DSM-5: Terminology and Certainty. More Thoughts on Medical Naming: II

Dr. Sturman

 

By Martin Sturman, MD, FACP, reproduced with permission

On Naming and Billing Codes

The “Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders” (DSM-5) is the latest in a long list of DSM’s going back to 1952. Seeking diagnostic perfection, doctors and patients alike feel comfort in the thought that naming is knowing and knowing is curing. “We see this” rarely reduces anxiety. Yet, by attempting to give a name to every clinical presentation, especially types of behavior, physicians and particularly psychiatrists, have caused a constellation of unintended disasters. The growth of new and unreliable designations resemble a kind of unrestrained systematic orthodoxy creating millions of new patients, and contributing dangerously to exploding medical costs. The National Institutes of Mental Health reports that one in five Americans over 18 has a “mental disorder! According to the CDC about half of Americans will meet the criteria for a DSM-IV disorder sometime in their life, with first onset usually in childhood or adolescence!” Can you believe this?

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Conflicts of Interest Derail Science

“The peer-review process was designed to assure the validity and quality of science that seeks publication. This is not always the case.” Dariusz Leszczynski, PhD

In this article Finland’s research professor in radiation and nuclear safety Dr. Leszczynski points out that the sheer numbers of articles that are later retracted show that the peer-review process is faulty. He says that many papers that should never get through the process, do. And we at AITSE know that many that should, do not. Dr. Leszczynski’s own article explains.

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No, Your MLM Doesn’t Work

Supplements

Guest post, published with permission from Lazy Man and  Money (AITSE recommended site)

Today’s article is going to be a little different…

I write today’s article in response to the thousands and thousands of comments that I’ve gotten from multi-level marketing (MLM) distributors for various products such as MonaVie, Protandim, Youngevity, Jusuru, Asea and others that make the claim that their products helped with such and such medical condition.

As Dr. Jonny Bowden has written:

“New Rules: No More Claiming Mona Vie Cures Cancer! Nor, for that matter, AIDS. Nor lupus, GERD, acne, age spots, arthritis, a balding scalp or sagging libido. Nope. Sorry. And lest you think I’m picking on poor MonaVie, the same is true of Xango, Mangosteen, Xocai, Tahitian Noni, and all the other ridiculously overpriced and oversold juices promoted by scientifically illiterate multi-level marketing ‘distributors’ who repeat these claims with the sincerity and earnestness of a Kucinich volunteer.”

He wrote that article before Jusuru, Asea, and Protandim were around. Well Protandim was around, but it was being sold at GNC where no one made any claims that it helped with any medical condition. It was around the time that article was published that LifeVantage announced that they were looking into MLM, citing the “great success” of companies like MonaVie and Tahitian Noni. Soon after the switch to MLM, Protandim got the reputation of curing everything under the sun from distributors just like LifeVantage planned.

What we have here are 9 products that are all reportedly able to cure or aid with almost every condition known to mankind. I’ll add Xowii, Zrii, and Nopalea to round out to an even dozen. Though some of the have overlapping exotic ingredients like acai, there is no single ingredient in all of them that could provide reason explanation of healing benefits.

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