Does real illness cause Psychiatric Symptoms?

People sometimes ask me, "Don't you believe mental illness is real?" My response? Psychiatrists themselves admit there is no illness in "mental illness". Now does someone need help who is wrapping their head in tin-foil, screaming aliens are beaming microwaves into their head? Of course, but putting them under the authority of psychiatry is not the way to help them

If you have only seen by a psychiatrist, you weren't diagnosed. You were labeled by one of the lowest scoring medical students in the US. That isn't just a funny joke, it is the truth. Psychiatrists score the lowest compared to other physicians. They scored lower on United States Medical Licensing Examinations than any other type of medical doctor.

Diagnosis is a method of deciding what illness or injury you have that is different and separate form any other illness, disease or injury. Psychiatrists choose a label out of their own book, the DSM. This label was voted into existence by a show of hands at the annual convention of psychiatrists. it wasn't as if a real doctor "discovered" a new disease. Nope just...all of you guys think this is a good label? Raise your hand!!

Now to the title of this blog, does real illness cause mental duress and wierd behavior? The answer is yes and the psychiatrists have known about this for decades. Yet time after time a study exposes the fact that many people have a genuine, real and treatable medical illness that is causing or greatly worsening their mental state but are only getting psychiatric drugs. I've linked two of the 5 I found with a few hours searching.

Here is the conclusion of one study, " Active and important physical disorders are common among patients admitted to psychiatric inpatient units. Some patients' mental symptoms are caused or exacerbated by undiagnosed medical conditions. Additional research is needed to define cost-effective medical evaluation methods for patients in this setting and to devise ways to convince program administrators and staff to implement them".
Psychiatr Serv 53:1623-1625, December 2002
Medical Disorders Among Patients Admitted to a Public-Sector Psychiatric Inpatient Unit Lorrin M. Koran, M.D.,

Hosp Community Psychiatry 35:1151-1152, November 1984
© 1984 American Psychiatric Association

Mobile Medical Screening Teams for Public Programs
Lorrin M. Koran M.D.et al
"The high prevalence of previously undetected, important physical disease in mentally disordered patients argues strongly for medical screening of this population".

MY POINT? Go see a regular medical doctor and get a full and searching physical exam if someone is acting strange or saying weird things. Chances are they have an unusual manifestation of a real and actual disease.

Dr. Karl Hoffower
President, South Bay Chapter
Citizens Commission on Human Rights