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Biology is psychiatry's new dawn

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Andrew Al-Adwani*
Affiliation:
Great Oaks, Ashby High Street, Scunthorpe, North Lincolnshire, UK. Email: al-adwani@ntlworld.com
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Abstract

Type
Columns
Copyright
Copyright © Royal College of Psychiatrists, 2008 

With Kingdon's view, Reference Kingdon and Young1 which seems to say that because we haven't found it we should not bother looking, all scientific endeavour would come to a halt. To propose that genetic research has not contributed to our ability to offer counselling is to ignore the extremely high heritabilty of bipolar disorder and the schizophrenias, and the advice we are able to offer in light of our knowledge. We have barely begun to skim the surface as far as research into the biological mechanisms underlying the major mental disorders is concerned, and more recent findings, such as the doubled or greater risk of developing a schizophrenic illness as a consequence of cannabis use, open yet more doors for researchers to explore the contents beyond. The fact that our tools are crude and our knowledge shallow does not justify giving up our search, as with this attitude no heavenly bodies, beyond those visible to the naked eye, would have been discovered. The biological basis of all the major mental illnesses, and their often successful chemical treatment, could only be dismissed by those blinded by dogma. The fact that our drug treatments have, for the most part, been discovered serendipitously does not render them any less valuable and to dismiss these discoveries would, for example, also have led to the dismissal of the discovery of antibiotics or radiology. We have refined our treatments on the basis of many chance discoveries and long may the tradition of research for research's sake continue and thereby provide us with new therapeutic opportunities. The claims for cognitive therapy as the answer to all our problems are thankfully receding and allowing a more enlightened mindset to regain centre stage.

References

1 Kingdon, D Young, AH. Research into putative biological mechanisms of mental disorders has been of no value to clinical psychiatry (debate). Br J Psychiatry 2007; 191: 285–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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