Brainwashed
The Guardian:
Mental illnesses are caused by chemical imbalances in the brain, right? Wrong,
says Craig Newnes
Let's start with
a true story. A colleague in the
My colleague
didn't ask the question that all patients, relatives and advocates should ask
when told that a brain-biochemical problem lies at the root of someone's low
mood or strange behaviour. She could have said:
"Can I see the test results, please?" The truth is that, unlike all
other doctors, psychiatrists do not do physical tests to confirm their
diagnoses. The reason is simple: it is not seen as necessary to prove that
there is something wrong with the brains of patients diagnosed as schizophrenic,
bipolar, depressed and so on. The organic hypothesis, however, remains
unproven.
All sorts of
claims about the physical causes of psychological problems continue to be made
in the scientific literature and popular press. Professor David Cohen, a critic
of psychiatry, has noted that almost all the substances operating within the
human body have been investigated as a possible cause of schizophrenia. This
research is leaked to the press before it has been accepted in a peer-reviewed
journal and "the results are likely to be cited around the world, thought
they may never make it to scientific publication". We are also well aware
of the massive conflicts of interest involved in the studies that do finally
appear in the official literature. Effective Health Care, in reviewing the
newest so-called anti-psychotic medication, concluded: "Most relevant
trials are undertaken by those with clear pecuniary interest in the
results."
Some conditions -
alcohol-induced dementia, for example - show real signs of brain damage. This
is rare. To date, studies have failed to demonstrate that people with the
commonest psychiatric diagnoses have a brain-biochemical imbalance. The studies
on all the main diagnostic categories of psychiatry are plagued by a significant
problem: the people being tested have almost always already received
psychotropic medication, so if there is a blood, brain or liver disorder, this
may have been caused by the treatment. Physical tests on people diagnosed, but
not yet treated, in the psychiatric system, would be the only way to find out
if there were a difference between these people and the general public. This
never happens, as most people first encounter a GP who, instead of asking for
blood and other tests to demonstrate a psychiatric condition, simply prescribes
a psychotropic drug or refers on to a psychiatrist.
Psychiatrists, of
course, do ask for tests such as CT scans on their patients, but these are to
exclude the possibility of brain damage. In other words, they are checking to
see if there is a real brain problem, evidence of illegal drug use or whatever.
Once they have concluded that there is nothing demonstrably amiss with the
patient's brain or biochemistry, they tell the person that they have a
condition that results from a biochemical problem. But they don't have a test
that could prove a so-called mental illness was actually organic in origin.
That's why patients are not offered tests of brain chemistry.
Imagine the same
situation in oncology: you are told that you look like you have cancer, offered
no tests, and told you will have two operations, followed by radiotherapy and a
course of drugs that makes your hair fall out. The idea is preposterous. You
demand proof of your condition. An x-ray, a CT scan and blood and liver tests
reveal that the diagnosis was accurate. Reassured, though still very scared,
you agree to the treatment.
So next time you
are told that a psychiatric condition is due to a brain-biochemical imbalance,
ask if you can see the test results.
· Craig Newnes is
psychological therapies director for
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