Poorly named name
Text created by automatic translator Elia and has not been subsequently revised by translators. Elia Elhuyar
With name, then.” The prestigious neurobiologist Rafael Yuste lives in the United States and is not Basque of origin, but he likes the phrase very much and has used it on more than one occasion in his articles and lectures. He says that is his goal: to name neurons and understand their nature and function. So the expression has good flavor for Yuste. But it is not always so.
When the name itself has an incorrect or pessimistic tone, it is added to the being, which can be harmful. This is the case, for example, of the diagnosis of some diseases. Both the name and the name of the patient will be treated in one way or another, and the risk of suffering damage is especially high in complex diseases of difficult diagnosis or in the extensive syndromes that are called with the same name.
An example of this is schizophrenia. Another neurologist, Luis Querol, from the Sant Pau hospital in Barcelona, explained in an article that many times if the patient has hallucinations schizophrenia is diagnosed. The absence of blood markers associated with schizophrenia causes doctors to rely on this symptom. But, to some extent, Querol believes that diabetes is similar to that of thirst. In his opinion, this is a serious problem, since it not only affects the treatment that will then be subjected to the patient, but also to other aspects such as research and policies that are implemented.
In addition, like many other mental illnesses, schizophrenia is still very stigmatized in society, and generalization does not favor the image of schizophrenia, let alone people who have received this diagnosis.
Fortunately, the concern for this topic is increasingly widespread and proof of this is the article published last year by the British Journal of Medicine. Its title is “Schizophrenia does not exist” and demands the renewal of the classification of diseases. According to the writer, the current one is based on the symptoms and, being not exhaustive, produces more damage than benefit.
However, the group of alterations known as “schizophrenia” is not the only problem. Epilepsy, in most cases, is diagnosed from the symptom and the treatment is symptomatic, that is, it aims to avoid seizures. In fact, the best thing would be that, once the origin was known, an adequate treatment was put. And the same with other diseases, from diabetes to cancers. They have already begun to do so, to see if they approach quickly and well.
Published in the newspaper Berria.
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