Posted by kid_A on August 7, 2001, at 14:17:46
In reply to Re: suicides-Netherlands assisted? » lissa, posted by Ted on August 7, 2001, at 13:35:54
> Our brain is an organ just like our liver or pancreas or heart. Each is specialized and each has unique diseases. It just so happens that less is known about the causes & treatments of the brain's diseases.
Not to argue someone elses point, but I think that there is a big difference between what you would consider to be a 'disease' per se, and a 'condition' or mental state. There are diseases of the brain to be sure, such as hydrocephalus, but I don't think that depression is one of them. I think there is a mechansim attributed to disease that is not apparent with depression, such as comunicability; you can't 'catch' depression, as well, as far as studies show depression is not geneticly inhereted, some sort of dimentia may be genetic but not depression to my knowledge, last, where depression and disease share a common characteristic in that both can be the result of environmental stressors, the mechanism of those stressors are completely and entirely removed from one another, you can't get cancer due to stress at work or home... simalarly you can't develop depression from say some environmental stressor like radiation... you certainly may become depressed because of your radiation sickness, but that is far removed from radiation as the mechanism for the development of depression.
This is not even getting into what really constitues the mechanism of the disease itself, how diseased tissue or cells infect other diseased cells; though there may not be this mechanism in all diseases (im no disease expert so it may in fact be inherent to all diseases), depression shows no sign of this type of mechanism whatsoever. If you think of disease as a corosive that will eventually erode away healthy tissue or cells, then you might make the mistake of saying that depression is similar in its gradual overall effect on mental health if left untreated, however the link between these two things is again far removed since again, there is no evidence that a disproportionate chemical imbalance will say, increase over time to the point of eventual death due to worsening physical health...
Someone, please correct me if you feel Im wrong...
poster:kid_A
thread:8808
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20010807/msgs/8882.html