Posted by SLS on January 3, 2013, at 1:23:24
In reply to Re: Ten psychobabble signatures needed now!, posted by LostBoyinNC43 on January 2, 2013, at 20:27:50
There is no need for your petition.
What you ask has already been accomplished by members of the medical scientific community.
The official position of the NIH - the formal repository of medical research in the United States of America - already determined that schizophrenia is a brain disorder. It has been treated as such for at least 15 years:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/schizophrenia/what-is-schizophrenia.shtml
Also, bipolar disorder:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/bipolar-disorder/what-is-bipolar-disorder.shtml
Also, depression:
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression/what-causes-depression.shtml
ETCETERA...
I am concerned that designating only one of these disorders as being neurological and not psychiatric will fuel arguments that the remaining psychiatric illnesses are not neurological. I am concerned about perpetuating stigma. I think that you are actually perpetuating the stigma surrounding the use of the word "psychiatric" with your petition.
Schizophrenia is a psychiatric illness that has a neurobiological diathesis. It is that simple. I don't understand why you didn't include other psychiatric illnesses in your petition. Do you feel that schizophrenia is the easiest to prove as being neurological? I can help you prove that the following illnesses are neurological as well. I guess I really don't have to do this, though, as others have already done it for me. They are already considered to be brain disorders.
1. Major Depressive Disorder (MDD)
2. Bipolar Disorder I and II (BD)
3. Dysthymia
4. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)
5. Schizophrenia
6. Schizoaffective Disorder
7. Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD)
8. Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
9. Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD)
10. Etcetera.If you want to do something constructive, perhaps you could submit a petition for increasing federal funding for the NIMH (NIH) so that all of these illnesses will be studied with the focus and intensity they deserve.
- Scott
Some see things as they are and ask why.
I dream of things that never were and ask why not.- George Bernard Shaw
poster:SLS
thread:1033828
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/poli/20120327/msgs/1034535.html