If all mental illnesses are a result of a physical ailment, shouldn't we be telling our GP everything, not bothering with shrinks at all?

How are all mental illnesses the result of a physical ailment again?

What about abuse victims @NewZen? Or are you suggesting some sort of alternative therapy?

How long a term should your GP attend school? If he or she is to be a psychotherapist, why not a renal specialist and an ob-gyn and an ophthalmologist, too?

Yeah… Like @mirifique, I’d never heard that before, and can’t see how it makes much sense, since, as @SpatzieLover mentioned, mental trauma can clearly cause mental ailments (e.g. PTSD).

It is thought that people can be genetically susceptible to certain mental illnesses, but I don’t think that the cause is usually purely physical in nature… And GPs are generally not versed in the treatment of more complex mental illnesses, either, which it where psychologists come in handy.

The idea, which I (sort of, because mind is rather ill-defined) agree with, is that everything in the mind is the result of the physical state of the brain, and consequently all mental illnesses are the result of physical defects in the brain. But with regard to this question, GPs cannot be expected to be well-versed in all areas of medicine, and the brain is easily complex enough to require specialized treatment. As for why we have shrinks and not only neuroscientists, our understanding of the brain is not sufficiently advanced that we can address all mental illness from their physical foundation, in the same way that you can’t play a video game by manipulating individual bits.

I am not a believe or the biological model of mental illnesses. In fact that is why the DSM is broken up into categories because it does not support the idea in it’s entirety either. Although we do function more towards the biological model. In fact the biological model can cause some serious deterrents for some people trying to overcome mental disorder. I could go into it moor but it is complicated and controversial.

I would like to see links to back up the statement that “all mental illnesses are a result of a physical ailment”

Clearly emotional trauma and abuse do not fall under this vague assumption.
Please back your question with your sources.

Mental health problems can be caused by psychological causes as well.

If they’re caused by physical causes, then you can’t go to a general doctor for them, because no doctor can be trained to specialize in all numerous fields of medicine, the human brain can’t handle that.

The difference is that psychiatrists are trained to handle mental issues in a variety of ways, whether with things that will alter brain chemistry or with pscyhotherapy. General practitioners haven’t spent as much time focusing on those specific things and may not have the basis of knowledge required. And, as many have pointed out, all disturbances of the mind are not physical issues, and some cannot be “cured” or helped with medication alone, if at all. Psychology and psychiatry are two fields that aren’t very concrete in their diagnoses and treatments, unlike the fix for a broken bone or stomach virus.

@Dog; emotional trauma and abuse do fall under this assumption. The point is that these things cause physical changes in your brain (there is no question that this is true), and these changes are the cause of mental illness.

@Jayne But a normal practitioner has little knowledge of the differences that trauma causes to the brain. They do not go to school for this specific knowledge.

@SpatzieLover; Which is what I said in my first answer.

Would you go to your GP for open heart surgery?

Hi @Jayne I would like to read more on this which is why I was asking @NewZen to cite his sources. I could see where emotional trauma such as grief might have an effect on brain chemistry but I want to know if this falls under physical illness that could possibly be detected and treated on a physical level as the question suggests.

@All: I asked: If all mental illnesses are a result of a physical ailment… it was from a previous question wherin it was stated as a fact. This surprised me as well, and I though it might be discussed here. Should it be “proven” by scientists as a fact (and boy are there different theories on just about everything, right?) then I’d like to hear about it – and the kinds of tests conducted and (long term) clinical studies conducted. Now please rethink your attacks and sarcasm, and I’d like to hear from any Psychologists or Psychiatrists we have here. Or maybe the Doctors could tell us about their experiences. Nothing is absolute anyway – so the topic of mental illnesses can be looked upon from different aspects and points of view – or from a personal point of view. Whatever you feel like.

:-)

Not everything is treated best with pills. Some disorders are better treated with a combination of medication and therapy or just therapy.

As a neuroscientist, I do believe that all mental illnesses have a physical, biological basis.

This is not a viewpoint that all neuroscientists share. This is my opinion as someone who knows more than the average person about brains.

The problem is that we have no idea what that physical, biological basis is. Not for a single mental illness. We can point to areas of the brain that have changes in blood flow, different sizes, or different shapes in mentally ill people when compared to healthy people, but that doesn’t explain an entire disease.

Thanks @nikipedia! Are you aware of any studies being done currently regarding any specific psychological disorder from a physical standpoint? I have been dwelling on how interesting this concept is and the implications to relieve suffering if the changes and the mechanisms of change are found.

Psst @NewZen Just because someone wants to know more about the basis of a question it is not an attack on the person asking the question.:)

@Dog True. Sorry.

@Dog: Oh wow. That’s a big question.

For almost any illness you can name, scientists have asked: Do people with this illness…

1. ...have different genes?
2. ...produce different amounts of neurotransmitters?
3. ...have structural differences in their brain (i.e., are their brain regions a different size or shape)?
4. ...have different connections between brain regions?
5. ...have functional differences in their brain (i.e., do you see more or less activity in specific brain regions)?

And the answers to these questions vary depending on what disease you want to know about, and sometimes even depending on what researcher you ask. Physical changes can refer to lots of different things, and none of these questions has been satisfactorily answered for any illness as far as I know.

If you google around for the biological bases of different illnesses, there’s a lot out there. For instance, here’s the wikipedia article on the biology of depression. And here’s a section about the neural basis of schizophrenia.

I hope that at least mostly answers your question. Let me know if you want me to try to find something more specific.

Sure, you should probably mention it to your GP, but you still need to see the psychiatrist just as much as you would need to see any other type of specialist when needed.

@nikipedia- Lurve and thanks for the links as well as for the search term. I will be researching a lot more on this.

I cannot remember the last time a question really made me THINK- and this one has me absolutely fascinated. Up until today I assumed the obvious- brain injury or traumatic injury were absolutely linked to mental illnesses but aside of possible chemical imbalances at the root of some illnesses such as depression it never had occurred to me that all mental health issues could have a biological base.

I had to go to a dinner this evening and as others around me engaged in casual banter my mind was racing…

“What if?”
What could this mean for treatment?
Could those who are tormented be relieved?
If the mechanism that creates the mental illness can be determined how could it then be countered?
It must be very incredibly complicated so perhaps dual drugs to disarm the mechanisms? (Thanks to @nikipedia I will now add the potential for a genetic component, structural components, amount of neurotransmitters and connection pathways to my thoughts.)
Would the person with the mental illness be found deficient?
In the future would neural cell transplants take place- if so would this be an easier solution than drug therapy?
In the case of grief could the treatment be abused and we become a race of those who do not feel emotional pain?
Oh how I lurve Fluther….
Next week I will pay a visit to a friend who is a doctor and inventor. We love to get into spirited and interesting conversations such as this. I am excited to bounce information back and forth with him and dwell on the possibilities.

In answer to the original question I think that we will always need psychologists to treat for grief, transitioning, growing and life challenges. However, while it would not likely be your family doctor, I can see specialists who cure the big ones such as schizophrenia, dementia and multiple personality disorder.
I learned a lot this evening! Good Question!

A GP’s primary job these days is to treat the simple things and then refer you to specialists for everything else. So, tell your GP about your problems, but still expect to be referred to a psychologist for counseling and/or a psychiatrist for medications and/or a neurologist in some cases. There are even Neuro-psychiatrists, medical doctors that specialize in how the brain actually functions as an organ.

Eventually I foresee that we will have specialists in the various hard-to-deal-with-illnesses, such as Bipolar Disorder, somewhat like @Dog mentions.

Maybe my GP should do my colonoscopy and my heart bypass operation, too. Not to mention repairing the cartilage in my knee or doing the “Tommy John” surgery. Yup. My GP is a superman! [except when she’s a woman]

@nikipedia ; Didn’t I hear that they are coming very close to figuring out how OCD works in the brain? I heard that they were so close that they might move it from Psychiatry to Neurology. I just can’t remember where I heard it.

We could look at the interface between psychopharmaceuticals and talk therapy like this: once your brain is less volatile, you still need to reprogram the panicky, confused, violent, sad, or otherwise stuck historical thoughts, and you probably can’t do that alone, because you’re so close to them. You need to practice thinking new (more realistic) thoughts. Where are you going to find them, where are you going to practice them? You need a person to listen, intervene, and provide exercises. Right, @nikipedia?

Yes. If that were true. Which also implies mentally handicap people (having a physical disadvantage compared to the majority) don’t need to talk to others about what they are feeling.

@HLRE – Are you a scientologist by chance?

I agree with @Supacase. Short, and to the point.

Yes, just as you would tell your GP about a leg injury, a skin disorder, a suspected broken bone, or any other symptom, so you can receive a referral to a professional most qualified to treat it.