Peter White (ed.) 2005, Biopsychosocial Medicine: An integrated approach to understanding illness

Not sure now were I read some strikingly similar wording but think could be in this thread?

From the Wikibooks' Textbook of Psychiatry, chapter on 'Somatoform Disorders':


Pathogenesis

"One issue around all medically unexplained syndromes is when do they become medically explained? Everyone remembers genuine breakthroughs in our understanding of health and disease; one such example being the discovery that General Paresis of the Insane (GPI) (sufferers of which could be found in all the asylums of Europe at the end of the 19th century) was a manifestation of neurosyphilis.

"When, a generation later, penicillin was found to kill the causative agent, GPI largely disappeared.

"In our own time, generations of doctors had been taught that peptic ulcer was due to excessive acid secretion, itself the result of stress: that is until Helicobacter Pylori was identified.

"But we should also pause for thought. First, the traffic is not all one way. For every previously viewed unexplained or psychiatric illness whose "medical" cause is identified, there is an equal and opposite traffic, as previously viewed medical entities such as visceral proptosis, autointoxication, floating kidneys, chronic appendicitis and so on and so on make the opposite journey."

"Second, many of the mechanisms that we highlight in this contribution do not cease to be relevant once a causative organism or factor is identified – far from it. The same issues remain relevant, for example psychosocially informed treatments (e.g., Cognitive Behavioural Therapy) do not lose their effectiveness, which is not surprising given that they are of proven efficacy in improving outcome in conditions as diverse as cancer, rheumatoid arthritis, multiple sclerosis, HIV related illness and so on.

"Somatoform disorders are best thought of as multi-factorial in origin. It is rare than one mechanism (be it emotional or physical) is responsible for a patient’s symptoms. When thinking about why a patient is suffering from medically unexplained symptoms, the traditional psychiatric formulation is helpful i.e., what are the predisposing, precipitating and maintaining factors in this person’s symptoms? It can also be useful to think about how someone’s symptoms may have a physiological (as opposed to patho-physiological) explanation."

Editors and Contributors

  1. Dan J. Stein, MD, PhD (dan.stein
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    uct.ac.za) is Professor and Chair of the Dept of Psychiatry & Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. - Primary Editor
  2. Catherine Maud (cmaud
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    iafrica.com) practices psychiatry in Durban, South Africa.
  3. Nicolina van der Merwe (nicolina.vandermerwe
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    gmail.com) is a medical student doing her Masters in Neuroscience at the University of Cape Town.
  4. Allan Tasman, MD, is Professor and Chair of the Dept of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. He is Chair of the Education Committee of the World Psychiatric Association.
  5. Konstantinos N. Fountoulakis (kfount
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    med.auth.gr) is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry, 3rd Department of Psychiatry, School of Medicine, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece - Mood Disorders
  6. Erik Simonsen, MD, Elsa Ronningstam, and Theodore Millon, PhD. - Personality Disorders
  7. Ronald Pies, MD is Professor of Psychiatry and Lecturer on Bioethics and Humanities at State University of New York Upstate Medical University, Syracuse, N.Y., USA; and Clinical Professor of Psychiatry, Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston MA, USA. - Dementia, Delirium, and Psychiatric Symptoms Secondary to General Medical Conditions
  8. Paul Summergrad, MD is Dr. Frances S. Arkin Professor of Psychiatry and Chairman, Department of Psychiatry; and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts, USA. He is also Psychiatrist-in-Chief, Tufts Medical Center, Boston. Massachusetts. - Dementia, Delirium, and Psychiatric Symptoms Secondary to General Medical Conditions
  9. Bruce McDermott, MD
  10. Arash Ansari MD and David N. Osser MD. - Psychopharmacology
  11. Roumen V. Milev, MD, PhD, FRCPsych(UK), FRCP(C). - Electroconvulsive Therapy and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation
  12. S. Johnson MD/MSc, J Roberts MD, and R El-Mallakh MD. University of Louisville. - The Agitated/Violent Patient, Self-harm and suicide
  13. Robert Kohn, MD
  14. Julio Arboleda-Flórez is Professor Emeritus at Queen’s University, Canada - Forensic Psychiatry
  15. Henk Temmingh, M Med (Psychiatry) is a Consultant Psychiatrist in the Dept of Psychiatry and Mental Health, University of Cape Town, South Africa. - Alcoholism and Psychoactive Substance Use Disorders
  16. Stuart Thomas, MBBS, FRANZCP, consultant psychiatrist in private practice, Melbourne, Australia
  17. Rachel Ojserkis, B.A. is a research assistant at The Columbia Center for Eating Disorders. 1051 Riverside Drive, Unit 98, New York, NY 10032. http://www.columbiacenterforeatingdisorders.org ojserki
    15px-At_sign.svg.png
    pi.cpmc.columbia.edu - Eating Disorders
  18. Evelyn Attia, MD is Director of The Center for Eating Disorders at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and The New York State Psychiatric Institute. Dr. Attia is a Professor of Clinical Psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and Columbia University Medical Center. ea12
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    columbia.edu - Eating Disorders
  19. Christer Allgulander, MD. Karolinska Institute, Department of Clinical Neuroscience. Stockholm, Sweden. Christer.Allgulander
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    ki.se - Diagnosis & Classification
  20. Adrian Preda, M.D. is a Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior at UC Irvine and UC Irvine Neuropsychiatric Center. apreda
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    uci.edu - Psychotic Disorders
  21. Lisa Page. King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Dept. Psychological Medicine. Weston Education Centre, 10 Cutcombe Road, London, SE5 9AZ. - Somatoform Disorders
  22. David R. Spiegel, MD. Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Eastern Virginia Medical School. Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America. - Dissociative Disorders
  23. Kapil Chopra, MBBS. Kokil Chopra, MBBS. Kevin Lamm, MD. Margarita Somova, MD. Grant Yoder, DO. - Dissociative Disorders
  24. Resident Physicians. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Eastern Virginia Medical School, Norfolk, Virginia, United States of America. - Dissociative Disorders
  25. Brett McDermott and Tony Jaffa. - Disorders of Childhood & Adolescence
  26. Durga Prasad Bestha, MBBS. Vishal Madaan, MD. Daniel R. Wilson, MD, PhD. - Psychotherapy for Medical Students
  27. Anthony Koller, BSc., MBBCh is a psychiatric registrar in the Dept of Psychiatry & Mental Health at the University of Cape Town. - Sleep Disorders

21. Lisa Page. King’s College London, Institute of Psychiatry, Dept. Psychological Medicine. Weston Education Centre, 10 Cutcombe Road, London, SE5 9AZ. - Somatoform Disorders

Acknowledgments: A project of the Education Committee of the World Psychiatric Association

Edit: Now found it -- it's a quote from Wessely here. I think I landed on this textbook chapter when googling 'visceral proptosis'.
 
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"But we should also pause for thought. First, the traffic is not all one way. For every previously viewed unexplained or psychiatric illness whose "medical" cause is identified, there is an equal and opposite traffic, as previously viewed medical entities such as visceral proptosis, autointoxication, floating kidneys, chronic appendicitis and so on and so on make the opposite journey."

The comments above on the face of it might convince someone who never questions an authoritative statement but it is a clearly disingenuous remark.

First of all, psychiatry* was happy to include General Paresis of the Insane, Ulcers and probably many other illnesses that are now treatable. So, were psychiatrists mistaken in their beliefs that they were helping these people? They must have had such a belief or they would have concluded that psychiatry had nothing to offer and that the cause was likely elsewhere (as yet unidentifiable). This should be a problem. Are psychiatrists not able to identify between who is or is not in need of their specialty? If not how can they conclude that 'the traffic flows both ways'? Of course, we will never be 'treated' to any sort of reliable and sensible explanation to THAT question. Or so many others we have asked in the past. Why might that be?

And in the world of psychiatry there are NO unidentifiable illnesses. As it stands presently ALL illnesses for which there are no clear medical treatments are under the perview of psychiatry according to BPS psychiatrists.

Further, when it was discovered that GPI and ulcers were treatable with medicine the patient was cured and could go on to live their life.

Rather disingenously, it's suggested that the 'traffic that goes both ways'. This means that patients who come to psychiatry (including for, as per the example, some rather faulty diagnoses) are now treated. But does that mean cured? Do they all go home to live their lives free of illness?

Of course the psychiatry of the BPSists doesn't 'work' that way. It's far more 'complicated' than mere medicine and there is more art than science so psychiatry has responded by lowering standards of science because it cannot be held to account that way. So we are meant to just believe that they know all they think they know and that 'all will be well' if we do.

Psychiatry's top problem with regards to illnesses of unknown aetiology is that it really is in fact a belief system with NO evidence. And psychiatrists are extremely resistant to the idea of finding any evidence. And so far, the ubiquitous questionnaire with questions manipulated to get the answers they seek and the persons belief in the psychiatrist have been the pillar holding up the industrial site of the sausage factory cure.

*All of this refers of course to the BPS ideology in psychiatry.
 
Current BPS ideology = heads they win, tails everybody else loses.

It is unfalsifiable, and immune to correction.

Much like tarot cards, astrology, and other forms of con artistry (eg, psychics and mediums).

It's mind-boggling so many people believe that psychiatry is credible, reliable and a "science" simply because it happens to be taught in universities.
 
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