Bipolar Disorder and Schizophrenia are disorders that are centered in the brain. Is not the brain part of the physical body? Why should these illnesses not be considered physical illnesses? To set them aside as only mental illness and then say that their treatments are ineffectual ignores the research and the positive results that have come about through treatment.
In bipolar disorder, the physical changes in the brain have been found in MRIs. There has been new research into the dysfunction at critical nodes within a frontal-subcortical-thalamic-pontine-cerebellar network responsible for emotional regulation. To say that the loss of proper functioning in the brain is not an elemental component of bipolar disorder minimizes the illness, and does not take into account the limited amount of information that is known about brain function.
In schizophrenia brain development disruption is now known to be the result of genetic predisposition and environmental stressors early in development (during pregnancy or early childhood), leading to subtle alterations in the brain that make a person susceptible to developing schizophrenia. Environmental factors later in life (during early childhood and adolescence) can either damage the brain further and thereby increase the risk of schizophrenia, or lessen the expression of genetic or neurodevelopmental defects and decrease the risk of schizophrenia. Obviously in schizophrenia we are dealing with brain damage. And that makes this illness much more difficult to treat.
It is the greater understanding of the brain that brings about better tools and medications for dealing with these illnesses. And to say that psychiatry does not work, sadly ignores the neurology that psychiatrists have at their disposal when treating these illnesses. If not for the wonders of neurology, the effective use of ECT in depression would never have happened.
Long-term psychiatric care is essential when treating both schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Without it those patients that suffer through these conditions would not have a positive filter through which they can explore their thoughts and emotions. It is this type of inspection that does help the bipolar sufferer to learn to deal with cycling emotions. And the schizophrenic is given an outlet for paranoia and worries. In both instances the use of psychiatry is key in helping the patient deal with the illness.
The fact that there is no cure for these illnesses and that there are only a few tools available does not mean that there is no hope within the psychiatric community as well as with the patients themselves. Every day more is being learned about these and other illnesses. I’m not ready to close the book on these illnesses, yet.
Being a bipolar patient myself, I can tell you that life is very different from the inside looking out. And passing judgement on those who suffer, blaming psychiatry for the illness is a lame attempt to belittle the illness. In doing so, you offend the patient. Was that your aim?
I’m no shrink, but I was a cop for thirty years. An unwashed mental had a very distinct, very strong, very unpleasant body odor compared to an unwashed sane person. They both stank, but the mental was totally different. Something was definitely out of kilter with his body chemistry.
No one is closing any book yet. The problem Baughman has with psychiatry is that #1 they claim these disorders are a disease, much like diabetes, when clearly they are not, and #2, that psychiatry claims they can treat these so-called diseases when clearly, none of these drugs are any better than holding actions until we do know more, and they have very bad and irreversible side effects that psychiatry ignores.
His entire point, if you’d read his research instead of guessing at it, is that psychiatry claims to do things that, if they actually did, would be in the specialty of neurologisty.
Psychiatrists don’t deal with brain tumors, for example - neurologists do. If psychiatrists had any clue what the MRI and PET scans were telling them, there would be better treatments than the equivalent of “try this and we’ll see if it works”. Nor can neurologists fix brain problems wth talk theraphy, whereas that’s been a staple of psychiatry for decades/centuries.
Do you get his point now ? I suggest you read more of his stuff than the little bit that is here. If you don’t want to buy any book, here’s a start:
http://www.adhdfraud.com/frameit.asp?src=commentary.htm