Taking another swing at medically unexplained symptoms… Exerpt: Link to the Psychology Today article here
How pedestrian of the author, who should, by the way, retire completely and not write articles because he seems confused. Which came first, the physical disease or the mental illness. Not everyone is depressed by their limitations, by the way. Frustrated at times, but one adapts, no?
What a simplistic pile of nonsense. He seems to be saying all of us here who have ME/CFS must, by definition, have a mental illness. And further that our mental illness both causes, and is caused by, having disabling physical symptoms. So my having physical symptoms makes me feel depressed and anxious, according to him, and further, is easily treatable. But according to his logic, if I still have my physical symptoms after he has successfully treated my 100% probability mental illness, then the remaining physical symptoms he hasn't treated will still have 100% chance of making me mentally ill. Either he or I or probably both seem to have lost the plot. I give up.
We are by now used to see that kind of disinformation campaign in politics. Now we see that more and more in medicine. Very shameful.
I won't comment on the others, but not being able to play golf is not one of the tremendous losses in my life.
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/patient-zero/201812/the-diagnosis-and-treatment-chronic-pain Robert C. Smith is banging the same drum as he writes why people with chronic pain should not get opioids. Apparently the following treatment solves all: (it involves a lot of patronising and having patients set goals to, among other things, play golf).
I find I often forget I want to go to relatives’ weddings, godchildren’s graduations, family funerals and so on (sarcasm alert); does this person even read what he has written. He is setting people up for failure, for anxiety and depression. Let’s undo the decades of coming to terms with a long term disability by regularly rehearsing what you have lost. I did actually get to Church four days ago for the first time in some seven years and consequently have so far have had four days in bed. It was the funeral of the husband of someone who had worked for me for over twenty five years, and was only a possibility because it was in my home village and I had someone to drive me the 500 yards to and from the Church. Ignoring the fact that I was not expecting more than half the congregation to be mask free and hymns to be sung, advanced warning of which probably would have led to a different decision, this was the result of a week’s planning and calculated balance of risks, and significant subsequent cost.
In fairness to the guy these ideas were probably cutting edge, state of the art, when his career was at its height. When would that have been? 1980's? those he cites- Kroenke and Katon, were going strong.
And he's not taken on any new ideas or thoughts in 40 years? Perhaps he's spent too much of his time patronising other people and lost sight that there's a whole big wide world out there and our understanding of it shifts all the time. Maybe someone should remind him to stop spouting tired old ideas and start observing and thinking for himself?
The most insulting thing about the whole Opoids crackdown is that prescription rates have declined, yet there is no effect on opioid related deaths in the USA. (prescription rates are /10000) I don't see a cause and effect relationship there. data from: https://www.cdc.gov/drugoverdose/rxrate-maps/index.html https://www.drugabuse.gov/drug-topics/trends-statistics/overdose-death-rates
This is pure speculation based on just eyeballing the graphs, but … It is possible that reduced prescription of opiates, results in fewer deaths associated with prescribed opiates on the basis of these graphs, though I have no idea if the apparent relationship is statistically reliable. However given the ongoing increase in opiate deaths overall it could also be that the reduction in prescriptions results in increased deaths overall because of people shifting to unregulated sources and suppliers, with no medical supervision of their ongoing use.
This is obviously a complete perversion of informed consent and anyone who finds nothing objectionable to this should not work in health care. There has to be a mandate for medical professionals to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, the privilege to lie has been abused to an absurd degree and clearly no one can be trusted with that if even in those circumstances it is abused so excessively and systematically.
The US (and the UK more and more) fudge the numbers by including all abused drugs together including heroin and then using that to justify not treating pain. People who buy heroin, fentanyl, pregabalin and so on from a dealer are counted alongside people who become addicted from being prescribed a drug yet the number who become addicted when taking the medication as prescribed is low.
Re opioids: Doctors are very keen to prescribe medication, then at some point will turn around and blame the patients for taking said medication.