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Tyrer, 2012 Threading psychiatry towards brain disease


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Disturbed by the loss of prestige in psychiatry, the editor of the British Journal of Psychiatry ponders the possibility of its absorption into a real biomedical discipline, neurology.

 

The British Journal of Psychiatry (2012) 200: 518 June 2012

From the Editor's desk

Threading psychiatry towards brain disease

Peter Tyrer

 

Full text at http://bjp.rcpsych.org/content/200/6/518.full

 

John Bucknill, founding editor of this Journal, always argued that psychiatric illness was a brain disease1 and the study of the brain was the answer to professional advancement for psychiatrists. Today I think he would have become a neurologist – and of course he was one of the founders of the journal Brain. I have to be frank and say that I would not have contemplated becoming a psychiatrist if it had been a branch of neurology at the time. When I was a medical student my experiences with neurology were similar to the feelings I get when I see the sport of synchronised swimming. I admire their skills, coordination and professionalism but am left absolutely cold by what they do. Similarly the brilliance and diagnostic acumen of the good neurologist provoked similar regard but when the outcome of consultations rarely involved anything that I could remotely call therapy I switched off. So I opted for the rough and tumble of core psychiatric practice even though it required very different skills. I suspect the practice of therapeutics within neurology has improved since my medical student times but from our recent work it still appears that one in four patients attending neurology clinics has a treatable mental illness that is unrecognised and often mismanaged,2 although many of these patients have complex functional somatic problems (Morriss, pp. 444–445) that we are only just beginning to understand and manage successfully (Schröder et al, pp. 499–507).

 

But of course, however interested we are in the practice of psychiatry we cannot ignore brain function in our work, and increasingly we are linking clinical features to neurophysiology and neuropathology. Four papers in the issue do exactly this. Jeremy Holmes (pp. 439–441) joins up the unlikely bedfellows of neuropsychology and psychoanalysis and gives a hint that we may soon be able to identify the bourne of the unconscious mind in the depths of the brain. Duijff et al (pp. 462–468) take a genetic disorder, velocardiofacial syndrome, that is commonly associated with schizophrenia, and show that many, but not all, children with this condition show cognitive decline between 5 and 10 years of age. Most clinicians are aware that dementia with Lewy bodies is frequently associated with visual hallucinations, and the studies of Taylor et al (pp. 491–498)3 are beginning to unravel the role of the higher regions of the occipito-parietal cortex in this pathology. Finally, Eccles et al (pp. 508–509) in their challenging paper suggest that amygdala abnormalities may account for the double pathology of hypermobility and the stress/anxiety diathesis in such patients, but of course interpretation is limited as the participants were only volunteers. These studies, and similar ones we have published recently4,5 add to knowledge in an incremental way but only rarely6 do they have a message that is of direct relevance to the practising clinician, and at this stage they seem unlikely to have a quick impact on the bulge of mental disorders in the 20–40 age group, where they dominate all other pathologies.7

 

So neurology and psychiatry have some way to go before they join in harmony....

 

An endangered species?

 

As we move closer towards the brain I detect a loss of confidence in the profession about its role. I have recently been at an East European and Serbian Congress in Belgrade where there was an open debate about the future of psychiatry and its practitioners. We live in turbulent economic times and may have a right to be gloomy, but I was quite disturbed to hear speaker after speaker predicting the demise of our profession or its absorption into neurology or some other discipline, as the funding for mental illness and respect for psychiatrists gets progressively less. Retrenchment seems to be the current message, together with a return to old disciplines echoed in our columns.8,9 What disturbed me even more was the claim that stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness is getting worse and that our lack of direction is contributing to this. I certainly do not detect this in the UK and with so many initiatives working to promote optimism and reduce stigma10 I honestly do think we have reasons to be cheerful, if not now, at least in the longer term.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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snort I wish psychiatrists were an endangered species...

 

So now emotional/mental distress due to past hurts and the unhealthiness of modern life is going to become a neurological problem...

 

I mean, yes, there are some people, probably, who wouldn't respond well to intensive and appropriate therapy and a supportive and caring life environment. Probably. Maybe. A few.

 

I am highly skeptical that the majority of "mental illness" is due to some kind of disease process.

Started on Prozac and Xanax in 1992 for PTSD after an assault. One drug led to more, the usual story. Got sicker and sicker, but believed I needed the drugs for my "underlying disease". Long story...lost everything. Life savings, home, physical and mental health, relationships, friendships, ability to work, everything. Amitryptiline, Prozac, bupropion, buspirone, flurazepam, diazepam, alprazolam, Paxil, citalopram, lamotrigine, gabapentin...probably more I've forgotten. 

Started multidrug taper in Feb 2010.  Doing a very slow microtaper, down to low doses now and feeling SO much better, getting my old personality and my brain back! Able to work full time, have a full social life, and cope with stress better than ever. Not perfect, but much better. After 23 lost years. Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. And "medicine for profit" is just not a great idea.

 

Feb 15 2010:  300 mg Neurontin  200 Lamictal   10 Celexa      0.65 Xanax   and 5 mg Ambien 

Feb 10 2014:   62 Lamictal    1.1 Celexa         0.135 Xanax    1.8 Valium

Feb 10 2015:   50 Lamictal      0.875 Celexa    0.11 Xanax      1.5 Valium

Feb 15 2016:   47.5 Lamictal   0.75 Celexa      0.0875 Xanax    1.42 Valium    

2/12/20             12                       0.045               0.007                   1 

May 2021            7                       0.01                  0.0037                1

Feb 2022            6                      0!!!                     0.00167               0.98                2.5 mg Ambien

Oct 2022       4.5 mg Lamictal    (off Celexa, off Xanax)   0.95 Valium    Ambien, 1/4 to 1/2 of a 5 mg tablet 

 

I'm not a doctor. Any advice I give is just my civilian opinion.

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If psychiatry were absorbed into neurology, it might be an advantage to the rest of the world: Perhaps neurologists would be more intolerant of the cr*p science that passes in psychiatry and those papers would get the ridicule from doctors they so richly deserve.

This is not medical advice. Discuss any decisions about your medical care with a knowledgeable medical practitioner.

"It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has surpassed our humanity." -- Albert Einstein

All postings © copyrighted.

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"...stigma and discrimination against people with mental illness is getting worse and that our lack of direction is contributing to this."

 

Ya think?

Pristiq tapered over 8 months ending Spring 2011 after 18 years of polydrugging that began w/Zoloft for fatigue/general malaise (not mood). CURRENT: 1mg Klonopin qhs (SSRI bruxism), 75mg trazodone qhs, various hormonesLitigation for 11 years for Work-related injury, settled 2004. Involuntary medical retirement in 2001 (age 39). 2012 - brain MRI showing diffuse, chronic cerebrovascular damage/demyelination possibly vasculitis/cerebritis. Dx w/autoimmune polyendocrine failure.<p>2013 - Dx w/CNS Sjogren's Lupus (FANA antibodies first appeared in 1997 but missed by doc).

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