Posted by Ilene on January 30, 2004, at 13:02:07
In reply to Is depression a disease? « Chairman_MAO, posted by Dr. Bob on January 28, 2004, at 18:49:40
> > If you've ever wondered about this (and there's hardly a final word on the subject), I'd like to know what you think about each side of this debate:
> >
> > http://www.szasz.com/isdepressionadiseasetranscript.html
> >
> > I don't get to talk to many people face to face that are interested in this, and so I figured I'd give it a shot here.
>I couldn't even get to the end of the debate because the Szasz camp kept changing the subject from the nature of depression to forced drugging or hospitilization.
If you believe that in order for a disease to be "real" it must cause a physiological or anatomical abnormality, then you are placing way too much faith in medical technology. For example: I broke my pelvis a few years ago. The diagnosis was made by x-ray. It was a hairline fracture; there was nothing to see on the outside of my body. (I had hardly any bruising, perhaps because I was lying on nice cold snow and ice until the ambulance came.) If I had had the same fall before x-rays had been invented, would my pain and inability to walk been attributed to a social construct? Probably not. The diagnosis would have been made from my history--a bad fall, pain in my hip, I could wiggle my toes but asserted the pain was too bad to walk. (There's no objective way to test someone else's pain.)
The argument about objective abnormalities in psychiatric disorders is becoming moot as brain imaging technology improves, anyway.
Ilene
poster:Ilene
thread:306610
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20040120/msgs/307318.html