Thomas Insel's Translational Science is lost in translation

Stanford Medicine's Spring Newsletter has a Special Report titled, 'Inside the Head The Future of Psychiatry.'  What this means is one of the most prestigious Medical School's in the country has determined that the belief in an illusion is sufficient.  Philip A. Pizzo, Dean of Medicine, in a letter titled, 'Psychiatry and the Brain,' begins with this mythological gem, "THOUGH PSYCHIATRIC DISEASE IS CONSIDERED A DISORDER OF THE BRAIN, THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND MENTAL ILLNESS AT THE LEVEL OF THE BRAIN'S DISORDERED MOLECULES AND NEURAL NETWORKS IS ONLY NOW EMERGING."  

The Dean's letter appears to be a display of loyalty to NIMH Director, Thomas Insel, who clings to his bio-maniacal faith in the psychiatric diagnosis is brain disease hypothesis.  Ethical research should at least in part be directed by the best interest of the patients, since it is these people who are supposedly to be the direct beneficiaries of the research itself.  I say supposedly, since it is obvious that the narrow myopic focus on the biological causes of and treatments for 'psychiatric disease' is not based on sound scientific reasoning or ethical medical judgement.  It is based on a biased belief which is truth ordained according to believers.  The Dean of Medicine at Stanford University, Phillip A. Pizzo, writes a letter which begins with a pseudo-scientific statement, giving a pseudo-medical veneer and what seems to be a certainty to the bio-disease hypothesis, which has yet to be validated by ethical scientific, medical standards.  To date, no definitive,  empirical evidence of a disease process, a genetic trait, or medical pathology of known or unknown etiology has been discovered which would support Pizzo's statement that "psychiatric disease is considered a disorder of the brain."  Many people educated and uneducated alike, consider this statement to be true; but absent empirical data to support it, it is only a belief.  

I suspect the Dean is not a true believer, but is genuflecting at the funding altar of the NIMH, tipping his hat to the Director.  The Dean's letter is misdirection and obfuscation at it's finest...

via Stanford University Medicine Spring 2012

TRUJILLOPAUMIER

       Philip A. Pizzo

THOUGH PSYCHIATRIC DISEASE IS CONSIDERED A DISORDER OF THE BRAIN, THE ABILITY TO UNDERSTAND MENTAL ILLNESS AT THE LEVEL OF THE BRAIN'S DISORDERED MOLECULES AND NEURAL NETWORKS IS ONLY NOW EMERGING.

We see this with Ricardo Dolmetsch, a member of our faculty who has a child with autism. He has converted skin cells from people with a type of autism into stem cells, then converted these into brainlike balls of neurons. By studying these neurons, he has determined some ways in which these cells are distinctive, and has found a drug that corrects the abnormalities in vitro. He describes what he’s done as creating a human behavioral disorder in a petri dish — or at least the ability to more deeply study it that way.

This approach could transform behavioral and mental health research, as Thomas Insel, MD, director of the National Institute of Mental Health, explains in a recent blog post: “This would be the stuff of neuroscience fiction — if it weren’t real. This is nothing less than a way to reprogram a patient’s easily obtained skin cells into his or her own neurons, theoretically allowing us to fathom the secrets of that specific individual’s disorder. And, perhaps someday, to use the information to inform that patient’s treatment — or maybe even engineer a one-on personalized treatment.”

This leap forward is not just happenstance. Decades of creative and painstaking basic research funded by federal and state agencies have made these advances possible. In the case of Professor Dolmetsch’s work, funding for stem cell research was particularly valuable.

While a national political debate swirls, scientists are making discoveries about stem cell development that are leading to tools for psychiatric research. At Stanford, we’re leaders in the emerging science of neuronal stem cell biology.

Marius Wernig and Gerald Crabtree, two of our faculty who also happen to be friends and neighbors, amazed the biomedical world by independently developing two different methods of converting skin cells directly into neurons, skipping the stem cell stage entirely. Indeed, when Professor Crabtree looked through his microscope and saw neurons, he didn’t believe what he was seeing. They published their discoveries within a few months of each other last summer.

Researchers throughout the world are pursuing similar strategies to study a range of illnesses involving the brain, including schizophrenia and Parkinson’s disease. Their accomplishments are not only extraordinarily useful for testing potential treatments and studying the intricacies of brain cells, they’re a testament to the power of science.

When you consider that we can transform an ordinary skin cell into the elaborately branched architecture typical of a neuron, and that the resulting cell functions as a neuron should, incredible new insights and discoveries seem possible. The important connections between investments in basic research and their impact on health and disease also become more apparent.

In this issue you’ll read how new understandings about the brain are influencing psychiatry. You’ll also see that we are far from grasping all the answers. But the amazing developments in our laboratories give us reason to believe that many of those answers are on the horizon. They underscore the importance of continued investments in basic science research.

Sincerely,
Philip A. Pizzo, MD
Dean
Stanford University School of Medicine
Carl and Elizabeth Naumann Professor, Pediatrics, Microbiology and Immunology 

The only identified diseases associated with 'psychiatric diseases' in real world practice are the numerous iatrogenic, i.e. physician caused, diseases.  Neuroleptic drugs cause profound trauma to human beings---these are not, 'side effects' they are THE DIRECT EFFECTS of neuroleptic drugs. Neuroleptics alter the function of every major bodily system since the drugs alter parasympathetic nervous system function; which is why neurological, hormonal, metabolic, and cardio-vascular diseases, and other iatrogenic injuries are common.  

What is difficult, if not impossible for me to understand, how have actual diseases been medically neglected by psychiatry and other medical specialties?  Worse, yet, how can these iatrogenic diseases be attributed to an unidentified 'psychiatric disease' or dismissed as being a symptom of the patient's psychiatric diagnosis?  Psychiatric patients are given drugs that are known to cause illness, actual diseases and impairments, yet in the vast majority of cases, a patient's complaints are dismissed out of hand and are rarely investigated as valid complaints even though they are known adverse effects of the drugs!  It is common when a psychiatric patient seeks medical attention, that once he/she is identified as 'a psych patient,' it will likely be assumed that the complaint is 'all in their head.'  Psychiatric patients are in fact being medically neglected because of having a psychiatric diagnosis; further evidence the diagnosis itself is the source of stigma.  Medical diseases caused by the drugs are not diagnosed or treated; and some are even attributed to the diagnosis; a cruel unethical deception, adding insult to injury.  Worse, people who die as a direct result of the drug's effects, are claimed to have died from 'natural causes!'  Drug-induced death is now a 'natural cause' of premature and sudden death!?!  

Psychiatric patients are being harmed at unacceptable rates.  The alarming rates of disability and death for those who are considered to be, 'seriously mentally ill,' clearly illustrates a failure.  Psychiatric patients are being poisoned with what is attested to be 'necessary, efficacious medical treatments' in Courts of Law; and in drug marketing programs used in continuing medical education. The actual real world outcome data does not support the oft- repeated marketing claim used to support the psychiatric treatment standard, that neuroleptics are efficacious medical treatments.  It is a deliberately misleading and false statement;  AKA 'perjury' in a Court of Law, and AKA 'fraud' when used to change a person's behavior.  People who believe this claim become compliant psychiatric patients; many to their detriment...The claim itself is based on an opinion, and a belief in a decades old hypothesis, yet to be validated.  No psychiatrist would be able to offer evidence admissible in a court of law that conforms with the Rules of Evidence to support a claim that an individual in fact has a 'psychiatric disease,' and submit evidence of an identified pathology.   Rules of Evidence are mandatory in EVERY other type of Court Proceeding---but psychiatrists and other 'professionals' are not required to comply with these standards when  acting to legally deprive a person of their liberty and compel psychiatric treatment with fatal risks?  This is a violation of individual Human Rights period.  Psychiatry can offer no proof of the existence of a 'psychiatric disease;' yet can obtain Court Orders to give human beings teratogenic drugs or other biological 'treatments' based on a false claim the person has a disease which requires this inhumane treatment which can cause grave injury, lasting trauma and actual disease.  

Psychiatric patients are then medically neglected by these 'doctors,' and other medical professionals until they are disabled; and eventually die from drug-induced causes; and their deaths are classified as being the result of 'natural causes.'  When did drug-induced or more accurately, iatrogenic fatality, carelessly or intentionally causing a patient's death, become a 'natural' cause of death?  The intention to medically treat may in fact be sincere and noble; but, it is the patient's outcome that is paramount, not a psychiatrist's intentions.  The stigma of a 'psychiatric disease' is an immediate potential loss of Human Rights and a greatly increased risk that your life will end in a 'natural' death caused by psychiatric treatment.

As documented in the National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors (NASMHPD) Medical Directors Council report, on Morbidity and Mortality in People with Serious Mental Illness from 2006, the patients are being disabled and killed at a rate that suggests disability and early or sudden death are acceptable; if not desired, 'successful treatment' outcomes.

When I consider the recent announcement that we are going to continue monitoring the 'trend' of widespread drugging of vulnerable foster children who are being given neurtoleptic and other neurotoxic psychiatric drugs as 'necessary medical treatment' for their 'psychiatric disease.' Apparently, disabling psychiatric patients, including foster children and causing sudden and early death is to become an officially sanctioned outcome for poor children on Medicaid and  foster children served in the Child Welfare system.  Iatrogenic diseases and sudden and early death must be DESIRED outcomes; or the recommendation would be to stop the unethical drugging of foster children since it is not in the children's 'best interest.'  The 'professionals' instead are planning to monitor not stop, the ongoing Human Experimentation on foster children, and continue to commit Medicaid fraud... 

Thomas Insel's Translational Science is lost in translation!

The Deans letter here

Special Report Inside the Head The Future of Psychiatry

cartoon of doctor here