Posted by SLS on September 22, 2006, at 12:24:07 [reposted on September 25, 2006, at 0:09:08 | original URL]
In reply to Re: the brain » Squiggles, posted by alexandra_k on September 22, 2006, at 0:15:26
Gosh, Alexandra.
I wish that I had the energy to type here the proof you would need to convince you that bipolar disorder is a disorder of the brain. I don't. It is one of the cruelties of the disorder. Those who are the most severely affected and need the most help are the ones who are the least capable of advocating for themselves. One of the most critical and often life-or-death needs that anyone with bipolar disorder must have met is that for those around them to recognize that they have a biological illness - a disorder of the brain. Without this, they will not receive the biological treatment that will get them well nor the psychological support that will sustain them emotionally. Anything short of the full recognition that their illness is of biological origin is to confuse their world and sabotage their spirit.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the official national repository of medical research. They not only perform research at their own sites, they fund and review research all over the world. They have an extensive psychology program along with their departments of neuroscience and biological psychiatry.
"Bipolar disorder, also known as manic-depressive illness, is a brain disorder"
C:\Medicine\Neuroscience\Mental Health\NIH\bipolarresfact.cfm.htm
The fact that bipolar disorder is a multi-gene illness with epigenetic contributions that are not yet fully mapped out makes it no less physiological. Scientists do not have schizophrenia or Alzheimers Disease completely mapped out either. That does not make them psychological by default.
I am very desiring to know your opinion regarding schizophrenia. Do you believe it to be a biological disorder?
- Scott
poster:SLS
thread:688931
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20060922/msgs/688938.html