SCI AND THE HUNGER STRIKERS EXTRACT CONFESSION FROM APA THAT
THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS A PSYCHIATRIC DISEASE/CHEMICAL
IMBALANCE
by Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD,
Fellow, American Academy of Neurology
Member of the SCI Expert Panel
9/26/03
AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION STATEMENT ON
DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF MENTAL DISORDERS
APA Statement
For Immediate Release:
September 26, 2003
Release No. 03-39
For Information Contact:
Amy Levey, 703-907-8534
alevey@psych.org
Hillarie Fogel, 703-907-8536
hfogel@psych.org
AMERICAN PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION STATEMENT ON
DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT OF MENTAL DISORDERS
Over the past five years, the Nation has more than
doubled its investment in the study of the human brain
and behavior leading to a vastly expanded
understanding of disorders that afflict and are
mediated by the brain.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
FB: Dear APA, please define "disorder".]
This effort, undertaken by
both the public and private research sectors, as well
as by diverse professional organizations that are
dedicated to moving new information about mental
disorders into clinical applications, has greatly
improved our ability to treat severe, frequently
disabling mental and behavioral disorders
effectively.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Dear APA, you must define mental disorder and behavioral disorder.]
Improved treatments dramatically improve
the quality of health care and, in turn, the quality of
life for millions of Americans who themselves have a
mental disorder as well as for countless families in
which a family member has a severe mental or
behavioral disorder.
It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable
scientific and clinical progress, a small number of
individuals and groups persist in questioning the
reality and clinical legitimacy of disorders that
affect the mind, brain, and behavior. One recent
challenge contended that the lack of a diagnostic
laboratory test capable of confirming the presence of
a mental disorder constituted evidence that these
disorders are not medically valid conditions.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
FB: is not the lack of a test, it is the lack of an abnormality/disease for which to test,
that establishes--leaves no conclusion--but that they are not
abnormalities/diseases/medically valid conditions (if you will)]
While the membership of the American Psychiatric
Association (APA) respects the right of individuals to
express their impatience with the pace of science, we
note that the human brain is the most complex and
challenging object of study in the history of human
science. Conditions termed "mental disorders" that
affect or are mediated by the brain represent
dysfunctions of the highest integrative functions of
the human brain including cognition, or thought;
emotional regulation; and executive function, or the
ability of the brain to plan and organize behavior.
Research has shown that serious neurobiological
disorders such as schizophrenia reveal reproducible
abnormalities of brain structure (such as ventricular
enlargement) and function. Compelling evidence exists
that disorders including schizophrenia, bipolar
disorder, and autism to name a few have a strong
genetic component. Still, brain science has not
advanced to the point where scientists or clinicians
can point to readily discernible pathologic lesions or
genetic abnormalities that in and of themselves serve
as reliable or predictive biomarkers of a given mental
disorder or mental disorders as a group.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
What about just one mental diagnosis condition with an objective abnormality to
make of it a disease/abnormality/valid medical condition... there are none.In
introduction xxi of the DSM IV under definition of Mental Disorder we
are treated to: "Although this volume is titled the Diagnostic and
Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders., the term mental disorder
unfortunately implies a distinction between "mental" disorders and
"physical disorders that is a reductionistic anachronism of mind/body
dualism. A compelling literature documents that there is much
"physical" in "mental" disorders and much "mental" in "physical"
disorders." The say this with no evidence that a single mental
condition/disorder in the DSM-IV is an actual disease having, as it
must, a validating, objective physical abnormality (abnormality =
disease; no abnormality = normal = disease-free) To confuse themselves
and others still further, in the Clinical Psychiatric News 8/02 p 5
"Highlights of the 6 specific DSM-V research agendas, 1. Basic
Nomenclature Issues of the DSM V: How to define "mental disorder" we
read: DSM has never contained a detailed definition that is useful as a
criterion for deciding what is, or is not, a mental disorder.
(this must be taken as coming from the APA DSM committee) In the
meantime they say and infer whenever and however possible that
mental/behavioral/psychiatric conditions/disorders are brain diseases,
chemical imbalances of the brain needing/requiring (if by court order)
treatment always to include chemical
balancers/psychopharmaceuticals.]
. Ultimately, no gross anatomical lesion such as a tumor may ever be
found; rather, mental disorders will likely be proven
to represent disorders of intercellular communication;
or of disrupted neural circuitry.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Here, intended or not, is a confession that they have yet to validate a single one as
a disease/brain disease. SCI and the HUNGER STRIKERS are to be congratulated that
they got this mealy-mouthed confession out of the ever-duplicitous APA. One can
literally feel how desparate they are to preserve the illusion of all things mental as brain
diseases, a propaganda strategy-sans science they set in the 1960's ]
Research already has
elucidated some of the mechanisms of action of
medications that are effective for depression,
schizophrenia, anxiety, attention deficit, and
cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Here, as always is the lexical strategem of mixing things psychiatric, depression,
schizophrenia, anxiety, attention deficit--none diseases, with actual neurological diseases,
in this instance Alzheimer's disease. Not only have they never validated a single
psychiatric entity as a real disease, they never will, for all of them are wholly-subjective
contrivances of the DSM Committee of the APA where they are voted--show of hands--
into existence. As in the past as as according to the pledge of Steven Hyman former
NIMH director, they will waste taxpayer and pharma dollars (we will pay however as
increased cost of drugs) applying every old and new tool of science to the "investigation"
of their contrived, invented, fraudulent brain disorders, chemical imbalances, for no
reason but to compile a voluminous if fraudulent literature seeming to validate such
things as diseases, but validating nothing whatsoever]
These medications clearly exert influence on specific
neurotransmitters, naturally occurring brain chemicals
that effect, or regulate, communication between neurons
in regions of the brain that control mood, complex
reasoning, anxiety, and cognition.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
They invariably damage the brain and body which, with any psychiatric disorder
were previously normal--entirely normal.]
In 1970, The Nobel
Prize was awarded to Julius Axelrod, Ph.D., of the
National Institute of Mental Health, for his discovery
of how anti-depressant medications regulate the
availability of neurotransmitters such as
norepinephrine in the synapses, or gaps, between nerve
cells.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
True enough , however no physical abnormality making depression a
disease/abnormality has ever been found. All known antidepressants like all
psychotropic drugs invariably damage the brain and body--the first and only damage,
there having been no disease. ]
In the absence of one or more biological markers for
mental disorders, these conditions are defined by a
variety of concepts. These include the distress
experienced and reported by a person who has a mental
disorder; the level of disability associated with a
particular condition; patterns of behavior; and
statistical deviation from population-based norms for
cognitive processes, mood regulation, or other indices
of thought, emotion, and behavior.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
No physical or chemical abnormalities--no actual diseases. There being no
diseases, there are no prognoses, which psychiatry contrives as well, saying that such
persons will have an invariable downhill course, controllable only with medication, when
emotions characteristically come and go with changes in one's life-situation. ]
As noted in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of
Mental Disorders, which is published by the APA, the
lack of a laboratory-based diagnostic test is not
unique to mental and behavioral disorders. The
identification of migraine headache is based on
symptom presentation, and the presence of hypertension
is detected through a measure of deviance from a
physiological norm, or standard.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
True or classic migraine is often accompanied by transient scotomata which can be
mapped with a visual field test, its physical abnormalities of the occipital lobes of the
brain, proven, as can be done with concurrent PET or SPECT scanning]
The definition of
'high" cholesterol has moved downward in recent years
as more has been learned about the role of low-density
lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol as a risk factor for
cardiovascular disease and as medications highly
effective in reducing LDL cholesterol have been
refined and increasingly available.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Hypertension and hypercholesterolemia both, in time have their pathological
correlates in coronary artery disease and peripheral vascular disease, not to mention stoke
and heart attack There are no such physical/pathological correlates of psychiatric
conditions. There are of taking any and all psychiatric drugs short or long-term]
The mapping of the human genome already is spurring
the search for genes and gene variants that singly or
in combination may confer risk for the onset of a
mental disorder. It is highly likely that the
maladaptive expression of a risk gene will be shown to
require "triggering" by certain adverse environmental
influences. Here, "environment" may refer to
traumatic events, prenatal/obstetric complications, or
other phenomena that act on and interact with the
brain. Thus, mental disorders may well be shown to be
emergent properties of multiple systems that have gone
subtly awry.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Where no physical abnormality/marker is present it cannot be said the phenotype
is abnormal or that there is a corresponding abnormal genotype (abnormal gene or
chromosome)]
The lack of a laboratory-based diagnostic test for
mental disorders does not diminish the irrefutable
evidence that mental and behavioral disorders exact
devastating emotional and financial tolls on
individuals, families, communities, and our Nation.
The National Institute of Mental Health estimates the
direct (clinical treatment and services) and indirect
(lost/diminished productivity and premature mortality)
cost of mental disorders to be some $160 billion
annually in the United States.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
None of this confirms even one as a disease]
And the landmark
Global Burden of Disease study, conducted by Harvard
University scientists under the sponsorship of the
World Health Organization and the World Bank, found
mental disorders, including suicide, to rank second in
societal burden, behind only cardiovascular conditions,
in established market economies such as the U.S.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
Because they choose to classify such things as diseases, trying their best to get the
consumer public to believe they are, the better, Grandma, to sell you drugs...the better to
get Medicaid and Medicare to pay for your psych drugs, the better to get social services
to coerce you to take them, their new police-in-the name of psychiatry role. Nor is it
limited to Grandma...they are not above drugging infants, toddlers, anyone who can
swallow, those who can't, depot injections will be arranged, the goverment, courts and
police will help there too, no doubt]
Growing public awareness of the burden and costs of
mental illness and of the gains being made through
research are contributing to increasingly enlightened
policies for the organization and financing of mental
health care. Last year, President Bush identified
three obstacles that prevent Americans from getting
the mental health care that they need - stigma, unfair
treatment limitations and financial requirements under
health insurance plans, and a fragmented mental health
service delivery program. In April, the President's
New Freedom Commission on Mental Health recommended
strategies for redressing these and other barriers to
high quality, appropriate mental health care for all
Americans who need it. The APA was privileged to
participate in the development of the report and
strongly endorses the call of the President's New
Freedom Commission "...to protect and enhance the
rights of people with mental illness."
In the months and years ahead, the APA, along with the
National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, the Nation's
mental health research and clinical communities, and
the public at large will strive to achieve the
President's New Freedom Mental Health vision, and will
not be distracted by those who would deny that serious
mental disorders are real medical conditions that can
be diagnosed accurately and treated effectively.
The American Psychiatric Association is a national
medical specialty society, founded in 1844, whose
35,000 physician members specialize in the diagnosis,
treatment and prevention of mental illnesses including
substance use disorders. For more information, visit
the APA Web site at http://www.psych.org www.psych.org.
[Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD:
This is quite a remarkable document, because, for all of its standard duplictous,
roundabout pseudoscientific, pseuomedical talk, it is, after all a confession that there is no
such thing as a mental/psychiatric brain abnormality/disease/syndrome/chemical
balance. Observe there is no bibliography as in any scientific document, not a citation to
proof that a single psychiatric disorder/chemical imbalance is an actual
abnormality/disease, needing/requiring or justifying medical or surgical treatment. That is
what they insist to patients to be able to convince them drugs are necessary because they
are owned, lock stock and barrel by Big Pharma and whoa be unto us, the Congress is
too.--Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD, Fellow, American Academy of Neurology, 9/26/03
]
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