Goldacre and Bad Science Cult Promotes Medicalized Society
The extent to which members of the bad science cult idolize and front for the pharmaceutical industry as the “scientific” answer to all of our problems is right where high priests of medicine, governments and pharmaceutical companies want you to be. This definitely is affecting your freedom to choose health.
Here is an excerpt from an article published by Christopher Kent, D.C., J.D in the United States.
The manual and numbers he refers to are official diagnostic conditions and categories which are used for both government purposes and insurance purposes in the United States and other countries.
“The Definition of a Medicalized Society
Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary 2 defines “medicalize” as follows: “To handle or accept as deserving of or appropriate for medical treatment.”
Sato offers a more specific definition for medicalization: “A process or a tendency whereby the phenomena which had belonged to other fields like education, law, religion, and so on have been redefined as medical phenomena.”
Examples abound in psychiatry’s code book for psychiatric disorders and “conditions or problems … which may be a focus of clinical attention and require appropriate coding …”This remarkable tome is DSM-IV4. DSM-1 was first published in 1952, titled Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.
My journey into DSM-IV made me think I had fallen into Alice’s rabbit hole.
Normal Human Experience Now Masqueraded as “Disorders”
Do you have difficulty sleeping after drinking coffee? The problem isn’t a product of your poor judgment in guzzling java immediately before retiring. You are a victim of 292.89 — Caffeine-Induced Sleep Disorder F15.8.If you reflect on your shyness while tossing and turning, the problem could be the epidemic of 300.23 — Social Phobia F40.1. Don’t worry. Drug treatment is available.
Unfortunately, if you’re thinking about your place in the cosmos or spiritual issues, you’ve got V62.89 — Religious or Spiritual Problem Z71.8, and I couldn’t locate a drug for that.
Bad parenting is about to become a thing of the past. It’s not your fault, or your child’s fault. Besides the ubiquitous pandemic of ADHD, there are other disorders you may not be aware of.
Your ill-behaving child may be suffering from 313.81 — Oppositional Defiant Disorder F91.3.If your child often argues with adults, loses their temper, deliberately annoys people, etc., you’re dealing with ODD. Of course, this must be differentiated from 312.8 — Conduct Disorder F91.8, and 312.9 — Disruptive Behavior Disorder Not Otherwise Specified F91.9.
Should the problem be getting along with a brother or sister, the condition is V61.8 — Sibling Relational Problem F93.3.And should you argue with your spouse about whether the child should be grounded or drugged, you might be looking down the barrel of V61.1 — Partner Relational Problem Z63.0.
If math homework is a challenge, be sure to check for 315.1 — Mathematics Disorder F81.2. You must be careful not to confuse this with a V62.3 — Academic Problem Z55.8.If things are OK in the math department, but you have a teen experiencing uncertainty about life goals, career preferences, values, loyalties, etc., you’re dealing with 313.82 Identity Problem F93.8. This has been downgraded from a “disorder” in DSM-III-R, to a mere “problem” in DSM-IV. I’ll bet that makes you feel better.
A Pill for Every Issue You Don’t Want to Face
A plethora of sexual issues are described as “disorders.” We are all familiar with Bob Dole making erectile dysfunction a household word, with the blue pill offering a solution. But that’s just the tip of the, um, iceberg. If the target of your libidinal interest is ignoring you, the problem may be 302.71 Hypoactive Sexual Desire Disorder F52.2.
Lest anyone be offended, I will not address the other disorders codified in Chapter 20. Simply be happy that there are solutions that do not require you to address issues in your relationship.
Men can obtain testosterone cream if a doctor determines that it’s “right for you.” The stuff is said to work well. According to an ad in JAMA5, “Sexual enjoyment and satisfaction with erection duration were improved vs. baseline, but these improvements were not significant compared to placebo.” The ad shows a couple dancing, a couple riding a motorcycle, and two pictures of men swinging golf clubs (alone) and smiling.
Perhaps the next version of DSM will have a category for “golf disorders.”
REFERENCES
1. Wood H: Retail therapy. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 2003;4:700.
1. Webster’s New Universal Unabridged Dictionary. Barnes and Noble. New York. 1996.
1. Sato A: Medicalization and medicalization theories.
1. Reed WH, Wise MG: DSM-IV Training Guide. Brunner/Mazel, Inc. Philadelphia, PA. 1995.
1. JAMA 2003;290(11):1427.”
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If you really read what Ben Goldacre writes, you will see that he is actually a very strong critic of the ‘medicalisation’ of social and individual problems. See, for example, his various articles on the pushers of omega-3 pills.
On the other hand, ‘a pill for every ill’ is exactly what homeopaths offer.
So you’ve got it all arse versa again.
eveningperson- Do you think omega-3 would be good for a golf disorder?
What’s a golf disorder? I’m not a golfer, but isn’t lubricating the ball against the rules?
Eveningperson- I am shocked that you would say that. From reading all the anti-homeopathy blogs and Goldacre all I see is a defence of pharmaceutical medicine which is a leader and has a vested profit interest in medicalizing every conceivable human problem out there.
In Goldacre’s Lancet article he even implies that the detection of Vioxx’s serious side effects was a conventional medical success story. That is real “arse versa”.
On the other hand, I’m still waiting for some real statistics as to homeopathy’s negative effects or “danger” rather than opinions.
This from David Reilly’s summary of the state of homeopathy’s evidence base:
A G A I N S T D R B E N G O L D A C R E
Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism is Martin Walker’s fourth book charting the development of the corporate science lobby that has grown rapidly since New Labour came to power in 1997. One of the most recent exponents of the Lobby is Dr Ben Goldacre who has regurgitated a bad ‘Science’ column in the Guardian newspaper since 2003.
Like other quackbusters Goldacre claims to write factually based and scientifically accurate articles about health, medicine and science either supporting scientists and doctors or criticising individuals involved in alternative or nutritional health care. Goldacre’s writing, however, actually reflects the ideology of powerful industrial, technological and political vested interests.
Goldacre who it is claimed is a Junior doctor working in a London NHS hospital is actually a clinical researcher working at the centre of New Labour’s Orwellian spin operation that puts a sympathetic gloss on anything shown to create adverse reactions from MMR to Wi-Fi, while at the same time undermining cost-effective and long tried alternative therapies such as acupuncture and homoeopathy. Goldacre is involved with public health researchers well known for trying to prove that those who claim to be adversely affected by pollutants in our modern high-technology society, suffer from ‘false illness beliefs’.
Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism, investigates Goldacre’s role in industry lobby groups and puts another point of view in defense of some of the people whom he has attacked, belittled, satirized, castigated, vilified, maligned and opined against in his junk journalism.
Cultural Dwarfs and Junk Journalism: Ben Goldacre, quackbusters and corporate science, is available from the Slingshot Publications web site as a free download, from mid-day on Wednesday January 2nd.
http://slingshotpublications.com/index.html
familyperson – As eveningperson pointed out, Goldacre often criticizes medicalisation, including heavy criticism of pharmaceutical companies’ role. He fairly points out, though, that practictioners of various alternative medicines are euqally complicit in medicalisation, as it is just as much in their interest to make you think you need their help.
Cwaddell: Of all the inane comparisons. “They make you think you need their help”??? Does a bear sh#t in the woods? People are sick and they seek practitioners. They sometimes choose to seek an alternative practitioner. This has nothing to do with medicalization. Does medicine make you think you need their help??? Have you seen the billions spent on marketing by drug companies?
These inane comparisons of alternative health practitioners and homeopaths to conventional medicine and drug companies is ridiculous. Millions are affected adversely from conventional drugs on a daily basis. No one from homeopathy has adverse reactions. So all you do is conjecture about the possibility of someone being affected by not taking their medications or make ridiculous statements like a homeopath may want to have patients. AS if that is similar to where conventional medicine has gotten to.
Fourteen children have died from a vaccine trial in South America that continues on in spite of that and yet gimpy and all you anti-homeopthy bloggers continue to accuse a homeopath of being a murderer because he MIGHT cause the death of someone. And the deaths of these children from the vaccine are sloughed away by you as some righteous conventional scientific ritual that must be passed through. Colquhoun and others even flaunt this type of conventional trial as the end all of all medical treatment and leave no room for a more humane and ethical treatment like homeopathy.