Posted by Chairman_MAO on January 29, 2004, at 21:48:38
In reply to Re: Is depression a disease?, posted by SLS on January 28, 2004, at 19:34:13
> I would like to see a study of the effectiveness of psychotherapy in people who have been diagnosed as having MDD and who are DST non-suppressors (dexamethasone suppressor test). I bet psychotherapy is found to be ineffective in this subgroup.
Good point. I've actually had a [very good] psychotherapist give me the same response. However, this still skirts around the main problem (at least I think it does) will calling ANY kind of depression a brain disease; namely, that it's the BEHAVIOR being diagnosed (in psychiatry) and not a biological abnormality. If it were truly a brain disease, it would be the domain of neurology, no? As Szasz states in the debate, cases of neurosyphilis were once restricted to hospitals/madhouses, but once the pathology was understood, it became the domain of neurology. If Szasz is too reactionary for you, I'd check out _Healing the Soul in the Age of the Brain: Becoming Conscious in an Unconscious World_ by Elio Frattaroli, M.D.
Good quotes:
"Today's patients, discontented, unhappy, fragmented and confused by an increasingly frantic, alienating and violent society, come to psychiatrists for help, only to have their illusions shored up by an increased dose of a technologic fix. They are told they have illnesses that are biologic and can be fixed, instead of being allowed to speak about their unhappiness, to speak about how difficult it is to be a human being, to speak about their suffering, because human beings have always suffered and always will. To believe that we can conquer depression, despair, anxiety with modern technology is the height of hubris and bad faith, a mere childish fantasy, unworthy of any thoughtful person who has their eyes open to human history and modern culture."
"Patients have been diagnosed with chemical imbalances despite the fact that no test exists to support such a claim, and that there is no real conception of what a correct chemical balance would look like."
David Kaiser, M.D.
Northwestern University Hospital, Chicago, IL
Psychiatric Medications as Symptoms, February, 1997"No biological etiology has been proven for any psychiatric disorder in spite of decades of research. ... Don't accept the myth that we can make an 'accurate diagnosis.' ... Neither should you believe that your problems are due solely to a 'chemical imbalance.'"
Edward Drummond, M.D.
Associate Medical Director
Seacoast Mental Health Center, Portsmouth, NH"There are no external validating criteria for psychiatric diagnoses. There is neither blood
test nor specific anatomic lesions for any major psychiatric disorder. Is psychiatry a hoax as practiced today? Unfortunately the answer is mostly yes."Loren Mosher, M.D., former Chief of NIMH Center for the Study of Schizophrenia
(Loren Mosher _LEFT_ the APA, stating that he was disgusted by the fact that it had become the "American Psychopharmacological Association")-cm
poster:Chairman_MAO
thread:306610
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040120/msgs/307088.html