Anxiety Disorders Discoverable by Blood Test 407
Tomer Yaffe writes to tell us that researchers at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have discovered a technique to diagnose anxiety disorders with a simple blood test. From the article: "The researchers hope that the anxiety blood test will soon make its way into hospitals and E.R. rooms and give doctors and psychiatrists a quick and precise tool for examining, and eventually treating, these disorders." The team has also set their sights on depression, hoping for a similar technique to detect these types of disorders as well.
As a psych student (Score:5, Informative)
Re:As a psych student (Score:2, Informative)
By proving beyond all doubt the existence of an anxiety disorder this blood test could allow doctors to perscribe such medications without fear of having their license revoked for the over-perscription of a scheduled drug.
Re:As a psychologist (Score:5, Informative)
This Could Drastically Reduce Diagnosis Costs (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Should we make everyone "normal"? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Research Purposes (Score:4, Informative)
Look at the research of Jon Kabat-Zinn. Here's an example [nih.gov].
Re:What if their anxiety disorders involve needles (Score:2, Informative)
It's nothing to do with *what* is being injected/taken out. It is the sight of the syringe or needle. She cannot watch anyone else having one done without feeling sick and used to be unable to even look at a photo of a syringe on its own.
As far as having an injection, such as for a vaccination she gets hysterical and loses control. In the past several people have had to pin her down while she has the injection.
I have always thought the extra trauma of this probably just makes matters worse. Giving her a temporary anesthetic which lasts only a minute or so would be far nicer.
Re:What if their anxiety disorders involve needles (Score:1, Informative)
This is 100% correct. I suffer from Paranoid Personality Disorder mixed in with anxiety and there is an inherent component of the "disorder" that would keep you from getting help in the first place. Some number of people with true paranoia or strong enough anxiety would not want to contact anyone for help in the first place.
Yeah. I recently entered therapy for SAD (or 'social phobia'), OCD, and apparently depression, and in particular the anxiety (and to a lesser degree the depression) is what kept me from getting treatment years ago. It's hard to get help when you have a phobia about rejection, authority figures, strangers, public places, et cetera. I imagine it works similarly for other disorders.
Re:Screening (Score:2, Informative)
No!!! to quicker means to psych test us all (Score:2, Informative)
History time and again records governments continually abusing the power accorded by such sweeping initiatives, interpreted as mandates by sycophantic minions. Why should modern government be any different?
The real questions are: Who determines what is to be considered a mental illness? Which authorities control who is tested for mental illness and how? What will be done to the mentally ill under the aegis of treatment? Who stands to profit from it all?
The Columbia University TeenScreen Program [teenscreen.org] is the pilot program mentioned in the report as the model program to administer such a CBT test. Their pilot test is already being given to kids in at least 27 states, in at least 69 schools.
At the Teenscreen website, under the "Setting The Record Straight About TeenScreen" page, the group argues that the language in the President's New Freedom Commission on Mental Health, couched in terms of "universal screening" does not mean "mandatory screening."
Yes, Teenscreen does not advocate forced psychological testing at their website. However, Teenscreen can only vouchsafe for itself.
Teenscreen may indeed be an organization of integrity; the question is not how are the recommendations of the President's Commission being tested, but what will be the future of the initiative advocated!
Governments do not have a good track record being trusted to endorse and administer psychological testing of the citizenry. More than plaintive appeals as to Teenscreen's integrity are needed to dispell the fact that governments in both the distant and recent past have used official definitions of "mental health" as a means to control, imprison and torture citizens. The more wide-spread such programs become, the more likely they will be used nefariously. American forms of eugenics [amphilsoc.org] are alive and well.
Teenscreen cannot speak for the aims of government, nor for what government does with the information once it is collected by organizations such as Teenscreen. Presumeably such information will be subject to government review.
With the acknowledged surveillance of all network communications by Navy operations [navy.mil] it is doubtful that client-professional privilege could be maintained, even if private organizations were to retain some semblance of separation between their testing of individuals in public settings and the government's pervasive snooping.
For more, see: www.inforwars.net