LeRoy New York Girls' Plight Highlights The Durability of Sheer Medical Nonsense
Editor's Note: It is clear from Tuesday's Today Show Segment (confirmed on Wednesday) that doctors believe the "tics" afflicting teen girls in LeRoy, New York, are a psychiatric illness -- specifically, conversion disorder. (That's all that's left when you rule out infectious and environmental factors, at least as I understand those terms.) For that reason, we're re-running my recent post about this dubious diagnosis and its roots in Freudian nonsense that has still not been acknowledged and discredited.
By Dan Olmsted
Events have conspired this year to bring attention to psychiatry as it relates to autism and other disorders that we believe share environmental roots. The focus is not at all flattering.
There’s the American Psychiatric Association’s re-jiggering of the upcoming DSM-V so that the parameters of autistic disorder will change, fuzzing the real increase and making its environmental nature harder to discern. Then there’s French psychiatrists banning a documentary called The Wall, which portrays them (accurately) as clinging to the discredited parent-blaming paradigm.
There’s the book Anatomy of an Addiction by Howard Markel, which portrays Sigmund Freud as – how shall we put it -- coked out of his freaking mind while cooking up some of his big ideas. And there’s a well-received new film, A Dangerous Method, which describes how Freud and Jung dealt – poorly -- with a prominent case of “hysteria.”
The miserable performance of psychiatry on these fronts is not news to us. In our book The Age of Autism – Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic, Mark Blaxill and I put forward a new theory about Freud’s first “hysteria” cases in the late 1800s. We argue that many if not most of those dozen or so case studies – which included both men and women – were actually organic illnesses triggered by toxins, and in particular by mercury exposure from medicine and manufacturing.
We won’t recapitulate that theory here (see our chapter, “The Age of Hysteria”) except to say that Freud himself noted that most of the severe patients he saw were tending fathers with long histories of syphilis – treated with mercury – or were otherwise employed in nursing – where mercury dressings and treatments were then standard. Our examination of his key case histories, from “Dora” to “Anna O.,” documented the close connection. In the case of Dora, Freud treated her father for syphilis before seeing her as a patient a few years later – having triggered, we believe, the very mental problems that he then treated as psychiatric! Nice work if you can get it.
It’s a simple and stark idea, and we seem to be the first to propose it. If we’re right, it’s consequential, calling into question the theories derived from such a fundamental mistake. And it supports our argument for a much longer and deeper history of mercury poisoning in humans than mainstream medicine has understood or is willing to acknowledge (the thesis of our book).
Take A Dangerous Method, which its producers describe thusly: “On the eve of World War I, Zurich and Vienna are the setting for a dark tale of sexual and intellectual discovery. Drawn from true-life events, A Dangerous Method explores the turbulent relationships between fledgling psychiatrist Carl Jung, his mentor Sigmund Freud and Sabina Spielrein, the beautiful but disturbed young woman who comes between them.” The outcome forever changes “the face of modern thought.”
The latter is no doubt true. Freud and his apostles and apostates did indeed shape modern intellectual history. It was not just what went on in the 50-minute hour, but how we think about sexuality, the role of childhood and art and culture, and the relations between men and women. Which makes it worth examining what exactly was the matter with Sabina. According to one review on celebrities.com:
“Keira Knightley … plays Sabina Spielrein, a young Russian woman who would go on to become a renowned psychoanalyst herself, but when we first see her, she’s a hysterical creature being carted off to a hospital, kicking and screaming, in a horse-drawn carriage. Michael Fassbender’s Jung is the doctor in charge of treating her, and she’s in the midst of a fit when he first sits her down: Her neck is drawn long and tight, her eyes pop, her jaw juts out so far it looks as if it might detach from her face.”
This description shows that classical hysteria went way beyond the “vapors” and fainting spells that we now tend to think of when we summon images of hysteria in Victorian-era women. These “fits” (seizures) are a consistent feature of hysteria, in both men and women, and they point not to an abusive or seductive Papa but to an environmental trigger.
In our book, we note how Freud’s mentor Charcot describes a gilder who works with mercury and has a “fit” while getting off a carriage. Charcot believes that there’s no problem working with mercury (barring an “accident”) and attributes his problems to family issues. But everyone now understands that working with mercury and other dangerous metals is hazardous per se, and that seizures are a well-known feature of mercury toxicity (as are so many of the other physical and mental features of “hysteria” – concentric narrowing of the visual field, peripheral neuropathy, gut problems, depression and suicidal thinking).
What, then, of Sabrina’s background? Let’s see, her father was a businessman and her mother, … well, her mother was a dentist.
A dentist! Is there a more mercury-centric occupation one could imagine for a woman in the late 1800s? Facts cluster around a good hypothesis, as they say, and here again you don’t have to go through contortions to find a link to mercury in the early reports of hysteria.
Yet mainstream media and medicine remain resolutely baffled when it comes to such environmental or – even more sensitive – iatrogenic or doctor-induced disorders. “Hysteria: Is the Medical Condition Medical, Physical, or Made-Up?” asked an article in The Daily Beast last month timed to the movie release.
“Today, the condition remains a mystery,” writes Casey Schwartz. “It has a new name—conversion disorder—and it accounts for 1 to 3 percent of all diagnoses in hospitals, making it more common than either multiple sclerosis or schizophrenia. Yet it is still poorly understood, and often misdiagnosed.”
Schwartz writes about Jon Stone, a neurologist at the University of Edinburgh. “One of his patients, a former nurse [!], developed an extreme conversion disorder in which her muscles involuntarily contracted into abnormal positions. ‘Her left leg is literally upside down,’ Stone says, so that ‘her toe is pressing into her buttock. She’s now been in bed for 25 years.’”
Why, you’d have to be a French psychiatrist to believe that’s a mental illness!
If only this were just a movie, and not an influential way of thinking that persists to this very day with such malignant consequences. For as we write in our book, Freud’s misdiagnosis of mercury poisoning as “hysteria” has echoed down through the history of autism.
In the 1940s, Leo Kanner overlooked the links to new organic mercury compounds in the family background of his first patients and instead succumbed to the Freudian idea of parental coldness as a factor.
In the 1950s and 60s, Bruno Bettelheim heaped “homicidal mothers” insanity on top of that. And the futile focus on genes has only confused the issue further.
Said one of the doctors we quote in our book, aghast that every generation seems to forget the toxic effects of mercury: “One can go forward and still go in circles.”
--
Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism and co-author, with Mark Blaxill, of The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine, and a Man-made Epidemic, published in paperback this fall by Thomas Dunne books.
Well add my daughter to the list of the mystery illness. In mid January she woke up with severe arm and hand twitching, some mild movement in the let. She progressed to memory loss, loss of appetite, dizziness, social anxiety, and deafness in one ear. It turns out she has PANDAS! We contacted Dr. Trifiletti who was helping some of the NY girls (the ones who were getting better) he ordered more extensive blood tests for her than what was done in the hospital. The results came back with strep, mono, and mycoplasma. He prescribed her heavy dose antibiotics, she started getting better. 4 months later she underwent IVIG treatment and is trying to get scheduled for another one. The anitbodies that your body has to fight the infection become confused and attack your own brain. Particularly the part that controls movement and emotions. She is 23 years old. We are thankful that there is a handful and I mean a handful of doctors who know how to treat this. It is not conversion disorder!!!!!!
Posted by: Sinsunny Elko | June 12, 2012 at 08:23 PM
The polysorbates,the boric acid act as powerful detergents
and able to cause lesions on the blood brain barrier. Polysorbates already used to carry medication through the BBB for patients with brain cancer(Italian research study).Aluminum adjuvants,viral
particles,contaminants can easily carried into the brain.
The more vaccines the girls get,the more the immune system
is stimulated,the higher the immune response will be.Their
toxic load and blood brain barrier damage increases with each shot.Vioxx now Gardasil.Only God knows what the long term damage is going to be.The foxes at Merck do the follow up study.
Posted by: oneVoice | February 21, 2012 at 01:05 PM
My daughter is 17 and just received third dose HPV. After her second vaccination she started having uncontrolled twitching thoughout her body that lasted 25 days. It started shortly after the second vaccination. I brought her to our primary care doctor who refered us to a specialist. I'm a nurse and suspected the vaccination might be the cause. They both did not think it was the problem. Couple months later(couple wks ago) she received the third dose and four days later she was twitching again. Now tell me it isn't the vaccination! I understand the need for vaccinations.... But at what cost? Is it a bad batch? I have also contacted the company. Doctors are also aware of the twitching again.
Posted by: Mueller | February 08, 2012 at 12:44 AM
My daughter is 17 and just received third dose HPV. After her second vaccination she started having uncontrolled twitching thoughout her body that lasted 25 days. It started shortly after the second vaccination. I brought her to our primary care doctor who refered us to a specialist. I'm a nurse and suspected the vaccination might be the cause. They both did not think it was the problem. Couple months later(couple wks ago) she received the third dose and four days later she was twitching again. Now tell me it isn't the vaccination! I understand the need for vaccinations.... But at what cost? Is it a bad batch? I have also contacted the company. Doctors are also aware of the twitching again.
Posted by: M mueller | February 08, 2012 at 12:08 AM
Maybe these parents should concern themselves about the fact that thier daughters are scaming them and the community.. They are watching to much TV for the reality shows. Especially to that idiot mother on TV that YOU ARE NOT DOING YOUR JOB.. No lady, YOU ARE NOT DOING YOUR JOB>>
Posted by: Roy Rogers | February 07, 2012 at 08:18 AM
I am from leroy and the hs is fairly new in the last few years and was built on swamp land... the first year we were in the school the gym was closed multiple times due to the school sinking and the floors cracking.... in the 70 there was an outbreak due to some issues with the playing feilds and that is now where the school is built. The outbreak than was just rashes and sore sthat would not heal but this still should have been looked at. Also alot of the girls were sick befor ethe symptoms started... there are so many things that should be looked into but are not
Posted by: leroy ny | January 23, 2012 at 11:33 AM
Girls these ages get HPV vaccines. Anyone can go online and see the side efects and potential dangers of this and other vaccines. Why would any health care provider want to reveal that this is the cause when doing so will cause themselves trouble?
Posted by: T Jam | January 21, 2012 at 06:35 AM
"Conversion disorder" - more nonsensical diagnoses to add to the pile for things they can't, don't want to explain...."Shaken Baby Syndrome," " SIDS, "Munschausen by Proxy," Conversion Diaorder. Bullshit!
Posted by: Jen | January 20, 2012 at 11:19 PM
If I were those parents I'd be getting second and third opinions and lawyering up. They have been bamboozled and are wasting precious time!
Posted by: Jen | January 20, 2012 at 11:15 PM
I feel for everyone involved in these cases in leroy. I heard today there are now additional cases 3 more came out this week and it is yet to hit the media. The last one came out about 3 mos ago and now the week of the media blitz we have a couple more.
Btw, i know there has been several third parties examining this case and they all come to the same conclusion.
Posted by: Jack jenson | January 20, 2012 at 09:02 PM
There was a mass vaccination for polio starting Aug. 3 in Blackburn before the Oct. 8 mass hysteria epidemic. Also it was the girls whom attended the Cathedral the night before the outbreak whom were effected. I wonder if they were inoculated at the Cathedral.
Posted by: Patrick | January 20, 2012 at 04:36 PM
This was the example that wikipedia gives for the diagnosis of mass psychogenic illness occuring in a school in 1965:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1944262/pdf/brmedj02369-0033.pdf
It's interesting that there was a polio epidemic earlier in the year of the MPI epidemic that was pointed out as a trigger and one of the symptoms was tetany.
Posted by: Patrick | January 20, 2012 at 03:01 PM
As far as I can see, there is no information available as to whether these girls were given flu vaccines . Now, tics caused by mercury in flu vaccines would be a very likely candidate for a cause. Well, well, we have a new public health tool at our disposal here. Lets call it the AOA Principle: When faced with a medical mystery- what the public health officials WONT talk about is the key to the cause.
And please dont say that there is no psychiatric condition here. We may have no nomenclature for it as yet, but there is definitely something psychological transpiring when doctors sit around the cafeteria table and talk themselves into agreeing that vaccines are safe and young girls enjoy acting crazy.
Posted by: Cherry Misra | January 20, 2012 at 01:47 PM
Yes Garbo, it is blame the patient game...
Posted by: oneVoice | January 20, 2012 at 01:44 PM
exactly Heather. I found it intersting that many of these mysterious illness cases involve HS football teams, a marching band and the Leroy girl on the Today show was a cheerleader. Most of the kids were in sports so they used the fields. I think the practice field at the schools need to be tested. Either the turf is has been treated with toxic chemicals or it astro turf which his said to contain many toxic chemicals.
Here's more:
Athletes kick up hidden toxic chemicals from artificial turf.
"In a study of artifical turf, scientists found harmful chemicals in virtually every sample tested, including PAHs, chromium and lead.
Arsenic and cadmium were detected in most samples.Tests with synthetic saliva, gastric juice and intestinal fluids showed that some of the contaminants were biologically available. Potential risks to children and adults using these areas should be evaluated since nearly 1,000 fields of artificial turf are installed every year in the U.S.
more...
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.org/ehs/newscience/new-yorkers-a...
Posted by: Sarah | January 20, 2012 at 12:05 PM
Many of the recent synthetics could be responsible for this. Labs often don't have the capability for clinical testing since the formulas change frequenct and some categories require spinal-taps for detection.
The chemical used in sythetics have caused serious neurological damage and deaths.
Posted by: Heather | January 20, 2012 at 12:06 AM
Yes, conversion ha ha disorder. Which is why the map of Tourrette's diagnosis prevalence looks just like the map of the spread of Lyme disease. Wonder how many vaccines those high school students are now getting at their annual check up? Tdap booster, menactra, HPV, flu all together, right?
In an infant, it's SIDS. In a toddler, it's a normal progression of the autism that is genetic and was there all along. In a healthy teen, it's hysteria. Always an excuse that prevents them from running actual labs.
Posted by: Garbo | January 19, 2012 at 05:44 PM
Here's more...
In Iowa:
Why are 13 Iowa football players hospitalized? No firm answers
http://hawkcentral.com/2011/01/26/doctor-hospitalized-iowa-football-players-likely-have-rhabdomyolysis/
In Minnesota:
Mass Illness Hits Farmington High School
http://www.myfoxtwincities.com/dpp/health/mass-illness-hits-farmington-high-school-oct-12-2011
In Austin, Trexas
HS Marching band mysterious illness
Parents: airborne cause of 22 students’ illness at HISD football game, but probe inconclusive
http://www.yourhoustonnews.com/river_oaks/news/parents-airborne-cause-of-students-illness-at-hisd-football-game/article_2008d955-223d-59c7-a767-c13b45255ac0.html
Posted by: Sarah | January 19, 2012 at 09:47 AM
I found a videos about other mysterious illnesses that have hit High School students at schools across the US
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxtOkGIb58M
Texas:
Mystery Illness Hits 22 Students at Texas High School Football Game
http://abcnews.go.com/US/mystery-illness-hits-22-students-houston-texas-high/story?id=14888448
In Oregon:
Mystery Illness Strikes 12 High School Football Players
http://abcnews.go.com/Health/mystery-illness-strikes-12-high-school-football-players/story?id=11452656
In Ohio:
Health Dept. Investigating Elyria Players' Mystery Illness
http://www.fox8.com/news/wjw-strongsville-elyria-football-game-canceled-food-poisoning-txt,0,5097092.story
In Boston
Mystery illness hits high school team
http://articles.boston.com/2010-08-23/sports/29284598_1_creatine-winkler-kidney-failure
In Edmonton, Canada:
Mystery illness sidelines high school football player-
Ryan King rendered deaf, blind and paralyzed seven months ago
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/sports/Mystery+illness+sidelines+high+school+football+player/5678057/story.html
Posted by: Sarah | January 19, 2012 at 08:48 AM
Pharma is raining sh*t down on us from the skies, with ever greater impunity. Is it not time to Occupy Pharma? How about a boycott?
Just follow the money folks – from Novartis to…. Here is just one example of their new "crop dusting":
Baits will be dropped over portions of 27 counties
by KVUE News
The Texas Department of State Health Services will drop vaccines from the air Wednesday.
It's part of the annual effort to protect people and livestock from rabies. They'll drop about 1.8 million doses of the rabies vaccine over the next month.
The vaccines are enclosed in small packets dipped in fish oil and coated with fish meal crumbles.
The baits don't pose a risk to humans, but organizers say you should avoid them because animals are less likely to eat the bait if a human has been messing with it.
http://www.kvue.com/news/state/Rabies-vaccine-to-be-dropped-from-the-air-136655533.html
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/vaccines
Posted by: patrons99 | January 19, 2012 at 07:59 AM
It was hard not to think of some sicko possibly putting something in these girls' food when they were not looking and watching to see how much attention the whole thing gets. But that's a stretch. It could be a neurotoxin. Perhaps some people are highly sensitive to a food additive or a bug bite? My aunt had something strange happen to her a year ago. She said she lost part of her mind (cognitive functioning) for a while and figured out it was some food additive. But she says she really could not remember what happened to parts of a whole year. I would be curious if the drug Cogentin would help them at all. If that helped them, they it may not be conversion disorder at all.
Posted by: Cat | January 19, 2012 at 12:29 AM
Tom states that meth use in the area is high. That might be something to look into--whether the girls were all at a party or some other event in a particular house or building in the months before their symptoms appeared. Curiously, or not, mercury is apparently used in some sorts of meth manufacture, and houses (or other buildings) that were used for meth manufacture can be mercury-contaminated.
Some dental offices have also been found to be mercury contaminated--and there is always the possibility of a thermometer, sphygmomanometer, thermostat, or other mercury containing gauge getting broken somewhere, then not reported or properly cleaned up.
Considering that symptoms of toxic mercury exposure can be, and often are, separated in time by weeks or months from the date of exposure, one would need to look at what or where the girls all may have spent time over the summer and early fall to see if there might be any suspect location where all had spent time (including any classroom at school), a dental office, a doctor's office, a particular home or business.
Oddly the one report of the health dept on their investigation of the school for possible toxins that I found on the internet:
http://www.leroycsd.org/files/news/leroy%20mshs%20%20iaq%20decmber%202011.pdf
did not include any attempt to detect mercury in the school. Perhaps there were other studies that aren't available. In any case, the concentration of mercury (or other contaminants for that matter) could well have declined over time--so that measurements taken in recent weeks would not be an accurate reflection of levels to which the girls might have been exposed some months ago.
We can bet that if they tested the girls for mercury (doubtful), they will have only run a blood test which is not likely to show elevated mercury if the exposure was more than a few days prior to the test.
The only people with psychiatric problems in this puzzling tragedy are the health officials involved. They are clearly out of their minds to declare that they have fully investigated and determined there is "no evidence" of any environmental cause. Where have we all heard that before? Good grief.
I suggest that in addition to trying to find out what locations the girls all may have spent time at over the summer and in early fall, the parents should also seek out hair elements testing and/or porphyrin testing to see what that shows, if anything.
Posted by: Sue | January 18, 2012 at 11:43 PM
My guess is Sydenham's Chorea or another type of Chorea.
Posted by: Patty | January 18, 2012 at 11:29 PM
After reading the comments again about PANDAS it occurred to me that we are seeing more and more antibiotic resistant pathogens (MRSA, TB, etc.). I've also read that in India they now have a TB strain that is totally resistant to antibiotics.
The efficacy of antibiotics began decreasing in the 1980's and this seems to correlate with the increase in ADHD, Autism, etc. This also correlates with essentially the end of wide scale tonsillectomies which any kid with strep or sore throat used to get almost automatically. The theory was that tonsillectomies were no longer needed because we now have antibiotics. Now, they often won't take a kids tonsils out until the 5th or 6th episode of strep if at all.
I wonder how many of these 12 teens have had their tonsils out? I wonder how many have went on the type of antibiotic regimen that treats PANDAS? I never really bought into the PANDAS idea but it does seem to be a possibility.
It seems to me that bacterial pathogens could also be a co-factor in the increasing rates of such illnesses as Autism and ADHD.
Posted by: Tom | January 18, 2012 at 09:47 PM
"Also, consult with a neuro-toxicologist about environmental exposures one who is familiar with symptoms of poisoning."
I completely agree. The first thing I thought of was poisoning of some sort.
Also, this area is apparently heavily into meth. Meth can cause tics in some people. Maybe some of these kids were accidentally exposed to it either through the food supply or water.
Have MRI's been done? Have they looked at dopamine levels in the brain? Has everyone in that school been background checked to see if any have ever been involved in meth or ecstasy dealing? Party drugs can later on lead to nasty neuro-cognitive problems.
I feel really bad for these kids. Because I'm quite certain that they are sick due to some type of poisoning. The one thing I am certain of is that it is not Conversion Disorder.
Posted by: Tom | January 18, 2012 at 09:30 PM
Dan Olmstead and Mark Blaxill's book "The Age of Autism: Mercury, Medicine and a Man-Made Epidemic" is in my opinion a masterpiece. It filled in gaps in my medical school education, as well as gaps in my psychiatric residency program. It gives us tremendous clues as to where to look to figure out the mysterious cause of the tics and other symptoms in the adolescent girls, a story that has befuddled the medical profession and the media. I think this book should be required reading for all medical students and physicians. It will help to counter much of the silliness that passes as medical opinion, such as these girls suffering from a psychiatric conversion reaction.
Michael B Schachter MD, CNS
Posted by: Michael B Schachter MD, CNS | January 18, 2012 at 09:19 PM
Ooooh, just saw Anderson Cooper talking about this and he did bring up the Gardasil issue. He asked Sanjay Gupta about it and Sanjay kind of twitched when he said it can't be that because all girls didn't get it (Gardasil). Cooper did ask how do they know it wasn't Gardasil but dropped the ball when he failed to ask well how many girls did have the Gardasil vaccine or any flu vaccines recently.
Posted by: Jen | January 18, 2012 at 08:54 PM
It would be so wonderful to have them successfully treated with antibiotics because the media would hopefully make big news of it, and other docs can learn.
Posted by: Heidi N | January 18, 2012 at 07:03 PM
Corrrection: Not Buffalo Girls, but Genesee County NY High School girls. The dateline Ifor the news item had Buffalo and that stuck in my head.
Posted by: Visitor | January 18, 2012 at 06:14 PM
I wonder when these girls got their Gardasil shot? Was it given at school? Maybe they got a "hot lot". There is a lot of aluminum in the shot. Maybe they all were in the same science class together and played/experimented with mercury? Something is going on here and it has to be an exposure of some kind...
Posted by: Shelly Sulkoske | January 18, 2012 at 06:04 PM
Yep!!more female doctors needed for sure, male sphere for so long...All very well when cutting blokes up on a battle field which is more or less the line it is these days....
But hey! what about the Gulf War Vet`s et-al male and female
http://thinktwice.com/gulfwar.htm
Angus
Posted by: Angus Files | January 18, 2012 at 05:33 PM
Anyone ever hear of a medical procedure called a Uterectomy?
No?
That's because the procedure is actually called a Hysterectomy. Why? Because good doctors thought that they could cure female hysteria by removing their reproductive organs.
As a testament to basic stupidity, the name of the procedure remains unchanged to this day, even though it's use is extremely sexist and the roots of the word were proven to be false.
Now there's a good example of God complex gone wild.
Posted by: Frank for Aidan | January 18, 2012 at 03:32 PM
Brigit, that is so true. I agree that some in the medcial profession have God complexes. Maybe it stems from having been told how superior they are that they start to believe it. I wonder if anyone has ever studied the prevelance of narcissistic personality disorder in the medical profession. Maybe they should.
Posted by: Sarah | January 18, 2012 at 02:24 PM
Best description I have seen of the profession of psychiatry was on an episode of The Beverly Hillbillies:
The Psychiatrist Gets Clampetted
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hi3Q6fAZ7HA
Makes for hillarious situation comedy. Not so much for diagnosing medical conditions.
Posted by: Sylvia | January 18, 2012 at 01:59 PM
Forget the psychiatrists opinion, two things that should be done:
The girls should get a blood test for strep/PANDAS. Also, consult with a neuro-toxicologist about environmental exposures one who is familiar with symptoms of poisoning.
Posted by: Sarah | January 18, 2012 at 12:29 PM
Getting the medical profession to admit to mistakes is next to impossible. Since many doctors have a God complex, they cannot acknowledge that an illness exists that isn't in their textbook. Just look at how other countries deal with the effects of mercury in amalgam. Some countries have banned it. Some countries like the United States have not. The WHO decided recently that mercury amalgams should be discontinued. Did the United States follow suit? No, not as long as the ADA has a say in it. It's too lucrative. That goes for psychiatrists as well.
Posted by: Birgit Calhoun | January 18, 2012 at 12:11 PM
Yes, Bob Moffitt, I'm afraid we do live in a world "gone bonkers"! With pharma's geo-engineering - "aluminum in the stratosphere", glyphosate in the food supply, aluminum-resistant seed-stock, a global seed bank north of the Arctic circle, fluoride in the water, "adventitious presence" of recombinants and contaminants in the food supply, aluminum, mercury, surfactants, and non-human DNA in the vaccination program, none of us need worry, lose sleep, or be the least bit concerned about the future. Soon we won't even need to wear the "tin foil hats", that pharma's trolls regularly accuse us of. Certainly, "aluminum in the stratosphere" gives new meaning to "global warming" and "acid rain". No one has seen any non-dissipating contrails or "crop dusters" in the LeRoy area have they? I used to think this was just conspiracy theory, but now I'm not so sure. Is aluminum a dangerous neurotoxin? Are the quantities of aluminum and mercury increasing in the food supply? The aluminum-containing vaccines, e.g. Hep B, DPT, pneumococcal, HPV, been all been associated with sudden deaths. Is this association with sudden death statistically-significant? Even a cursory analysis of the VAERS database, flaws (underreporting, receiver operating characteristic problems, and selection bias) notwithstanding, should begin to address this important question.
http://www.brasschecktv.com/videos/health-and-medical/what-in-the-world-are-they-spraying-full-length-.html
Lupus. 2012;21(2):223-30.
Mechanisms of aluminum adjuvant toxicity and autoimmunity in pediatric populations.
Tomljenovic L, Shaw C.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22235057
J Inorg Biochem. 2011 Nov;105(11):1489-99. Epub 2011 Aug 23.
Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism?
Tomljenovic L, Shaw CA.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22099159
Posted by: patrons99 | January 18, 2012 at 11:25 AM
What is it about psychiatrists, that leads them to think that people would prefer to feign illness than lead their once normal, healthy, happy productive life? Psychiatry through-out history has deemed certain illnesses psychiatric in nature; blame the patient for their illness. Until a physical reason for their illness could be found many sufferers of undiagnosed conditions were called liars, malingerers, hypochondriacs, or attention seekers. If they only try would try a little harder, or think positively their illness or condition would magically disappear. Psychiatrists termed the nature of these illness as "sickness behavior"; in other words, these people were acting this way for some perceived benefit.
Rheumatoid arthritis and asthma, along with gastric ulceration, ulcerative colitis, essential hypertension, eczema and hypothyroidism were once considered to be the seven major psychosomatic diseases, or "the holy seven". Once a biological cause and tests for the illness were established, the illnesses were finally legitimized as a physical illnesses.
I don't think people as a whole want to pretend they are ill. Most people with undiagnosed illnesses or conditions, just want their lives back. Doctors and medical professionals should start listening, and looking for answers, instead of judging and blaming the victim. Believe it or not, most people do not want to be sick.
Posted by: Rachael | January 18, 2012 at 11:23 AM
Bob:
So that was the true intent of the Hippa stuff.
And here I thought it was to waste paper, and to be the fly in the ointment of a care giver or family member to find out any details on medical test done for their love ones.
So it was not to protect individual rights! I am shocked, just shocked (okay I am not, considering what I have been through), But I am surprised "they" are so very brutally intelligent.
Age of Austim book by Dan and Mark is a very fast, interesting read. There was not one part in it that was slow or boring. The writing is smooth, flowing, and the facts that they bring forth are amazing. I even re read it.
Posted by: Benedetta | January 18, 2012 at 10:48 AM
The parents of Le Roy have had a rude introduction to OUR WORLD. When the medical profession is afraid of the answer, the condition ceases to exist. It's marginalized. This situation isn't an outbreak or a crisis, it's "concerning."
An explosion in developmental conditions, most notably autism, becomes "better diagnosing." The medical community and health officials go into damage control mode where the goal isn't to address the cause of what's happening, it's to make it go away. Welcome to our world. You have lots of company.
Anne Dachel, Media
Posted by: Anne McElroy Dachel | January 18, 2012 at 09:43 AM
Bob, we know you meant the cause of autism, not the cause of vaccines. The cause of vaccines, of course, is greed.
I warned my neighbor the other day about Gardasil because she has two Gardasil-age kids. She said she'd just had a discussion with a group of other moms about this, and not a single one was getting the shot for their child. They all knew about the risks. Now here's the interesting part: they were all appalled that their doctors were pushing it hard. These are not Age of Autism-enlightend parents either.
Mainstream med credibility is in the toilet. And I think they may have flushed it with the hysteria claim.
(Sexism anyone?)
Posted by: Stop big harma | January 18, 2012 at 08:02 AM
"We live in a world gone bonkers ..."
Yes, we do.
This morning on the Today Show the doctor was discussing this being conversion disorder. Has everything else been ruled out? I would imagine that "diagnosis" would be a last case scenario. Wouldn't it / shouldn't it?
Then, also *very* disconcerting that some parents have stated that they have not had any testing or the same testing as the other girls. The parents have said that they (doctors) have been falsifying the info they do have. What they can now do though is blame the parents for being unable to come to terms with their child's mental illness / psychological problems, etc...( ie the reason the parents aren't accepting this is because it is so hard to wrap your head around the fact that their normal child has now gone crazy overnight...). Blame the parents for continuing to research the problem. What a mess!
Posted by: Susie Q | January 18, 2012 at 07:55 AM
You are exactly correct Bob! When a child has a case of measles or whooping cough they can't stop telling and talking about those cases...no HIPPA violations there.
But, these 12 cases....mystery....we don't know what has caused it, but we know what hasn't...blame the injured and ill.....oh does it sound so so very familiar.
Posted by: Andrea | January 18, 2012 at 07:49 AM
i am a RN and for these professionals to hide behind hippa..the girls themselves said they have been given no answers from these professionals..what a bunch of crap...they are doing damage control, they are hiding infor, time to get independent evaluations and real help, time to break out the lawyers to dig for the truth..these poor families ..nys professionals should be ashamed of themselves.
Posted by: candace | January 18, 2012 at 07:38 AM
There are more than a few troubling aspects of the unfolding LeRoy "mystery" .. being labeled by some doctors a "conversion disorder" .. induced by stress.
According to one media source .. Dr. Laslo Mechler .. Vice President of the Dent Neurological Institute in Buffalo .. says:
"this illness isn't something new, it's happened before, all around the world, in different parts of the world. It's a rare phenomenon. Physicians are intrigued by it. The bottom line is these teenagers will get better".
Dr. Mechler continued: .. "we know exactly what's going on, we know exactly how to treat it, part of it is just the natural course of the illness".
NBC stated it would like to "clear it up, BUT, because of Hippa rules, the doctors can't tell the media what they believe this mystery illness is".
There you have it .. doctors claiming "nothing new here" but we can't tell you what it is because of "hippa rules".
(Sounds a lot like those same doctors claiming they "don't know the cause of vaccines, but .. they know it's not caused by vaccines".)
In any event, how come doctors feel free to rush to the media announcing every child diagnosed with a "new case" of measles, mumps, whooping cought, etc .. but .. when it comes to telling the PARENTS of these young girls what happened to their child they hide behind HIPPA laws?
We live in a world gone bonkers ...
Posted by: Bob Moffitt | January 18, 2012 at 07:08 AM