[ExI] Top ten dumbest remarks

[Mike Dougherty]

On 10/9/07, Stathis Papaioannou <stathisp at gmail.com> wrote:
> The other comment about subtypes of psychotic illnesses is that we
> don't really have a test which can be used to show that these are
> pathologically distinct entities. Different patterns are recognised,
> but they all appear to merge seamlessly at the edges: delusional
> disorder with paranoid schizophrenia, schizophrenia with
> schizoaffective disorder, schizoaffective disorder with bipolar
> disorder. The multiple genes implicated in each subtype overlap, and a
> family history of one predisposes to all of the others. Moreover, they
> all respond in much the same way to antipsychotic medication. Thus, it
> may turn out that there is only one psychotic illness with different
> symptoms in different cases.

You present a clear point, free of emotional bias.  I admit my initial
post on this thread was completely reactionary.  My personal
experience with the field of psychiatry was overwhelmingly
unfortunate.  Perhaps if doctors established some level of trust
before prescribing medication, there would be a greater acceptance of
their proposed treatment program.  I understand that circumstances
affect the feasibility of this approach.

Where is line drawn for mental health professionals?  Is every
observable behavior just cause for diagnosis of disorder?  In my
experience, every glance or body position was scrutinized for some
deviation from normal or acceptable (read: statistical average) - so
how can someone be more than a standard deviation from the top of the
curve and avoid unfavorable psychiatric labels?  (My guess would be
that most of this list's members would  land outside the range of
average for most standardized tests)