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We need to listen to the patients' story
and develop a response to it.
The approach to complex syndromes
may be much more profound
than just trying to point a round peg into a square hole
and get a singular diagnosis.
--Jeffrey S. Bland, PhD
(commentary between copied articles by Jacob Schor, not me)
American Cancer Society, in a Shift, Recommends Fewer Mammograms
By DENISE GRADY OCT. 20, 2015
New York Times
One of the most respected and influential groups in the continuing breast-cancer screening debate said on Tuesday that women should begin mammograms later and have them less frequently than it had long advocated.
The American Cancer Society, which has for years taken the most aggressive approach to screening, issued new guidelines on Tuesday, recommending that women with an average risk of breast cancer start having mammograms at 45 and continue once a year until 54, then every other year for as long as they are healthy and expected to live another 10 years.
The organization also said it no longer recommended clinical breast exams, in which doctors or nurses feel for lumps, for women of any age who have had no symptoms of abnormality in the breasts.
( Read more... )The DSM, of course, is the list of diagnoses written by and for psychiatrists who are dispensing pharmaceuticals which are covered by insurance. The DSM does not consider the possible causes of the disorders listed, nor allow for the possibility that simple lifestyle changes might be adequate to "cure" a disorder. The book is used to authorize the mental health professional to dispense psychoactive medications. No conflicts of interest there (ahem).
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH instead of just NIH) has decided that the basis of the DSM is not scientific enough, and it is not using those diagnoses as a foundation for ongoing research. The new Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to is intended to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and more to create a new classification system. The new system of knowledge will be based on biology as well as symptoms, and will consider specific brain circuits, genetics, and experiences without regard for DSM categories. In fact the NIH is looking to support research projects that look across or subdivide current categories.
This is superb and hopeful to every person who has even been stuck with a diagnosis that didn't fit, or medicated when a simpler solution wasn't even entertained. My congratulations to the NIH for being independent enough to seek the truth.
SOURCE
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml
The National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH instead of just NIH) has decided that the basis of the DSM is not scientific enough, and it is not using those diagnoses as a foundation for ongoing research. The new Research Domain Criteria (RDoC) project to is intended to transform diagnosis by incorporating genetics, imaging, cognitive science, and more to create a new classification system. The new system of knowledge will be based on biology as well as symptoms, and will consider specific brain circuits, genetics, and experiences without regard for DSM categories. In fact the NIH is looking to support research projects that look across or subdivide current categories.
This is superb and hopeful to every person who has even been stuck with a diagnosis that didn't fit, or medicated when a simpler solution wasn't even entertained. My congratulations to the NIH for being independent enough to seek the truth.
SOURCE
http://www.nimh.nih.gov/about/director/2013/transforming-diagnosis.shtml
Tags:
- anxiety,
- autism,
- bipolar,
- brain,
- depression,
- diagnosis,
- ocd,
- personality,
- psych,
- science
QotD: Medicine is Grunt Work
Dec. 24th, 2013 11:14 amMedicine is "like working in an auto repair shop," writes veteran internist Brendan Reilly. "You listen to what the car owner says; you ask him some questions; you listen carefully to his answers; and then you look under the hood. People today think medicine is all about technology -- DNA tests and MRI scans and robotic surgery. But it isn't. There's an age-old, tried-and-true method to clinical medicine, and there's nothing mysterious or high-tech about it. It's grunt work.... If you shortcut the grunt work you'll screw up the job."
DSM 5 (not V) Notes
Nov. 5th, 2013 07:12 pmThese notes from the Oct 15, 2013 Grand Rounds at OHSU in the Psychiatry department. Watching it online, it's about "what you need to know about the new DSM".
( notes )
( notes )Tags:
QotD: Crazy
May. 28th, 2013 08:54 amWe are all, to some extent, crazy. If you come to know any human being well enough, you eventually gain access to the basement where the traumas and wounds and deprivations are stored; rummage in there for a while, and you begin to understand the neuroses and fixations that shape his or her personality. The successful, reasonably happy people I've known are nuts in a way that works for them. Those who struggle and suffer fail to turn their preoccupations to some meaningful use. Next week, the American Psychiatric Association release the latest version of its bible of mental illnesses, the DSM-5, which catalogs about 300 categories of crazy. Critics of all kinds have lined up to assail this dictionary of disorders as subjective and lacking in scientific validity--assembled primarily to justify the prescribing of pills of dubious value.
About 50 percent of the population, the APA admits, will have one of its listed disorders at some point in their lives. Shy, like Emily Dickinson? You have "avoidant personality disorder." Obsessed with abstractions and numbers? You have "autistic spectrum disorder," like Isaac Newton. Suffer form "narcissistic personality disorder," with some hypersexuality thrown in? You must be a politician. To be skeptical of these neat categories isn't to deny that minds get broken, stuck, or lost, and need help finding their way out of misery. But psychotherapy remains an art, not a science; there is no bright line between nuts or not. If you're an old lady who lives amid piles of newspapers and personal treasures, you have "hoarding disorder." If you're a CEO who exploits sweatshop labor to pile up countless billions, you're on the cover of Forbes.
--William Faulk (editor-in-chief) in The Week, May 24, 2013 issue.
About 50 percent of the population, the APA admits, will have one of its listed disorders at some point in their lives. Shy, like Emily Dickinson? You have "avoidant personality disorder." Obsessed with abstractions and numbers? You have "autistic spectrum disorder," like Isaac Newton. Suffer form "narcissistic personality disorder," with some hypersexuality thrown in? You must be a politician. To be skeptical of these neat categories isn't to deny that minds get broken, stuck, or lost, and need help finding their way out of misery. But psychotherapy remains an art, not a science; there is no bright line between nuts or not. If you're an old lady who lives amid piles of newspapers and personal treasures, you have "hoarding disorder." If you're a CEO who exploits sweatshop labor to pile up countless billions, you're on the cover of Forbes.
--William Faulk (editor-in-chief) in The Week, May 24, 2013 issue.
Tongue in Diagnosis
Nov. 8th, 2011 06:30 pmNot just for the Chinese medicine practitioners... I've been taking note of tongues for a couple years now and they do tell quite a tale of a person's insides.
Nice article here from someone at Stanford U:
http://stanford25.wordpress.com/the-tongue-in-diagnosis/
Nice article here from someone at Stanford U:
http://stanford25.wordpress.com/the-tongue-in-diagnosis/
Mercola breaks it down quite well in this article.
Here's the latest (Aug 2011) study.
Excellent article here by Dr Schor, on Aspirin/Cox inhibitors for breast cancer prevention or prevention of recurrence:
http://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?edition=1§ion=2&article=271&utm_source=Natural+Medicine+Journal+List&utm_campaign=6379125056-December_2011_Issue11_28_2011&utm_medium=email
Pearl: Over-expression of COX-2 occurs in about 40% of invasive breast cancer cases and is more common in large tumors, positive lymph nodes, ductal histology, and tumors that are high histological grade or hormone receptor–negative. Thus it makes even more sense to attempt to affect COX activity in women whose cancers fit these criteria.
Here's the latest (Aug 2011) study.
Excellent article here by Dr Schor, on Aspirin/Cox inhibitors for breast cancer prevention or prevention of recurrence:
http://www.naturalmedicinejournal.com/article_content.asp?edition=1§ion=2&article=271&utm_source=Natural+Medicine+Journal+List&utm_campaign=6379125056-December_2011_Issue11_28_2011&utm_medium=email
Pearl: Over-expression of COX-2 occurs in about 40% of invasive breast cancer cases and is more common in large tumors, positive lymph nodes, ductal histology, and tumors that are high histological grade or hormone receptor–negative. Thus it makes even more sense to attempt to affect COX activity in women whose cancers fit these criteria.
Tags:
QotD: Diseases of the Soul
May. 12th, 2011 09:08 amDiseases of the soul
are more dangerous
and more numerous
than those of the body.
--Cicero
are more dangerous
and more numerous
than those of the body.
--Cicero
Tags:
Headaches can be divided into two major categories, known as primary and secondary headaches. Primary headaches are those that occur for no known cause, and are grouped as either migraine, tension, or cluster headaches. They are said to not be caused by an underlying medical condition, and constitute 90% of all headaches. Secondary headaches are because you have a tumor, bleed, infarction, infection, or other brain injury. Some 12% of all Americans suffer from headaches.
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( more )Acromegaly
Dec. 16th, 2010 10:36 pmWhat are the face, skull and foot changes seen with acromegaly?
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