Shr1nx

i made this thread JUST to talk about the negative side of psychiatry. i'm not "bashing" though.
there're quite a few folks that come to this site who don't like psychiatrists in general.
just to clarify, i don't hate all of them...
i just hate all the one's i've met in person.

clearly; people're getting pretty pissed off at those of us who talk negatively about psychiatrists in other threads.
hopefully this can be an outlet. i'm trying to stay outta trouble. it's hard though, considering everyone seems to be more confused about my personality then i am about their's.

Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (1999) is explicit about the absence of any findings of specific pathophysiology:

p. 44: "The diagnosis of mental disorders is often believed to be more difficult than diagnosis of somatic, or general medical, disorders, since there is no definitive lesion, laboratory test, or abnormality in brain tissue that can identify the illness."

p. 48: "It is not always easy to establish a threshold for a mental disorder, particularly in light of how common symptoms of mental distress are and the lack of objective, physical symptoms."

p. 49: "The precise causes (etiology) of mental disorders are not known."

p. 51: "All too frequently a biological change in the brain (a lesion) is purported to be the 'cause' of a mental disorder ... [but] The fact is that any simple association -- or correlation -- cannot and does not, by itself, mean causation."

p. 102: "Few lesions or physiologic abnormalities define the mental disorders, and for the most part their causes remain unknown."

In the third edition of Textbook of Clinical Psychiatry (1999), we find similar statements:

p. 43: "Although reliable criteria have been constructed for many psychiatric disorders, validation of the diagnostic categories as specific entities has not been established."

p. 51: Most of these [genetic studies] examine candidate genes in the serotonergic pathways, and have not found convincing evidence of an association."

In Andreasen and Black's (2001) Introductory Textbook of Psychiatry, we find, in the chapter on schizophrenia:

p. 23. "In the areas of pathophysiology and etiology, psychiatry has more uncharted territory than the rest of medicine...Much of the current investigative research in psychiatry is directed toward the goal of identifying the pathophysiology and etiology of major mental illnesses, but this goal has been achieved for only a few disorders (Alzheimer's disease, multi-infarct dementia, Huntington's disease, and substance-induced syndromes such as amphetamine-related psychosis or Wernicke-Korsakoff syndrome)."

p. 231: "In the absence of visible lesions and known pathogens, investigators have turned to the exploration of models that could explain the diversity of symptoms through a single cognitive mechanism."

p. 450: "Many candidate regions [of the brain] have been explored [for schizophrenia] but none have been confirmed."

social control... different cultures have different conditions on which they base the amount to be applied. this is one of my theories. the more "civilized" societies call for more order. i guess that's why we are labeled as having disorder s. how it went from disorder to illness is beyond me.

Not quite sure how to answer that, since I've never cooked or stored my psychiatrist.

'This one is good. I've had about a 75% bad vs good results with my pdocs. I believe it's all in opening up, and educating oneself, so that you can lead the doc in the right direction. I keep a mood diary that helps me to explain in black and white what my mind and meds are doing under certain condition. You can find a link to this pdf diary in the bipolar forum. But it is not just for bipolars.

Best of luck with your poll

hav0k wrote:. i'm trying to stay outta trouble. it's hard though, considering everyone seems to be more confused about my personality then i am about their's.

Interesting. It is hard to express all feelings and body language on the computer. I don't know how true the above statement is... maybe some people just need to get to know you better. But to assume everyone seems to be more confused about your personality then you are about their's.
, is quite presumsious.


As the old saying goes. "IN A PERFECT WORLD>>>>"

touche.

I would like to comment on what "guest" wrote. It is tough to do any type of research on people for a couple of reasons: (1) it is impossible to have a real control group that is a group that is identical to the group you are testing and (2) living things are complicated and the human brain is complicated. Our knowledge of the brain is miminial.

I'm not the greatest fan of psychiatrists, but they probably do about as good as can be expected. Actually, I'm more negative about the patients. People, myself included, do not always do as they should. I eat way too much sugar, salt, and fat--just like about everyone I know. I know that I should eat better, but I do not. I have heard over and over again that depressed people would benefit from regular exercise and regular exposure to sunlight, yet very few depressed people do these things. Many of us seldom even go out of the house. Yes, I know exercise and sunlight will not cause miracles, but they probably would help and may help some people a great deal. I depend on things like exercise to moderate my moods; I'm one of a few that do not do well on meds.

Back to the research question, I've done research in astronomy. In fields like astronomy and physics, one can really learn things, but biological systems are all more difficult. Psychiatry can never get the iron clad results that can be discovered in physics, but we can't just give up.
Jim S

Someone removed my post for this... hmm interesting. (Sadgurl)

My current psychitrist is excellent. I have been seeing him for the past 8-9 years. He listens to me and does not over do it on the meds. He also seems to have a good grasp of what I'm dealing with. Before him my experiences with p doc's was on the nagative side. So, I guess it comes down to finding the right one for you.

Kathy

my experiences have always been negative with them. even when i was a child. mine have usually over done in on the meds and they don't listen to me well at all... my psychologists have been good. my case workers have been good. the shrinx pass me around like i'm a freakshow. i know alot of people who've had the same experiences. some like lat. poor lat's given up on psychiatry completely. i'm pretty damn close.