Redefining Disease: Are Bacteria and Viruses Behind Child Psychiatric Conditions?

[Sly Saint]

A Paradigm Shift in Understanding Disease
Luke O’Neill, a professor at Trinity College, advocates for a more nuanced understanding of these conditions. He suggests that bacteria and viruses might be the cause of psychiatric conditions in children, challenging traditional views on mental health. The PANDAS, often misdiagnosed as mental illness or psychosis, are a manifestation of the immune system’s response to infection, and not a separate, isolated condition. With quick diagnosis, treatment with antibiotics can be effective, offering hope to affected children and their families. The implications of this understanding are profound, reshaping how we approach disease diagnosis and treatment.

Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A Case Study
Another condition that embodies this evolving understanding is Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (ME/CFS), a long-term, complex, and debilitating condition. Often triggered by a viral infection, ME/CFS is characterized by severe fatigue, sleep disturbances, and a greatly diminished capacity to perform routine tasks. It suggests a biological rather than psychiatric origin, further blurring the lines between physical disease and mental health.

ME/CFS is associated with changes in several areas, including the nervous, immune, and endocrine systems. However, diagnosing ME/CFS is challenging due to the lack of characteristic laboratory abnormalities. The symptoms can only be managed, as there is currently no approved drug treatment or cure.

Reframing the Approach to Treatment
Pacing or activity management is a commonly used strategy for managing ME/CFS. It involves avoiding overexertion and reducing activity levels if symptoms worsen. Cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) is also offered to help individuals manage the challenges of dealing with chronic illness. However, it is crucial to remember that CBT is not a cure for ME/CFS.

https://bnn.network/breaking-news/h...-viruses-behind-child-psychiatric-conditions/

 

[Jonathan Edwards]

This sounds like a paradigm from the 1960s.
Whether t has any value or not I don't know, but not much of a shift.

 

[rvallee]

Mostly, and speculatively: yes, very likely so for the most part. Medicine's continued dismissal of the full implications of the germ theory of disease is a tragedy on a massive scale, worsened by having chosen literal fairy tales over simple truths. COVID has blown the whole biopsychosocial scam wide open, but it will take years to accept it, then work on it, and right at the point where AI is about to take over much of medicine means that it's likely machines that will make the shift, and embarrass stubborn humans in the process.

But the continued framing of pacing as this "on a budget approach" where as long as you're careful everything will be alright and manageable is really problematic and simply not based on reality. Neither is the framing that CBT is something that helps here, it's so trivial and it's only kept there to placate the fanatics who insist that it is a cure since the real problem is... whatever the hell it is they happen to believe instead of reality.

 

[NelliePledge]

Hadn’t heard of BNN so I looked at about us https://bnn.network/about/. Still not much the wiser to be honest other than it was started by one guy Gurbaksh Chahal.

the article is at least NICE compliant with the wording in the final paragraph

 

[Creekside]

I've seen a number of articles recently about actually looking for biological causes for mental disorders, so there seems to be some movement. There must be some researchers who are exasperated with psycho-BS and want to counter that with quantitative science.

 

[FMMM1]

I've seen a number of articles recently about actually looking for biological causes fothey face r mental disorders, so there seems to be some movement. There must be some researchers who are exasperated with psycho-BS and want to counter that with quantitative science.

Yea, surely researchers must be looking at things like GWAS [DecodeME]. Potentially GWAS in psychiatric conditions won't easily find key genes/pathways i.e. since the characteristics of the illness relate to multiple pathologies/multiple routes to the same outcome [psychiatric illness]. But that problem (heterogeneity) was addresses in dementia i.e. by running several large [compatible] GWAS and combining the data.

 

[Creekside]

Yea, surely researchers must be looking at things like GWAS

I had in mind brain scans correlating disorders with specific patterns in parts of the brain, and levels of specific chemicals in parts of the brain. If they develop those sorts of diagnostic techniques enough, then you can get a quantitative diagnosis rather than a psychiatrist's "educated judgement" (and we are well aware of the failures of psychiatric education and knowledge), and treatments can be judged quantitatively.