Discussions of the history of mental health treatment.
Post as I go I am trying to sift through information available about biomedical interventions used in treating symptoms of autism. I realize that my approach is not scholarly or academic, but I would like to write a series of posts that chronicle my efforts to discover what biomedical intervention options are and how I […]
I had heard that biomedical intervention was an approach to the treatment of autism. I also had an impression that this topic is controversial. Since I am a biomedical engineer by training and a biological determinist by inclination, I decided to discover what this the buzz surrounding biomedical intervention is all about. Due to the […]
Since one of the major missions of my blog is discussion of autism, I introduce my brother in each post by saying that Michael is autistic, nonverbal and low functioning. I used to say retarded, but refrain from using that word now due to the negative connotations. What does low functioning really mean? Part of […]
My brother, Michael is autistic, very low functioning and has never spoken. He is about 3 years older than me. I am 4 years older than my younger brother. Our family lived together until Mike was 13 years old. From the time Mike was born, he never progressed. He couldn’t take care of himself and […]
My interest in mental illness and diagnosis stems from the fact that my brother is autistic, low functioning and nonverbal. In my attempt to discover more about the process of diagnosis, I have written several posts on the subject: Diagnosis, the Beginning; Diagnosis (dx) Basics; Diagnosis and Mental Health; Stamp Collecting (about taxonomy); Autism Diagnosis […]
I wrote several posts about diagnosis (Diagnosis and Mental Health, Diagnosis, the Beginning, Diagnosis (dx) Basics), trying to unravel some of the reasoning or at least the criteria used by doctors, psychologists and social workers to treat their patients appropriately, not to mention to be reimbursed appropriately by insurance companies. One of my readers, Womanunadorned.Wordpress.com […]
Why such an odd title for a post in a blog about issues relating to autism, neuroscience and mental health issues? Lately I’ve been thinking about how things are classified. In particular, how the medical establishment classifies mental illnesses, and how diagnoses are meted out. Many of you chafe at the idea of being defined […]
I just started reading ‘The Book of Woe’ by Gary Greenberg, about the generation of the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders DSM-5, the document that physicians will use to diagnose the mental illnesses of their patients and to receive reimbursement from insurance companies. The first several chapters outline the […]
Entire books have been written about psychiatric diagnosis. Diagnosis comes from a Latin application of the Greek: ‘gnosis’, to know and from the Greek: ‘dia’, through or thorough.[1] To diagnose something is to have thorough knowledge of it. Dx of physical ailments The means of understanding of a physical ailment is quite different from the […]
Diagnosis What does this word mean anyway? It is very important to know this for many reasons. It is particularly relevant to me for two major reasons: autism and Lyme disease. Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of anything.[1] If someone knows the nature of something, then one knows how to respond […]
