I thought it was a joke, but these “scientists” are serious!
Takotsubo Cardiomyopathy — or broken heart syndrome — is the latest medical condition being coopted by the psychiatric industry, which would like to diagnose you and prescribe a course of psychiatric treatments for those conditions.
Now takotsubo cardiomyopathy is a real physical illness, a heart disease characterized by transient dysfunction and ballooning of the left ventricle of the heart. It has been observed mostly affecting elderly women and is often triggered by severe physical or emotional stress, such as a sudden illness, the loss of a loved one, a serious accident, or a natural disaster — hence the “broken heart” moniker.
But they now have research funding to try treating it with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), which is a form of psychotherapy that attempts to modify dysfunctional emotions, behaviors, and thoughts — by evaluating for the person, challenging the person’s behaviors, and getting the person to change those behaviors, often in combination with psychiatric drugs.
Granted, treating the emotional component of a physical illness is certainly a good move; the only problem is it’s a psychiatric move, which as we’ve said many times is open to distrust, especially if it leads to harmful and addictive mind-altering psychotropic drugs.
The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has criteria for labeling normal emotional disturbances as “mental illness.” For example, these are a few diagnoses which could be applied to someone experiencing anxiety as a result of cardiac disease:
* Adjustment disorder, With mixed disturbance of emotions and conduct
* High expressed emotion level within family
* Histrionic personality disorder
* Illness anxiety disorder
However, while medicine has advanced on a scientific path to major discoveries and cures, psychiatry has never evolved scientifically and is no closer to understanding or curing mental problems.
The DSM’s original purpose was aimed at rectifying psychiatry’s poor reputation among medical professionals by applying a veneer of medical terminology to mental and emotional symptoms in spite of the fact that none of the diagnoses are supported by objective clinical evidence of mental illness. This is why we distrust any so-called “psychiatric treatment” of an obvious physical disease, without first medically treating that physical disease.
Recommendations
Install in all psychiatric facilities a full complement of diagnostic equipment with which non-psychiatric medical doctors can use to locate underlying undiagnosed and untreated physical conditions.
None of the DSM mental disorders should be eligible for insurance coverage because they have no scientific, physical validation.
Contact your local, state and federal officials to express your viewpoints in this matter.