Explosive Controversies in Medicine

"I have seen schools feed bright red "Slush Puppies" to 7 year olds for lunch and I have seen children vomit up a desk-top full of red crud afterwards. And, I have seen those same children later line up at the school nurse for hyperactivity drugs." Dr. Andrew Saul

Introduction

Saul is extremely controversial. So was Linus Pauling, and so was Dr. Abram Hoffer.

Pauling

Linus Pauling won two Nobel prizes, and almost won a 3rd one. He was beaten out by Watson & Crick for the 3rd one because they had access to data he was denied. Yet his views were rejected because the drug companies figured they couldn't make a lot of money with natural substances. It seems they can't patent a natural substance.

Readin', Writin', and Ritalin

Scientists discovered that methylphenidate, now called Ritalin, made people psychotic. After this psychiatrists decided to give it to little children as a "treatment".

Psychiatry

Although there are many controversial areas in medicine, including cancer and nutrition, psychiatry is perhaps the most controversial. Scientology has repeatedly blasted psychiatry. They have even had demonstrations against psychiatry. Of course, there have also been demonstrations against Scientology!

One of the many problems in psychiatry is the problem of psychiatric drug side effects. This is why Scientology, which I do not believe in, is against psychiatric drugs. Ref. 1 documents the problem of skin rashes caused by a psychiatric drug.

I walked past the "church" of Scientology and saw a truck next to it. On the truck was the Scientology motto: "Something Can be Done about It". Although Scientology is bogus, the motto struck me as very good. The motto was probably written by L. Ron Hubbard, who was very critical of psychiatric abuses, shock treatment, and psychiatric drugs. The motto could also be applied to the psychiatric diseases themselves. Something can be done, but it isn't dianetics. I guess it is possible for a phoney religion to have a very good motto. Another oddity is that they use a cross in their symbol. Maybe the cross was used to make it look like a religion. Then again, maybe Hubbard believed in Jesus. Mary Baker Eddy believed in Jesus, but she led people down the wrong path when she told them not to go to doctors and hospitals. Hubbard and Eddy both did more harm than good.
Cannabis
Cannabis is very controversial. There are those who feel that cannabis can cause psychosis (2). There are also those who feel that it has medicinal value.
Antidepressants
There is a strong theory that antidepressants are toxic (3). Sometimes problems with drugs can be caused by the patients. One example of this is the use of drugs to commit suicide. Another example is the abuse of these drugs. A patient may overdose on his drug, perhaps not to commit suicide but rather to try to go to sleep. We saw that with Michael Jackson, but his drug was not an antidepressant. Another example is that patient A may give his drug to patient B, who is his friend.
Lithium
Unfortunately lithium, when the concentration gets too high, can be toxic (4).
Microscopic Pathology in Mental Diseases
This is an extremely controversial area. There are those who feel that mental illness does not exist, believe it or not! Then there are other antipsychiatry people who fell that there is no organic basis for mental illnesses. Also there are scientists who have seen the microscopic pathology (5). But the controversy does not end here. There are more controversies over the meaning of the pathology, which has been reported in abundance for over a century. Ref. 5 used SEM (scanning electron microscopy). There is a virus theory for schizophrenia favored by Dr. Segundo Mesa Castillo of Havana and by Dr. E. Fuller Torrey of the US. Ref. 5 appears to support the virus theory although the authors of Ref. 5 did not mention this in their abstract. Also Ref. 5 is about bipolar disorder, not schizophrenia. Nevertheless Mesa Castillo has found particles in schizophrenia.
Ref. 6 is a previous report by the same Stockholm group. This group works at the prestigious Karolinska Institue which awards the Nobel prize in medicine. Ref. 6 reports particles in the CSF in schizophrenia, confirming Mesa Castillo. However, Mesa Castillo found the particles in brain tissues and in platelets. All of this does not prove that the particles are a virus. They might be a residue of the patients' medication, or they might be an endotoxin. The medication needs to be ruled out. Studies need to be done on patients who never had any medication.
Conclusions
There are many controversies in medicine. More research needs to be done with the microscopy of mental diseases. There are are also numerous controversies in nutrition, which might be dealt with in part in a future article. This article has concentrated on controversies in psychiatry.
References

1. Rechallenge with lamotrigine after a rash: a prospective case series and review of the literature. Aiken CB, Orr C. Psychiatry (Edgmont). 2010 May;7(5):27-32.

2. Psychosis reactivity to cannabis use in daily life: an experience sampling study. Henquet C, van Os J, Kuepper R, Delespaul P, Smits M, Campo JA, Myin-Germeys I. Br J Psychiatry. 2010 Jun;196(6):447-53.

3. Toxicity of antidepressants: rates of suicide relative to prescribing and non-fatal overdose. Hawton K, Bergen H, Simkin S, Cooper J, Waters K, Gunnell D, Kapur N. Br J Psychiatry. 2010 May;196(5):354-8.

4. Lithium toxicity: the importance of clinical signs. Dunne FJ. Br J Hosp Med (Lond). 2010 Apr;71(4):206-10.

5. Micrometer-sized thread-like and/or spherical particles in the first fraction of cerebrospinal fluid in patients with bipolar disorder. Båve U, Nybom R, Landén M, Wetterberg L. Bipolar Disord. 2010 May;12(3):298-305.

6. Neurosci Lett. 2002 Aug 23;329(1):91-5. Micrometer-sized particles in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in patients with schizophrenia. Wetterberg L, Nybom R, Bratlid T, Fladby T, Olsson B, Wigzell H.