4 ms·

Anthropologists are not doctors qualified to redefine medical diseases. Autoethnography is not scientific. I think this is the wrong place for this piece.

dwaltrip 9y ago
Can you point out a single specific piece of bullshit in the article? Otherwise your comment doesn't belong on HN. I found the article to be interesting and well written, and I'm very much a strong supporter of actual science. Mental illness is incredibly complex, and we have a long way to go in making significant progress. EDIT: the parent comment has been edited to remove some aggressive language. Thanks, I appreciate that.
dang 9y ago
I'm not sure what you mean by that but HN is an emphatically pluralist place and articles of all disciplines are welcome here.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
dm319 9y ago
Yes, I think this piece is dangerous in some ways. The article makes out that there has been controversy about the degree of genetic cause of schizophrenia, citing tiny effects of specific genes - but that misses the point (as the article mentions, it is a polygenic disease) - at least for the last 20-30 years we've thought that there was a roughly 30% influence of our genetic make up on acquiring the disease - the environment has long been known to have an effect on acquiring and also relapsing with the disease. Also using an anecdote of what someone remembers of their experience being admitted to a psychiatric hospital post delivery is unlikely to be useful. If she really had a psychotic episode, her memory of the event is likely going to be very patchy, and a lack of insight is a common feature of the disease. She probably received some sort of anti-psychotic as an emergency measure - I somehow doubt she smiled and agreed with the doctors to get discharged. Post-natal psychotic episodes are seen as some of the most aggressive / dangerous forms of psychosis. The article makes some good points that psychiatrists may find they have less and less time to spend with patients, and that medication is seen as the answer to too often. The reason I say the article is dangerous is psychotherapy and anthropology are not sciences. I think they can be used as ideas to test, but the efficacy of anti-psychotics has been proven in trials. Not effectively treating a psychotic episode can easily result in death, and anyone experiencing psychotic symptoms do need to seek proper medical help. Just hearing voices on its own is not enough to make a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but they would at least check for the other symptoms. Anyway, maybe a psychiatrist can chime in here, it's been a while since I've been involved with anything psychiatry-related.
- microwavecamera 9y ago
  Not a psychiatrist but I am schizophrenic. I agree, medication should be the first line of treatment. I developed major symptoms in my early 20s but didn't get diagnosed until I was in my early 30s. No amount of therapy would have made a difference. It fundamentally changes your perceptions. All the paranoia and delusions make perfect sense and seem completely logical when you're in that state. I never knew to seek treatment because I didn't know anything was wrong, even in spite of my life being in complete shambles. It wasn't until I got on medication for the first time and didn't experience major schizophrenic and psychotic symptoms that I finally realized the full extent of what I had been experiencing. I do agree with environmental factors being a major contributor to the severity of the symptoms but the symptoms themselves are a major contributor to the environmental factors. The symptoms prevent you from achieving or maintaining any semblance of normalcy or stability which in turn create stressors that exacerbate the symptoms. Without medication there's no way to break the cycle.
  - tcj_phx 9y ago
    Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree that there's a sort of negative feedback loop for people who exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia. A few years ago I went to visit someone in jail whom I'd only known from an internet message board. He couldn't stop talking, and had probably been arrested for being disruptively psychotic. He's doing much better now. > Without medication there's no way to break the cycle. Metabolic therapies break the cycle too. The simplest form of this is Niacinamide, one of the B-vitamins. Also useful are T3 thyroid, topical progesterone USP, CO2, good nutrition, etc...
    - microwavecamera 9y ago
      Diet and nutritional supplements do help but it really depends on the severity of the symptoms. I don't know much about T3 thyroid and topical progesterone USP, so I can't say how effective they are. I had been researching alternatives to prescription medication, mostly because of the issues I've had getting steady access to ones that don't have major side effects like Haldol and other 1st generation anti-psychotics. I found out about studies done with Tetrahydropalmatine (THP) a naturally occurring compound found in corydalis plants that target the same dopamine receptors as atypical anti-psychotics and found it to be moderately effective. I had also read studies done with L-Stepholidine a naturally occurring compound found in Stephania which is a more potent THP analog. The studies found it to be more effective but haven't been able to find a US supplier. I also came across studies successfully treating schizophrenia with the cannabinoid CBD and tried that recently which I found to be highly effective.

dwaltrip 9y ago

Can you point out a single specific piece of bullshit in the article? Otherwise your comment doesn't belong on HN. I found the article to be interesting and well written, and I'm very much a strong supporter of actual science. Mental illness is incredibly complex, and we have a long way to go in making significant progress. EDIT: the parent comment has been edited to remove some aggressive language. Thanks, I appreciate that.

dang 9y ago

I'm not sure what you mean by that but HN is an emphatically pluralist place and articles of all disciplines are welcome here.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]

dm319 9y ago

Yes, I think this piece is dangerous in some ways. The article makes out that there has been controversy about the degree of genetic cause of schizophrenia, citing tiny effects of specific genes - but that misses the point (as the article mentions, it is a polygenic disease) - at least for the last 20-30 years we've thought that there was a roughly 30% influence of our genetic make up on acquiring the disease - the environment has long been known to have an effect on acquiring and also relapsing with the disease. Also using an anecdote of what someone remembers of their experience being admitted to a psychiatric hospital post delivery is unlikely to be useful. If she really had a psychotic episode, her memory of the event is likely going to be very patchy, and a lack of insight is a common feature of the disease. She probably received some sort of anti-psychotic as an emergency measure - I somehow doubt she smiled and agreed with the doctors to get discharged. Post-natal psychotic episodes are seen as some of the most aggressive / dangerous forms of psychosis. The article makes some good points that psychiatrists may find they have less and less time to spend with patients, and that medication is seen as the answer to too often. The reason I say the article is dangerous is psychotherapy and anthropology are not sciences. I think they can be used as ideas to test, but the efficacy of anti-psychotics has been proven in trials. Not effectively treating a psychotic episode can easily result in death, and anyone experiencing psychotic symptoms do need to seek proper medical help. Just hearing voices on its own is not enough to make a diagnosis of schizophrenia, but they would at least check for the other symptoms. Anyway, maybe a psychiatrist can chime in here, it's been a while since I've been involved with anything psychiatry-related.

microwavecamera 9y ago
Not a psychiatrist but I am schizophrenic. I agree, medication should be the first line of treatment. I developed major symptoms in my early 20s but didn't get diagnosed until I was in my early 30s. No amount of therapy would have made a difference. It fundamentally changes your perceptions. All the paranoia and delusions make perfect sense and seem completely logical when you're in that state. I never knew to seek treatment because I didn't know anything was wrong, even in spite of my life being in complete shambles. It wasn't until I got on medication for the first time and didn't experience major schizophrenic and psychotic symptoms that I finally realized the full extent of what I had been experiencing. I do agree with environmental factors being a major contributor to the severity of the symptoms but the symptoms themselves are a major contributor to the environmental factors. The symptoms prevent you from achieving or maintaining any semblance of normalcy or stability which in turn create stressors that exacerbate the symptoms. Without medication there's no way to break the cycle.
- tcj_phx 9y ago
  Thanks for sharing your experience. I agree that there's a sort of negative feedback loop for people who exhibit symptoms of schizophrenia. A few years ago I went to visit someone in jail whom I'd only known from an internet message board. He couldn't stop talking, and had probably been arrested for being disruptively psychotic. He's doing much better now. > Without medication there's no way to break the cycle. Metabolic therapies break the cycle too. The simplest form of this is Niacinamide, one of the B-vitamins. Also useful are T3 thyroid, topical progesterone USP, CO2, good nutrition, etc...
  - microwavecamera 9y ago
    Diet and nutritional supplements do help but it really depends on the severity of the symptoms. I don't know much about T3 thyroid and topical progesterone USP, so I can't say how effective they are. I had been researching alternatives to prescription medication, mostly because of the issues I've had getting steady access to ones that don't have major side effects like Haldol and other 1st generation anti-psychotics. I found out about studies done with Tetrahydropalmatine (THP) a naturally occurring compound found in corydalis plants that target the same dopamine receptors as atypical anti-psychotics and found it to be moderately effective. I had also read studies done with L-Stepholidine a naturally occurring compound found in Stephania which is a more potent THP analog. The studies found it to be more effective but haven't been able to find a US supplier. I also came across studies successfully treating schizophrenia with the cannabinoid CBD and tried that recently which I found to be highly effective.