Posted by LostBoyinNC1 on June 25, 2002, at 23:20:38
In reply to neurology vs. psychology a.k.a World War III on PB, posted by mist on June 22, 2002, at 23:14:21
> I don't understand the neurology vs. psychology debate. Why do some people think they're mutually exclusive? For example, I'm depressed. Depression is a neurological condition in that it affects the nervous system. But what if I say my symptoms are much worse, or the depression is more incapacitating, on the weekends? (Which is often the case for me.) That's due to psychological factors, which theoretically can be helped through therapy . This is just one example. (Although I understand the frustration I've heard some express about therapists/psychologists. It can be very hard to find the right therapy, a good --and affordable-- therapist, and one that's right for you.)
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> I've been depressed pretty consistently since childhood. But when I was in high school I went to stay for a while in another city, with another family, under totally different circumstances, and my depression lifted. It came back when I returned to my family. So how can anyone say there is nothing to environment/psychology when it comes to depression? I have had severe, incapacitating depression that has ruined my life but it's responsive to changes in my life. The problem is that these changes are hard to make because some are results of factors beyond my control and others are things I can't do because of being depressed. (And one of the things that's very hard for me to do is formulate a plan for getting support and treatment and following through with it—this is also because I have some ADD traits.)
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> I'm not anti-med. I would take ADs if they had less side effects—I'm very sensitive to them. And I believe bipolar is much more likely to be purely biological in origin (I always assume it is in fact) than that all unipolar depressions are.
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> It's also clear when you look at blood pressure that psychological and environmental factors cause physiological changes. Stress can cause high blood pressure. Stress can be a result both of one's environment, circumstances, events, and the way one deals with them.
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> Just some thoughts on "the war."First of all Id like to say to you that your depression cant be too awful bad if you dont take meds. You do not sound like you have a firm grounding in the basic understanding that there is an "issues" kind of mental illness and then there is the other thing...total cognitive deterioration, severe sleeping deterioration, etc. You need to realize that when I discuss Neurology vs the mental health thing, I am always keeping in mind SEVERE mental illness. Im not talking about dysthymia, mild depression or "issues." Im talking about the kind of severe mental illness that causes severe sleeping deterioration and cognitive deterioration. Thats the kind of mental illness that can easily lead to chronic vocational disability and subsequent homelessness left untreated.
Severe mental illness leads to HOMELESSNESS eventually if it is not treated successfully. Severe mental illness has nothing to do with "issues" or psychology...its a brain problem.
Now that Ive gotten that basic tenant locked down in concrete (Im referring to severe mental illness in my discussions) we can come back to the Neurology vs the mental health field debate. Since its becoming more and more clear every single day that the major forms of mental illness are brain based illnesses...even psychiatrists admit this now...why do we even have psychiatry anymore? Why not move the whole entire thing lock, stock and barrel over to Neurology? The Neurologists could take the diagnosis and treatment of severe mental illness to a new level, as Neurologists are the true brain science doctors. Maybe Neurologists could do a better job at developing improved diagnostic technologies, like brain scans. Neurologists already use brain scans to dx parkinsons, alzheimers, dementia and other classic "neurological" conditions. The same could be done for severe mental illness.
As Ive mentioned countless times in the past on this and other boards, we are living in a high tech era. Other branches of medicine are moving forward and developing all sorts of high tech ways to diagnose and treat illness. You dont see this as much in psychiatry...some...but not as much as we need. I personally feel the only way we will ever get the sort of real basic and thorough scientific research into severe mental illness would be if Neurology took the job over from Psychiatry.
Psychiatry is low tech...its crude, subjective and based on psychology.
Neurology is high tech...its very scientific and its the only true branch of medicine that focuses on the brain and central nervous system.
Its time to get rid of psychiatry, merge the duties of handling the severely mentally ill into Neurology. And let all the people with "issues" type mental illness problems go back to the basics and start going to psychologists and social workers so they can "talk."
Talking does very little if anything to treat severe mental illness.
poster:LostBoyinNC1
thread:25602
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20020616/msgs/25729.html