Imagine if someone came out with a 'there is just one cause of all physical illness' theory today. They'd be laughed off the stage. ... This is an excellent review. I too found the brain energy idea intriguing, exciting really, when I first encountered it. Causal reductionism is very alluring indeed, even to those of us who might be expected to know better. It would be so awesome WERE it to be true, since it gets rids of complexity and is very encouraging re treatments. But, well, yes, we've seen it all before!
"There is yet another factor that drives my criticism. I see psychiatry as having stumbled from one “single message mythology” to another over the course of its history."
EXACTLY. You'd think this alone should give people pause...
I've published about my own game-changers: How I finally got a truly stable life situation with job security, financial security (was already lucky to have a stable and great marriage), and the various mental coping mechanisms I've developed myself. The former was really important for the latter, btw, because you need some stability in your life, so you're not constantly all stressed-out, to that kind of work.
I'm sure there were also physical effects in my mitochondria and what-not, but zooming in on THOSE would be like focusing on individual atoms and atomic physics rather than politics and WWII, to use the example from your talk yesterday. You'd lose sight of what really matters in this situation.
The idea isn't terribly new, didn't Bleuler propose it? And I know Kraepelin had auto-intoxication.
What fascinates me are the case series, although I'm reminded of case series that Alec Coppen presented demonstrating that sometimes, evidently, a serious psychiatric illness is purely chemical. But then this is nothing new, we have steroid psychosis after all.
The thing that gets me about keto is that during the "keto flu" stage polyuria occurs and many people report hypomania during this phase. Also, while some people go into full remission, others seem to worsen. I can't help but wonder if it has less to do with mitochondria and more to do with fluid dynamics. My wife has been on keto for about a year and she has the same dry dehydrated face on keto as she does on acetazolamide. I also have a suspicion that keto may work partly as an antidote against certain drug side effects.
I think Gordon Parker's new book on fecal matter transplants might be more interesting, although I have not had time to read it yet. I was actually talking to Gordon about keto and Lauren Kennedy West's case and after much parsimony and scientific demuring, I almost fell off my chair when he wrote that as happens, he had a book with the publisher on FMT. I told my colleagues at work and they now think Gordon is one of these "MAHA" types.
Imagine if someone came out with a 'there is just one cause of all physical illness' theory today. They'd be laughed off the stage. ... This is an excellent review. I too found the brain energy idea intriguing, exciting really, when I first encountered it. Causal reductionism is very alluring indeed, even to those of us who might be expected to know better. It would be so awesome WERE it to be true, since it gets rids of complexity and is very encouraging re treatments. But, well, yes, we've seen it all before!
"There is yet another factor that drives my criticism. I see psychiatry as having stumbled from one “single message mythology” to another over the course of its history."
EXACTLY. You'd think this alone should give people pause...
I've published about my own game-changers: How I finally got a truly stable life situation with job security, financial security (was already lucky to have a stable and great marriage), and the various mental coping mechanisms I've developed myself. The former was really important for the latter, btw, because you need some stability in your life, so you're not constantly all stressed-out, to that kind of work.
I'm sure there were also physical effects in my mitochondria and what-not, but zooming in on THOSE would be like focusing on individual atoms and atomic physics rather than politics and WWII, to use the example from your talk yesterday. You'd lose sight of what really matters in this situation.
The idea isn't terribly new, didn't Bleuler propose it? And I know Kraepelin had auto-intoxication.
What fascinates me are the case series, although I'm reminded of case series that Alec Coppen presented demonstrating that sometimes, evidently, a serious psychiatric illness is purely chemical. But then this is nothing new, we have steroid psychosis after all.
The thing that gets me about keto is that during the "keto flu" stage polyuria occurs and many people report hypomania during this phase. Also, while some people go into full remission, others seem to worsen. I can't help but wonder if it has less to do with mitochondria and more to do with fluid dynamics. My wife has been on keto for about a year and she has the same dry dehydrated face on keto as she does on acetazolamide. I also have a suspicion that keto may work partly as an antidote against certain drug side effects.
I think Gordon Parker's new book on fecal matter transplants might be more interesting, although I have not had time to read it yet. I was actually talking to Gordon about keto and Lauren Kennedy West's case and after much parsimony and scientific demuring, I almost fell off my chair when he wrote that as happens, he had a book with the publisher on FMT. I told my colleagues at work and they now think Gordon is one of these "MAHA" types.
Hang on a second ... aren't all mental disorders disorders of inflammation?