Posted by linkadge on May 11, 2007, at 11:30:26
In reply to Re: NIMH on Bipolar Spectrum Disorder--YES » MaddieB, posted by polarbear206 on May 11, 2007, at 10:38:46
I contend that the meds predict the diagnosis more than the diagnosis predicts the meds.
When a medication works, it is easy to think that one has the disease that it treats.
I have some questions though:
If coffee makes you anxious, does that mean you have an anxiety disorder?
If l-dopa gives you hallucinations, do you have psychosis?
If stimulants keep you up at night, are you an insomniac?
Of course not, because these are documented and established drug *side effects*
What bothers me about all of this bipolar spectrum stuff, is that it is a response to a lot of the *side effects* of psychiatric medications.
Many of the people who are being diagnosed as bipolar *do not normally have significant mood swings* prior to taking medications.Dr. Manjii, a very highly respected cellular biologist who is currently working for the NIMH,
on cellular targets for mood stabilizers said this (in response to the question of wheather antidepressants can make normal people manic)"it seems that given the right conditions, just about anybody can have a manic episode".
You're taking a group of people. You're feeding them powerful drugs, which can do all sorts of strange things include inducing manic episodes. And then you're telling them they have a more significant illness requiring harsher medications which pose significantly more long term risk.
That is what I call the garden path.
IMO, nobody, without a clear cut history of significant non-drug induced life impairing mood swings should have to endure mood stabilizer therapy.
Linkadge
poster:linkadge
thread:757178
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20070509/msgs/757777.html