Posted by zeugma on June 3, 2004, at 18:06:11
In reply to Re: There is something wrong with these children » linkadge, posted by Chairman_MAO on June 3, 2004, at 17:00:06
> I'm not trashing the use of Ritalin per se, I'm questioning the diagnostic categories. Back when amphetamine was a decongestant in 1937, doctors found quite by accident that it calmed down "hyperactive" kids. However, "hyperactive" is a value judgement, and back then no one pretended that there was anything biologically wrong with the hyperactive kids--which is the notion I'm trashing. It is the NATURE of young children to be hyperactive! Sure, some kids perhaps have some biological abnormality in the brain. However, in using SPECT scans, one can never escape the value judgement of what is "normal" behavior. "Normal" with behavior, is ALWAYS social, and never medical. This is what I am opposing.
Any normative judgment whatsoever takes us out of the realm of 'science' as you are defining it. Personally the interest in SPECT scans escapes me. I KNOW there is something wrong with my nervous system. There is a normative element in biology that I would argue is irreducible. MY CNS makes it impossible to function properly in society, or even when in isolation, because my sleep/wake and appetitive cycles become distorted. The promising line in psychiatric research appears to be in identifying those whose genes dispose them to become depressed, ADD, schizophrenic, etc., just as certain genetic influences on animals (I am thinking of 'transgenic' mice whose NE transporters have been removed) causes them to be less disposed to exhibit behavioral deficits in learned helplessness experiments. Psychiatry will eventually become a branch of neurobiology, not a branch of neurology, which studies gross aberrations in brain macrostructure such as lesions.
>
> I am not opposing the use of drugs to help people live more functional and rewarding lives. If I opposed that in any way, you'd hardly find me trying my best to help people find the right medications. :)
poster:zeugma
thread:353129
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20040602/msgs/353511.html