>
>Steve offered the following link:
>
>>The team found that depressed people with
>>a mutation in the gene encoding for a serotonin 2A receptor -- a
>>message-carrying chemical linked to mood -- were more than twice
>>as likely to commit suicide than those without the mutation. ..
>
Bertvan replied:
>A genetic marker for suicide? Science hasn't found it yet but are making
>great scientific progress. Scientists are confident it is only a matter of
>time. They are also looking for genetic markers for schizophrenia,
>alcoholism, homosexuality and violent behavior. Haven't found them yet but,
>again, great scientific progress is being made. (Just like abiogenesis,
>right?)
The mind/body connection is rather obvious in some cases. Schizophrenia and
depression are often successfully treated with drugs. Homosexuality is not
considered a pathology by the APA but it does seem to run in families as
does alcoholism. The genetic marker thing is probably part of the Human
Genome Project which is already helping scientists understand the human
body better than they ever have before.
Other than the fact that you hate psychiatry and science, I don't see what
your problem is here. Shall we not diagnose and treat people who are ill?
Should we just take schizophrenics off their meds and stuff them into
padded rooms?
>
>And when that genetic marker for suicide is found, psychiatrists will be able
>to treat people with the defect from birth.
no kidding. They will also be able to test people for it rather than wait
for the person to figure it out themselves and go to their doctors. Some
people are so incapacitated with depression that they are unable to do
that.
>Instead of patients remaining
>in psychotherapy for ten or twenty years as adults, the treatment can start
>as soon as the child is able to describe his unhappy childhood -- even while
>it is occurring. It could be an answer to unemployment. (Among
>psychotherapists, at least.) Drug companies will surely come up with a
>profitable pill to keep those with the genetic defect in a state of perpetual
>bliss. (I think we already have some, but they would have to be made legal,
>especially if they are to be administered to infants and children.) Isn't
>modern science wonderful?
you are contradicting yourself here. With the discovery of the
mind/body/behavior connection a lot of talk therapy is invalidated. Prozac
alone has put a lot of psyciatric counselors are out of business!
Susan
----------
For if there is a sin against life, it consists not so much in despairing
of life as in hoping for another and in eluding the implacable grandeur of
this one.
--Albert Camus
http://www.telepath.com/susanb/
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