medical conditions that used to be attributed to emotional problems?
August 10, 2009 6:57 AM Subscribe
What are examples of medical conditions that were once thought (mistakenly) to be caused by
psychological factors?
Stomach ulcers.
According to the wikipedia page, "stress" is still seen as a contributing factor to some types of stomach ulcers.
posted by muddgirl at 7:06 AM on August 10, 2009
According to the wikipedia page, "stress" is still seen as a contributing factor to some types of stomach ulcers.
posted by muddgirl at 7:06 AM on August 10, 2009
Autism (thought to be caused by "cold" behavior by the child's mother).
Practically every neurochemical-imbalance disorder there is.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:11 AM on August 10, 2009
Practically every neurochemical-imbalance disorder there is.
posted by Tomorrowful at 7:11 AM on August 10, 2009
According to the wikipedia page, "stress" is still seen as a contributing factor to some types of stomach ulcers.
All peptic ulcers (a subset of stomach ulcers) were thought until the 1980s to be caused by stress and/or consuming spicy foods.
It is now known that no peptic ulcers are caused by stress. They are all caused either by helicobacter pylori (the majority of cases) or reaction to medications, including NSAIDS (a small minority of cases).
I happened to be on the cusp of a paradigm shift, and endured the horrors of the Sippy diet to "treat" my ulcer for months, until I could convince someone to test me for h. pylori and give me a damn antibiotic, which cleared the thing up in two weeks.
Grr.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:13 AM on August 10, 2009
All peptic ulcers (a subset of stomach ulcers) were thought until the 1980s to be caused by stress and/or consuming spicy foods.
It is now known that no peptic ulcers are caused by stress. They are all caused either by helicobacter pylori (the majority of cases) or reaction to medications, including NSAIDS (a small minority of cases).
I happened to be on the cusp of a paradigm shift, and endured the horrors of the Sippy diet to "treat" my ulcer for months, until I could convince someone to test me for h. pylori and give me a damn antibiotic, which cleared the thing up in two weeks.
Grr.
posted by Sidhedevil at 7:13 AM on August 10, 2009
Migraines! And they're still attributed to the stressful psychology of type-A personalities by many, despite studies that reject this claim and support a genetic account of the illness.
posted by Gordion Knott at 7:18 AM on August 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by Gordion Knott at 7:18 AM on August 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
Celiac disease/gluten intolerance. It was suspected to be a medical problem for some time, but only by a very few doctors. I have gluten intolerance, and was first "diagnosed" with everything from stress, OCD, perfectionism, and "over-emotionality", to lack of fiber. A tangential gripe: my brother also has gluten intolerance, but he was never told over-emotionality could be a cause; he was told he held his emotions in too much. I'm a woman; he's a man. Anyhoo. As our symptoms continued, we pushed on, and eventually we were properly diagnosed, thank goodness for 20th-century science.
posted by fraula at 7:28 AM on August 10, 2009
posted by fraula at 7:28 AM on August 10, 2009
"Birthmarks are called voglie in Italian, antojos in Spanish, and wiham in Arabic; all of which translate to "wishes" because, according to folklore, they are caused by unsatisfied wishes of the mother during pregnancy. For example, if a pregnant woman does not satisfy a sudden wish or craving for strawberries, it's said that the infant might bear a strawberry mark."
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:32 AM on August 10, 2009
posted by MonkeyToes at 7:32 AM on August 10, 2009
Homosexuality, in the sense that the APA believed it was a disorder that could be "cured" with psychiatry.
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:08 AM on August 10, 2009
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 8:08 AM on August 10, 2009
fwiw, psychological illnesses are medical problems. I understand the question, and am not even saying the OP is saying otherwise, just think the clarification should be added.
posted by edgeways at 8:28 AM on August 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by edgeways at 8:28 AM on August 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
Every autoimmune disorder ever
posted by jennyb at 9:03 AM on August 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by jennyb at 9:03 AM on August 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
Well, there is a counter-trend, from a different angle, in that psychological stress has been shown to increase the likelihood of all sorts of diseases. Stress weakens the immune system, and so on.
That is not "caused by", of course, but still worth considering, I think.
posted by rokusan at 9:11 AM on August 10, 2009
That is not "caused by", of course, but still worth considering, I think.
posted by rokusan at 9:11 AM on August 10, 2009
jennyb -
Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disorder. A newborn who's immune system is destroying the Isles of Langerhans is hardly having a reaction to stress.
posted by KRS at 10:02 AM on August 10, 2009
Type I diabetes is an autoimmune disorder. A newborn who's immune system is destroying the Isles of Langerhans is hardly having a reaction to stress.
posted by KRS at 10:02 AM on August 10, 2009
psychological illnesses are medical problems
yeah, this question's a bit confused. It would not necessitate that psychological factors are not causes just because something can be cleared up by medical care. Your ulcer could be caused by stress, and treated by antibiotics. Mental and physical are connected: your emotions are chemicals moving around in your body.
We don't really understand how everything works, but we tend to be better at treating medically. That doesn't mean there is no psychological factor in the cause.
posted by mdn at 10:20 AM on August 10, 2009
yeah, this question's a bit confused. It would not necessitate that psychological factors are not causes just because something can be cleared up by medical care. Your ulcer could be caused by stress, and treated by antibiotics. Mental and physical are connected: your emotions are chemicals moving around in your body.
We don't really understand how everything works, but we tend to be better at treating medically. That doesn't mean there is no psychological factor in the cause.
posted by mdn at 10:20 AM on August 10, 2009
Some new age practitioners believe that all diseases from HIV to the common cold are caused by dis-ease in the mind and that diseases can be cured through positive, healing thoughts (see Louise Hay, Marianne Williamson, et al.)
Disclaimer: I am a medical researcher so I am only sharing this info as a data point NOT as something I personally believe.
posted by Sophie1 at 11:18 AM on August 10, 2009
Disclaimer: I am a medical researcher so I am only sharing this info as a data point NOT as something I personally believe.
posted by Sophie1 at 11:18 AM on August 10, 2009
A prof of mine in medical school once opined that all diseases will eventually be shown to be caused in some way by infection, malnourishment, or cancer. Take that as you will.
posted by greatgefilte at 12:03 PM on August 10, 2009
posted by greatgefilte at 12:03 PM on August 10, 2009
Crohn's Disease. A lot of lay people still seem to think it's caused by stress.
posted by acoutu at 1:36 PM on August 10, 2009
posted by acoutu at 1:36 PM on August 10, 2009
Your ulcer could be caused by stress, and treated by antibiotics
No, the fact that peptic ulcers are caused by h. pylori has been documented in lab tests on both animal and human subjects. Those ulcers are caused by bacterial infections, not by stress.
Medical science may not know everything, but it knows some things very well and can demonstrate them through double-blind clinical studies.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:57 PM on August 10, 2009
No, the fact that peptic ulcers are caused by h. pylori has been documented in lab tests on both animal and human subjects. Those ulcers are caused by bacterial infections, not by stress.
Medical science may not know everything, but it knows some things very well and can demonstrate them through double-blind clinical studies.
posted by Sidhedevil at 1:57 PM on August 10, 2009
I'm not sure that cramps by themselves are considered a medical condition, but doctors once thought cramps were psychological.
posted by Issithe at 2:02 PM on August 10, 2009
posted by Issithe at 2:02 PM on August 10, 2009
Hysteria---the Greeks thought the uterus attached to the brain and made women crazy. I'm not sure what the thought of Testosterone poisoning, I think that's called the Department of Defense in my country.
posted by effluvia at 4:13 PM on August 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
posted by effluvia at 4:13 PM on August 10, 2009 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: yeah, this question's a bit confused. It would not necessitate that psychological factors are not causes just because something can be cleared up by medical care. Your ulcer could be caused by stress, and treated by antibiotics. Mental and physical are connected: your emotions are chemicals moving around in your body. mdn
I'm looking for examples of medicine barking up the wrong tree. I guess ulcers would be the best example of this.
thanks everyone!
posted by mirileh at 11:17 PM on August 10, 2009
I'm looking for examples of medicine barking up the wrong tree. I guess ulcers would be the best example of this.
thanks everyone!
posted by mirileh at 11:17 PM on August 10, 2009
well, it's another one of these things like whether a cold is caused by an infection or by cold weather... 20% of people have h pylori (and 50% of those over 60) yet not all of them develop ulcers. In fact we don't know why some of them develop ulcers and some don't. We've decided it isn't due to stress, just like getting a cold isn't due to the cold weather. But personally, I am not going to hang out naked in january or take a job on wall street, as it seems evident enough that we're not completely barking up the wrong tree on those things.
We also don't know where the h pylori comes from: one theory is that it is from food - well, so perhaps it is more likely to be found in spicy food?
The story isn't solved just because we can cure it. We still don't understand how it begins. It may be more of a synthesis of theories in the end.
posted by mdn at 8:51 AM on August 11, 2009
We also don't know where the h pylori comes from: one theory is that it is from food - well, so perhaps it is more likely to be found in spicy food?
The story isn't solved just because we can cure it. We still don't understand how it begins. It may be more of a synthesis of theories in the end.
posted by mdn at 8:51 AM on August 11, 2009
paralysis.
psychoanalysis & medicine used to be closely knit, and it was thought that patients who survived great trauma (at the time, train or car accidents) were struck with a psychotic paralysis.
it was believed that "trauma" pierced the protective "corital shell" of the psyche, the thing that normally protects our brains when things are "too much" to handle. (i'm obviously not endorsing *any* of this, just reiterating what i know about it.) when pierced, the body would develop 'hysteric' physical symptoms -- if they could only be iterated properly, then they would be cured. (thanks, freud. . . !)
turns out that these 'hysterical' symptoms were instead (likely, through medical retrospection) brain or spinal cord damage.
josef breuer would be good to read up on. . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Breuer
he's best known for alerting Freud to the case of Anna O., but he treated hundreds of patients himself who demonstrated these trauma-related hysterical symptoms.
posted by crawfo at 2:02 PM on August 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
psychoanalysis & medicine used to be closely knit, and it was thought that patients who survived great trauma (at the time, train or car accidents) were struck with a psychotic paralysis.
it was believed that "trauma" pierced the protective "corital shell" of the psyche, the thing that normally protects our brains when things are "too much" to handle. (i'm obviously not endorsing *any* of this, just reiterating what i know about it.) when pierced, the body would develop 'hysteric' physical symptoms -- if they could only be iterated properly, then they would be cured. (thanks, freud. . . !)
turns out that these 'hysterical' symptoms were instead (likely, through medical retrospection) brain or spinal cord damage.
josef breuer would be good to read up on. . . http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josef_Breuer
he's best known for alerting Freud to the case of Anna O., but he treated hundreds of patients himself who demonstrated these trauma-related hysterical symptoms.
posted by crawfo at 2:02 PM on August 11, 2009 [1 favorite]
Response by poster: mdn, I'm not saying psychological and emotional factors don't effect our health. There are cases where doctors attribute medical conditions to emotional factors and miss the problem (like women's heart attacks thought to be only anxiety). I'm looking for examples.
crawfo, I've seen not so unrecent mentions of hysterical paralysis. Aren't there still psychiatrists that believe it exists?
posted by mirileh at 11:28 PM on August 11, 2009
crawfo, I've seen not so unrecent mentions of hysterical paralysis. Aren't there still psychiatrists that believe it exists?
posted by mirileh at 11:28 PM on August 11, 2009
huh, i guess so... totally hadn't seen that book before!
my background is more in the history of psychoanalysis and science, so i'm not terribly familiar with current examples... but in looking to the history of these things, we get a sense of why it's good to be suspicious whenever "science" masquerades as "obviously true."
i'm not sure if hysterical paralysis today would follow the same model (of the 'cortical shell' that protects our feelings, they get pierced by something traumatic, etc), i imagine it would be couched in much more "science-y" terms. it would be really interesting to compare descriptions of the two conditions, then vs. now, to see the way the notion has changed and gained/lost validity over time.
posted by crawfo at 5:40 AM on August 12, 2009
my background is more in the history of psychoanalysis and science, so i'm not terribly familiar with current examples... but in looking to the history of these things, we get a sense of why it's good to be suspicious whenever "science" masquerades as "obviously true."
i'm not sure if hysterical paralysis today would follow the same model (of the 'cortical shell' that protects our feelings, they get pierced by something traumatic, etc), i imagine it would be couched in much more "science-y" terms. it would be really interesting to compare descriptions of the two conditions, then vs. now, to see the way the notion has changed and gained/lost validity over time.
posted by crawfo at 5:40 AM on August 12, 2009
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by tdismukes at 7:00 AM on August 10, 2009