Show #11: Good Science, Bad Science - Psychology and Psychiatry

Goodnight, thanks again for the show. :)

"Happiness Machine" sounds like a new T-shirt for Revolt.
 
What a great show it was, I really enjoyed. Thanks to all for the effort of bringing up this important subject. :)
 
This was a really good show, even though the information about lobotomies was rather disheartening. After listening to this show, I think it is time to put my experiences into words here. The drugs they prescribe can do so much more harm than good depending on the severity of your condition.
 
Great show guys! Someone mentioned the effects of Roacutane and, having personally taken it a few years back, I have to agree with what was said on the show. During the 6 months I was administered the drug, I felt even more tired and depressed than how I was already feeling (as I was on a ultra-high carb diet!, little did I know...) though I should add that on top of the psychological and mood related effects, I also experience quite severe physical effects. I used to get nose bleeds once or twice daily, I had very dry skin and lips and also got eczema on my hands. After I gradually moved to a Paleo diet and later a KD one, I had a very noticeable reduction in inflammation overall and a huge improvement on my skin. It has been the best medicine so far.
 
Just came across this from The Onion and thought it was a good piece of satire that matched the show's theme:

http://www.theonion.com/articles/more-us-children-being-diagnosed-with-youthful-ten,248/

More U.S. Children Being Diagnosed With Youthful Tendency Disorder

Nicholas and Beverly Serna's daughter Caitlin was only four years old, but they already knew there was a problem.

Day after day, upon arriving home from preschool, Caitlin would retreat into a bizarre fantasy world. Sometimes, she would pretend to be people and things she was not. Other times, without warning, she would burst into nonsensical song. Some days she would run directionless through the backyard of the Sernas' comfortable Redlands home, laughing and shrieking as she chased imaginary objects.

When months of sessions with a local psychologist failed to yield an answer, Nicholas and Beverly took Caitlin to a prominent Los Angeles pediatric neurologist for more exhaustive testing. Finally, on Sept. 11, the Sernas received the heartbreaking news: Caitlin was among a growing legion of U.S. children suffering from Youthful Tendency Disorder.

"As horrible as the diagnosis was, it was a relief to finally know," said Beverly. "At least we knew we weren't bad parents. We simply had a child who was born with a medical disorder."

Youthful Tendency Disorder (YTD), a poorly understood neurological condition that afflicts an estimated 20 million U.S. children, is characterized by a variety of senseless, unproductive physical and mental exercises, often lasting hours at a time. In the thrall of YTD, sufferers run, jump, climb, twirl, shout, dance, do cartwheels, and enter unreal, unexplainable states of "make-believe."

"The Youthful child has a kind of love/hate relationship with reality," said Johns Hopkins University YTD expert Dr. Avi Gwertzman. "Unfit to join the adult world, they struggle to learn its mores and rules in a process that can take the entirety of their childhood. In the meantime, their emotional and perceptive problems cause them to act out in unpredictable and extremely juvenile ways. It's as though they can only take so much reality; they have to 'check out,' to go Youthful for a while."

On a beautiful autumn day in Asheville, NC, six-year-old Cameron Boudreaux is swinging on a park swingset–a monotonous, back-and-forth action that apparently gives him solace. Spotting his mother on a nearby bench, Cameron rushes eagerly to her and asks, "Guess what?" His mother responds with a friendly, "What?"

With unbridled glee, Cameron shouts, "Chicken butt!"--cryptic words understood only by him--before laughing and dashing off again, leaving his mother distraught over yet another baffling non-conversation.

"I must admit, it's been a struggle," Mary Boudreaux said. "What can I say to him when he says something like that, something that makes no sense? Or when he runs through the house yelling while I'm trying to balance the checkbook? You can't just say, 'Please, Cameron, don't have a disorder for just a few minutes so I can concentrate.'"

Cameron's psychological problems run even deeper. He can name every one of his beloved, imaginary Pokemon characters, but the plain realities of the actual world he inhabits are an enigma: Ask Cameron the name of the real-life city councilman sponsoring the referendum to renovate the park just across the street from his house–a park he plays in daily–and he draws a blank.

According to Dr. Dinesh Agarwal, director of child psychiatry at NYU Medical Center, such disconnectedness from reality is a coping mechanism for YTD sufferers. "The Youthful child is born into a world he or she does not fully understand," Agarwal said. "Their brain pathways are still forming, and they need to repetitively relearn how to assimilate into society. These disassociative play-fantasies apparently help them accomplish that."

But such fantasies come at a price, producing in Youthful children a disinterest in the everyday responsibilities of life bordering on contempt.

"Jesse knows when it's his turn to take out the trash. We've gone over the house rules a dozen times," said Richard Torres, a Davenport, IA, father of three whose nine-year-old son Jesse was recently diagnosed with YTD. "And still he neglects the job time and again."

Slowly, methodically, through an elaborate system of rewards and punishments, Jesse has shown improvement. But the road ahead is long.

"We get a lot of platitudes from the so-called experts," Torres said. "We hear a lot of, 'Oh, he'll grow out of it, just give it time.' That's easy for them to say–their kid's not running around the neighborhood claiming to be Superman."

Help for families struggling with YTD may soon be on the way. At last month's annual AMA Convention, Smithkline-Beecham unveiled Juvenol, a promising YTD drug which, pending FDA approval, could reach the U.S. market as early as next spring. Already available in France and Sweden, Juvenol, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported, resulted in a 60 percent decrease in running and jumping among users.

But until such help arrives, the parents of YTD sufferers can do little more than try to get through each day.

"I love my child with all my heart," said Alexandra Torres, Jesse's mother. "But when he's in the throes of one of his skipping fits, it's hard not to feel a little envious of parents with normal, healthy children."
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edit: up on SOTT too:
http://www.sott.net/article/260600-Satire-More-US-children-being-diagnosed-with-Youthful-Tendency-Disorder
 
Foxx said:
Another great show everyone! :thup:

Thanks for broadcasting!
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Agreed! And thanks to all the callers! :)

Have to say that, luckily, as far as the university is concerned where I'm studying, the professors seem to be more pro-clinical/cognitive/behavioral psychology as opposed to pro-psychiatry, which I guess may be a tiny itty bitty plus. It's interesting that when I followed a course on sexual health/biology/psychology etc. at another university, the professor there totally ridiculed Freud's ''ideas'', and pointed out pretty clearly (and with evidence) that Freud had no idea of what he was talking about. Which was quite refreshing to see!
 
QuantumLogic said:
This was a really good show, even though the information about lobotomies was rather disheartening. After listening to this show, I think it is time to put my experiences into words here. The drugs they prescribe can do so much more harm than good depending on the severity of your condition.
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Yes, it is very painful to hear what they do to so-called psychiatric patients. And they ditched the word lobotomy and call it psycho surgery (?) instead.
I watched 'One flew over the cuckoo's nest' again not too long ago. I don't know how realistic this movie is, but I still like it. There is this absolute powerlessness, once people are committed to a hospital. Jack Nicholson ends up having a lobotomy and is a vegetable from then on.

I was also very shocked to hear that this journalist from New Zealand was kidnapped by two social workers who had her drugged, because of a critical piece that she had written.

It was a great show, OSIT. Also thanks to the callers. :)

[quote author=Oxajil]
Have to say that, luckily, as far as the university is concerned where I'm studying, the professors seem to be more pro-clinical/cognitive/behavioral psychology as opposed to pro-psychiatry, which I guess may be a tiny itty bitty plus. It's interesting that when I followed a course on sexual health/biology/psychology etc. at another university, the professor there totally ridiculed Freud's ''ideas'', and pointed out pretty clearly (and with evidence) that Freud had no idea of what he was talking about. Which was quite refreshing to see!
[/quote]

Good to hear. There was a Dutch psychologist who developed a therapy that also parted ways with Freud.
 
Just listened to that show last night. Very insightful and interesting. Great call-ins too. Thank you! I hope to listen to the next one live.
 
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