living reasonably normal lives because of their medication.
this doctor is conflating the two.
>"that people with mental health problems and mental illnesses
>can live happier, more productive lives with the help of therapy and
>medication."
>
>Surely you noticed, as you reviewed the psychiatric drug literature,
>that there is virtually no such thing as a long-term study.
this is untrue. I've read about several long-term studies.
>All such drugs are brain-altering
>and brain-damaging and cannot but have a damaging, deleterious effect
>over the long term. Consider the 10 percent brain atrophy in children
>on long-term Ritalin/stimulant therapy. And this is not to mention the
>invariable, stigmatizing effects of psychiatric labeling and life as a
>psychiatric patient-in-perpetuity.
schizophrenia can't be cured. Some kinds of depression are also
intractable. Hyperactivity *may* diminish with age, but bi-polar disease
does not and so far isn't curable. So what? Diabetes isn't curable. I think
part of Dr. Statcher's point is that mental illnesses should be as
destigmatized as diabetes. And believe me, LOTS of drugs that save lives
cause bad side effects. The people who take them prefer that to dying. I
know someone who was hyperactive as a child and would have definitely
preferred being on Ritalin rather than listen to the noise in his head all
those years.
>You add:
>
>"My hope is that the report will be a turning point in how this nation
>views mental illness."
>
>You would have the nation believe--as is totally inconsistent with
>medical science-- that mental illnesses are due to demonstrable
>physical/chemical abnormalities of the brain and that medical treatment,
>that is, psychiatric drug treatment, is the only logical remedy.
>Remarkably enough, this message corresponds with the lynch-pin of
>psychopharm cartel marketplace propaganda.
yep. And we should just take all those schizophrenics off their meds and
toss them into their padded cells. I'm sure they would prefer it to being
free.
>An ad placed by "America's Pharmaceutical Research Companies," in
>Newsweek, October 7, 1996, reads:
>
>"A chemical that triggers mental illness is now being used to stop it.
>
>Drugs that act on this chemical in the brain are used to treat
>schizophrenia and psychosis."
>
>Such is the "big lie" of biopsychiatry, weaving illusions of diseases of
>the brain (pathology--objective abnormalities of organs, tissues, cells
>seen by microscope, electron microscope) and biochemistry (high blood
>sugar in diabetes, galactose in galactosemia; phenylalanine in
>phenylketonuria‹bona fide chemical imbalances).
except that the drugs uesed to treat schizophrenia and psychosis work. Why
is that I wonder?
>The ad continues:
>
>"A chemical that triggers mental illness. Drugs that act on this
>Chemical. Scientists now know the causes of schizophrenia and psychosis
>are often rooted in powerful chemicals in the brain called
>neurotransmitters. One of these neurotransmitters is dopamine.
>Schizophrenia and psychosis can result when the brain has abnormal
>dopamine levels. Because of recent advances, drugs that are able to alter
>dopamine levels free many patients from the terrible effects of mental
>illness."
>
>Herein the psychopharm cartel claims that schizophrenia and psychosis
>can result from abnormal levels of dopamine, also that they have drugs
>that can preferentially alter dopamine levels and "free many patients
>from the terrible effects of mental disease". They have the audacity to
>blatantly lie to the American people‹would-be patients, consumers of
>their drugs, even though no confirmatory, characteristic, physical or
>chemical abnormality is known to exist, in schizophrenia, or in any
>psychiatric disease; even when the specific brain chemicals effected by
>their drugs, remains wholly theoretical and unproven.
the drugs work. Why is that, I wonder?
>Having failed to prove or verify a biologic/organic cause for
>schizophrenia, organic or any pure "mental illness", why are they
>allowed to persist with their claims of "disease"?
because the drugs work. Why does that make this jerk so mad?
Bertvan, why does it bother you?
Susan
----------
For if there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing
of life as in hoping for another and in eluding the implacable grandeur of
this one.
--Albert Camus
http://www.telepath.com/susanb/
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