Posted by jay on March 2, 2003, at 4:00:54
In reply to Anti-depressants do not fix a chemical imbalance., posted by Caleb462 on March 1, 2003, at 14:03:46
These horrible mental illness states have been traced back as far back as history was recorded, so they are not some 'fad' or 'drug company made' illness. Once in time primates had to fear many things in their environment, and death was near always. That same predisposition to fear has likely carried itself in the gene pool over history, so we are stuck with these genes set for ultra-hyper-sensitivity that expresses itself in many, many ways. This has likely manifested itself into all forms of mental illness, from depression to bipolar to schizophrenia. There exists no known culture or race of humans who do not know some form of mental illness. It also exists in the animal kingdom quite vastly. Dogs, cats, rats, horses, etc, etc, etc, etc, can easily exhibit various forms of mental illness, often through the one of the most common examples in humans, which is self-injury.Those are facts, using evidence-based science. Environmental factors can, and often do *trigger* at various rates, mental illness through genetic predisposition. It is a fact, mental illness does and has existed as far back as we have recorded. Medications don't just alter chemicals, they alter physical elements of brain size, volume, and many physical characteristics which many scientists suggest may cause some kind of alteration on a genetic expression level, especially when used over time. What they don't know is if the alteration is permanent. But, with genetic manipulation, this may change. There are not a lot of answers with the science of genetics, but with the advance of the Human Genome Project, we are working our way towards genetic medical applications, and it may not be for a few lifetimes yet, but we may be able to intercept some of the many possible genetic interactions and sequences that may predispose us to some of the symptoms of various mental illnesses. No, there won't be just "one" or a *sequence of* simple discoverys, as they say it is likely a large interactions of the 30,000 genes in human DNA.
Jay
poster:jay
thread:205038
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030301/msgs/205227.html