Posted by Cam W. on February 19, 2000, at 11:59:22
In reply to Psychiatry needs to be given back to neurology, posted by Eric on February 19, 2000, at 11:40:18
> The answer to all of this is to formally dissolve psychiatry as a seperate branch of medicine and to give psychiatry back to neurology. Then what needs to be done is "psychiatric illnesses" need to be looked upon by the medical community as nothing but another neurological disorder like Parkinson's disease...diseases of the brain and the nervous system.
>
> Then let the neurologists...or the neuropsychiatrists...do tons of scientific research into "mental illness" but from a neurological perspective. Break the brain and nervous system down into pure, hard science and come up with scientific conclusions. From this, newer, more aggressive ways to diagnose and treat mental illness could be developed. When Freud was alive, the science was not good enough to do that. But nowadays the science we have is good enough to study mental illness in a purely hard science or neurological perspective.
>
> This is the answer to all of modern day psychiatry's problems and public relations/image problems. It wouldnt take long before word got out that they had finally started looking at mental illness in a scientific fashion rather than from a Freudian, old style, psychological mumbo jumbo perspective. Once word got out that this was happening, treatment of the mentally ill would have a lot more credibility and would move out of the dark ages into the 21st century.
>
> Simply put, we need more scientific research of mental illness. This can only occur if the people doing the research have a very strong background in neurology. If depression really is a disease of the brain and nervous system, does it not make the most sense to give psychiatry back to neurology and make it formal?
>
> After all, they are always saying "depression is a real illness or disease and it can be treated medically." Well, if that is really true why do psychiatrists have very little neurology background? Seems like a neurologist or neurpsychiatrist would be most suited for treating the more serious, severe forms of mental illness such as really severe clinical depression. After all, these problems are MEDICAL problems rather than "emotional problems."Eric - In the past, psychiatry has treated many disorders thought to be "diseases of the mind". For example, the dementia and psychosis seen in tertiary syphyllis before the discovery of antibiotics was treat by psychiatrist. Similarily, until we understood how vital vitamins were to the body, disorders from the lack of vitamins (eg beri-beri) or overdose of vitamins (eg vitamin A toxicosis - caused neurological symptoms when more than 2g of polar bear liver were eaten) were treated within the realm of psychiatry. Just wait your turn, and psychiatry will throw you guys a bone, as well (your time shall come). We will always need psychiatrists to diagnose disorders that will not fit into the cubby-holes our other disciplines make for them. Yes, neurology is often left out of discussion on treatment teams, but they should not be. The web of teams is larger than even we can comprehend, at times. Sincerely - Cam W.
poster:Cam W.
thread:21801
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20000209/msgs/22495.html