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Old Oct 24, 2014, 06:23 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Swabbingred View Post
Zinco, the point I'm trying to make here about it not being a physical disease is that no mental illness is diagnosed or detected by doing brain scans, blood tests and lab tests. Sure, a blood test may indicate something correlating with depression but no one gets a blood test done then comes out with a diagnosis of depression.

The legal and medical community treat it as a disease, so there wouldn't be a reason why they wouldn't portray it as a disease - it does not however meet the scientific criterion for disease. Mental illness is identifiable by certain behaviors, not through the examination of cell function, organ and tissue... and disease is a derangement of cell function, organ and tissue.

Neurologists study the abnormalities of the brain and nervous system, never for a suicide.
I take your point and you are correct. Diagnosis is based on the DSM and symptoms. There is however a growing body of evidence that for some disorders for at least some people genetics, abnormal cell function, abnormal communication between neural pathways, shrinkage of hippocampus and other areas, and receptors and monoamines play a very large role.

Neurology and psychiatry is marrying up. To say suicide is not studied in such a way is not true. here is one. Whether is means anything I do not know but it is being studied.
https://bbrfoundation.org/brain-matt...for-predicting

I readily admit that way more is unknown than known but it is advancing. The brain is very hard tissue to study.

Venus I am sure we could link and counter link all day on antidepressants. The studies are all over the place. I doubt you could counter family hereditary studies, twin studies, new studies on genetic markers. Brain imaging studies.....If I post a brain imaging study you will just say pretty pictures don't mean squat.

To be totally honest my main interest in it comes from my personal family history of rampant alcoholism and depression and my personal experience with 20 years of depression treatment. I believe in my case there are deep genetic biological factors as core cause. This is anecdotal and unscientific and I can't make general statements based on that but I believe it is true for many people and some disorders.
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Major Depressive Disorder
Anxiety Disorder with some paranoid delusions thrown in for fun.
Recovering Alcoholic and Addict
Possibly on low end of bi polar spectrum...trying to decide.

Male, 50

Fetzima 80mg
Lamictal 100mg
Remeron 30mg for sleep
Klonopin .5mg twice a day, cutting this back
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