THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, April 28, 1995 TAG: 9504280013
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A16 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Letter
LENGTH: Short : 46 lines
While the title of Alexandria Berger's ``Medicine, therapy offer hope for those fighting depression'' (Real Life, April 23) is well-stated, the content of the article is misleading.
I am a board-certified psychiatrist and psychopharmacologist. I have been practicing that combined treatment since 1973 prior to its becoming commonly accepted.
Ms. Berger quoting two neurologists and a ``therapist'' without pointing people who suffer from depression, chemical imbalance or not, to a psychiatrist does her readers a grave disservice.
A psychiatrist is the only medical doctor who specializes in mental health and is the only mental-health provider who is a medical doctor. Only a psychiatrist specializes in providing both therapy and medication for people suffering from mental illness - chemical imbalances such as depression, panic disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, or psychological disorder such as depression or anxiety caused by stress, lifestyle or psychological trauma.
Most of the major research into causes and treatments of mental illnesses has and continues to be done by psychiatrists, not neurologists or therapists! There are more than 300 mental illnesses defined by the American Psychiatric Association.
All mental illness is medical. Over the past 30 years it has become clear that some have a physical component - imbalanced brain chemistry. The neurologists quoted in the article refer to sleep deprivation and low seratonin as the cause of depression. They are only partially correct. There are at least six types of seratonin. There are more than 200 neurotransmitters, and yet we understand about what only 50 of them do. Many more than seratonin are involved in depression.
The emotional and behavioral aspects of people are what the specialty of psychiatry is all about. All psychiatrists have knowledge of and are allowed to treat any medical illness but usually stay within their specialty. Neurologists specialize in the rest of the brain and nervous system and should, likewise, stay within their specialty.
ABBOT LEE GRANOFF, M.D.
Norfolk, April 24, 1995 by CNB