Comparison of Schizophrenia Drugs Often Favors Firm Funding Study

[MountainLaurel]

This is in Health and GD, but I thought people in this group might be especially interested:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x913423

[Kire]

1. I am of the opinion that Schizophrenia is not a real disease.

It may be an illness, or a disorder, but not a disease that has a single cause or a single symptom. Heterogenious Etiology is one of the first phrases I learned when I looked it up after I got my diagnosis. Anybody ever read R.D. Laing? He says Schizophrenic is something that people who think they're normal like to label people who are a little (or a lot) different from them. Say all you want about "chemical imbalance", but even that is pretty vague terminology. Even though Laing is known as a leading figure in the anti-psychiatry movement, I don't agree with him that medication and hospitalization is unneccesary. On the theoretical level, he's great. In practice, not so much. Now what this has to do with the original post (LOL), is that schizophrenia is a political disease as much as it is a medical one. That schizophrenia drug firms practice politics is terribly sad, but it's not surprising to me. Thanks for letting me share.

[varkam]

2. I have to think that

When a friend of mine goes into the active phase of schizophrenia and starts seeing and hearing things that aren't there - that's skeedadling past a little / a lot different. That is a psychotic break from reality.

[Random_Australian]

3. ...

:cry::cry::cry:

[hedgehog]

4. If you look at the post about autism and schizophrenia,

you may see some new evidence. I know it is a real disease and I think it may be a metabolic disorder. If you ever get a chance to see some twin studies where one twin is effected and the other isn't, the difference in the pictures can be amazing. Taken by itself, the picture of the sick twin may look like someone who had their picture taken at the license bureau. Put that picture next to a photo of the healthy twin and it is clear that there is some kind of illness involved that is effecting the entire body.