Organic pathology Physical ailments are much easier to recognize than mental disorders. For example, a person with the flu has a fever, aches and pains, and other recognizable signs; there are laboratory tests that can determine whether a person with a sore throat and a fever has an infection. A doctor can successfully treat the […]
Why throw away interesting stuff? In preparing to move, I am sorting out my stuff. I always save little tidbits of interesting items. For instance, there was a short article about some man who just won a settlement against a tattoo parlor. The tattoo depicted a man stabbing someone in the back with a knife, […]
I’ve been doing some reading about stimming. In a previous post, I speculated whether my brother, diagnosed as autistic, profoundly retarded and nonverbal, was a ‘stimmer’. Although he doesn’t engage in much repetitive behaviors, he performs certain ‘trademark’ actions quite frequently. For instance, he will slap his head, often while biting his hand; he smacks […]
Diagnosis of autism I discussed the history of autism diagnosis a previous post. As the science matured, the psychogenic origin (blame for autism on the ‘refrigerator mother’) was replaced by consideration of the premise that autism could arise from biological origins. Both versions of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) use behavior as […]
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 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 […]
