I don't exactly know what your goal is posting negative things about specialties of medicine on these forums. Maybe it's just for attention in general. However, opinions like yours are not a new thing. Fear in general, and especially fear of the unknown, has led people to some pretty rash conclusions. People like you have in the past tried to discount the field of psychiatry. People like you have in the past tried to discount science in general, leading to suppression by the church and the killing of many great minds. People like you have been around for a while, and will continue to be around for even longer. My question to you would be "How could you be so ignorant?" but maybe you're just a little inexperienced. I will tell you that medicine has a component of art in addition to it's component of science, and not everything in mainstream medicine is as clear-cut as you probably think it is. Did you know there is no actual blood glucose level that defines hypoglycemia?
About psychiatry, I guess your argument is that the specialty is a sham because in other fields people's symptoms are more easily backed up by clear pathophysiology and hard objective evidence we can see on x-rays and blood tests... and in psychiatry people's symptoms and derangement from normal are backed up by nothing more than what they tell you, and things inside their mind can't be objectified. I bet you didn't realize that other fields of medicine are just like this. Howabout ALS, the most common disease of motor neurons... Do you know of any diagnostic tests or "scienctific" things we can do to diagnose it? Nope, me either, it's a purely clinical diagnosis, and in fact there are a certain amount of people who are told they have it and don't. So, on the lines of that, how do you explain a neuroloigal condition that takes place in the absence of any known organic cause after a huge life stressor and then spontaneously remits? The rest of us call this a psychiatric somatoform disorder, but what you YOU call it? Let me introduce to you the concept of the biopsychosocial model, the basis for the current thinking and practice in psychiatry, which you should look up. Your ideas are basically at the very least outdated in modern medicine. Do you read current research? Don't be so quick to say there is no way of quantifying or standardizing levels of serotonin if you don't actually know for sure, this type of jumping to conclusions makes you look foolish in life. Have you ever heard of hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA)? It's a breakdown product of serotonin used very much in clinical medicine, and recent research has associated decreased CSF levels of this substance very strongly to disorders of aggression and violent suicide. The elevation of levels of serotonin itself it also strongly linked to autism. These types of findings will continue to support psychiatry as a clinical science, and will hopefully fend off antagonistic minds like yours. The current state of insurance coverage for anything aside from drugs is absolutely sickening, and it is my hope that in the very near future our country will start to better support the treatment of people who really need psychiatric help, and they'll be able to even come close to affording appropriate care.
You clearly have never had anyone you care about in your life become afflicted with a psychiatric disorder. How could you be so blind to the existence of these types of problems?
