Is psychiatry a legitimate field of medicine???

Post Reply New Topic

I picked my user name to make fun of when tom cruise was blasting matt lauer (sp) about psychiatry and he said "Here's the problem. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do." Even though I think cruise's ideas are extreme i can't totally disagree with him. Psychiatry is the most ignorant field of medicine. You go to a psychiatrist, tell him how you feel and then he just writes you a prescription. A psych is an MD, but he doesn't really do any examining. It would be much better if psychiatry was blended with neurology. Let's say you went to the psych and told him you were depressed and you don't know why. Then he gives you a CAT scan and an MRI. Then he looks over the results and says "Well, based on the scans, i can see why you are depressed. It's because your serotonin is depleted here and here and yada yada etc. Based on these charts i'm going to prescribe this med." That would be a more accurate field. But the psych normally just hands out meds without any physical data to show why you are having mental issues. What if people get stressed or depressed in different ways because of different chemical reactions that each individual person may have? Though i'm on psych meds that have saved my life (i probably would've killed myself) I still see it as ignorant to blindly prescribe meds without any evidence of what's causing their illness. This would be like you telling your dermitologist about a rash you have on your arm, and without even examining your rash he just writes you perscriptions. I know that psychiatrists have a general idea about what causes mental issues, but that is still just a very general idea. Not more than 70 years ago they believed that jamming an icepick into your frontal brain lobe would cure insanity. I hope that psychiatry someday evolves. But for right now i only see a psychiatrist to get more meds he prescribes me.

I seems a trial-and-error(s) method made into a medical practice. At least do some blood work, like genetic testing if the problems are hereditary and get custom medications from the start. But then, the job of a doctor could be handled by a lab-technician and computer.

No, psychiatry is not a legitimate field of medicine. This is even acknowledged by my introductory psychology textbook. Most of psychiatry is bunk, and Neo-Freudians should not be able to prescribe drugs.

I don't know, but I have read that given the increasing overlap with hard-scientific fields such as neuroscience due to advancements in medical science, it's swiftly becoming more valid and effective.

Psychiatry is junk science that uses dangerous drugs (that probably cause brain damage) to control people. I think the US government used to use psychiatry to detain people they didn't like by locking them up in a hospital to get around the requirement that a person has to commit a crime to lose their freedom.

Check out http://www.antipsychiatry.org/unjustif.htm to find out what psychiatry is all about.

ive never met one nice psychiatrist. maybe its because they deal with humanitys bs, im not shure but im more fond of psychologists

It's moving that direction. I got some tapes from the library by a guy who studies anxiety, anger, depression, etc. and he does exactly that. He can't tell exactly that serotonin is low or high, but different types of anxiety correspond to different changes in the brain, and they respond differently to various treatments. Forget the name of the book on tape.

No, psychiatry is not legitimate.
Unfortunately, just like school, I had to go "against my will" as a teenager. The more I learn about the occult, the more I learn exactly what it is that the mental health profession "does" and why it is so dangerous.

i generally disagree with psychiatry as a matter of principle.

it is also interesting to note that the theory of serotonin depletion as the cause of depression is being increasingly questioned and rejected.

I have no problem with psychiatry itself, but I do think there needs to be some reforms in how it is practiced. I totally agree with the OP that there needs to be a closer relationship between psychiatrists and neuroscientists so we can get a better understanding of the physiological basis of things like Depression and Schizophrenia and so medication isn't prescribed when it doesn't need to be.

Since the DSM-III (1980), psychiatry has been moving closer to neurology and neuroscience. The majority of psychiatrists have now largely abandoned Freudian explanations for behavior in favor of Emil Kraepelin's genetic and biological nosology (classification system). In fact, many of the people who were involved with developing the DSM-III called themselves neo-Kraepelinians. Some neurologists and psychiatrists are even talking about a possible eventual merger.

My own psychiatrist, by the way, believes that mainstream psychiatry has too uncritically bought into neuroscience. He sees a lot of the younger psychiatrists as little more than technicians.

I agree with nominalist. Im surprised many people still think psychiatrists still prescribe to the beleifs of Freud. Studying Freud is like a scientist studying the early practices of the middle ages concerning the humours, or the 19th Century practice of bloodletting. It's interesting, but everyone knows it's only theory.

Yes, psychiatry is legitimate. I dont know why people assume the brain is the almighty organ, immune to any type of malfunction. The brain is an organ just like any other. If a heart malfucnitons, no one thinks a caridologist is a pseudoscientist. If a kidney malfunctions, no one assumes the patient is faking it or the doctor is a quack. But if a brain malfunctions, people are quick to jump to the conclusion that since the brain's function is (among others) to think, people can just get over it or that the doctors are not necessary.

Our thoughts are nothing more than a series of chemical reactions in our brains. Whether we believe they are our soul or not, damage a part of your brain, and you're a completely different person.



Our heart's function is to pump blood. When a heart malfunctions, our blood pumping is distrubed. Our kidneys' function is regulate elimination/keep us clean and free from toxicity, destroy them and we are lacking in being able to keep them and and our bodies clean. It is only logical to assume that is a brian malfunctions, it will be in the area of thinking or behavior, since it regulates these activities.

Have psychiatrists screwed up in the past? Yes, Just like any other brand of medicine though that inserts faulty pacemakers or takes off an arm for a bullet wound in the past.

Psychiatrists do give too much medicine out, in my opinion. But it is also true that many people do need medication. A psychiatrist is specifically supposed to give you meds, while a therapist or a psyhologist is supposed to guide you through talk therapy/CBT etc.

I dont think it would be logically to give scans when people are feeling a certain way, simply becuase scan usage should be regulated and given out ONLY for life threatening illness like cancer, as getting a lot of scans actually increases your risk of developing tumors because of repeated exposure to radiation.

The brain unlike the heart or kidneys can be unwell without any neurological damage being present. I think neuroscience can only explain so much. You can't put the mind under a microscope and say that one is a sociopath and that one right there is an artist's brain. . I think of the mind is more than just an organ; it's the center of a person's universe. I think people should be skeptical all different kinds of doctors. They are not gods and todays medical professions hardly even know their own patients.



It depends on the site of the damage and where in your brain you have been damaged. Frontal lobe and major brain damage is going to affect a person more substantially than minor brain damage. A person can change drastically without any brain damage being present. That is another phemenomenal fact about the brain; like the rest of the body it grows and dies yet unlike your kidneys you can change the way your brain works.

.

Your brain can malfunction such as having a stroke without you even being aware what is happening let alone it having a noticable effect on your thinking or behavior.




I think the over dependence on medication of all different kinds is unhealthy. The over abuse of both psychotropic drugs on both young children and inmates makes me very wary of the whole field. That and only 1/3 schizophrenics actually respond to medication. It makes one think how ineffective prescription drugs are.

I think the main problem with psychiatry is that they base their dx on sometimes flawed interpretations. Since there are few physical means of correctly diagnosing a mental disease, it is somewhat flawed and even potentially dangerous.

There's no way to pinpoint with a 100% certainty with many mental disorders. They're left guessing and prescribing based on their guesses.

There are many diseases that are considered functional - they do not involve physical damage to the organs. IBS is one example - there is no known damage to the bowels, they simply do not function the way they should. Some palpitations are also considered functional - no damage to the heart, it just isn't working properly - maybe too much anxiety or caffeine. GERD (acid reflux) is another functional disease that can lead to real damage of the esophagus, but which initially seems to occur in the absence of damage.

Well...what do you suggest having done with schizophrenics? Hey, we could always go back to chaining them up in insane asylums, but I don't think that they'd like that very much.

Yeah.