Fred A. Baughman, Jr., MD
Neurology
& Pediatric Neurology
Fellow,
1303
Hidden
Daniel R Weinberger, MD, Chief , Clinical Brain Disorders Branch
National Institute of Mental Health
Room 4S235
MSC 1379
20892
Re: Your letter to me of
Dear Dr. Weinberger,
You will recall that in In Neuroimaging Advances Offer New Data on Stroke Detection and the Genetics of Mental Illness, in Neurology Today, June, 2002, p 26-28, author, Gail McBride wrote:
Dr. Weinberger explained that neuroimaging in
the form of MRI, fMRI, and PET has demonstrated that
most major psychiatric diseases—depressive disorders
and schizophrenia, for example—are associated with “subtle but objectively characterizable changes” in brain structure and
function. “These changes do not
establish the diagnosis but do demonstrate the involvement of the brain in
these disorders,” he said.
What you said, in
essence, was that the psychiatric conditions/disorders to which you referred
were diseases/abnormalities of the brain—neurological diseases. Nowhere in the article by McBride were there
citations to proofs in the peer-reviewed literature regarding any specific
psychiatric conditions or diagnoses. For
that reason I wrote to Neurology Today:
Dr. Weinberger must submit for publication in Neurology Today, references to the proof that “neuroimaging in the form of MRI, fMRI, and PET has demonstrated that most major psychiatric disease—depressive disorders and schizophrenia, for example—are associated with “subtle but objectively characterizable changes in brain structure and function.” If he is unable to present proof of the “subtle but objectively characterizable changes” in these psychiatric conditions, the editors of should say so and print a retraction.
There having been no publication, in the interim, in Neurology Today, of references to citations/article/proofs for even a single psychiatric “disease” (not even depression or schizophrenia which you had mentioned), and no retraction of your claim that these and “most major psychiatric disease” are actual diseases, you now (6/4/03) write to me—not citing the proofs, disease-by-disease proofs, as is the way of medical science, but referring me to textbooks, and, at that, not to any particular pages.
Not only are millions of persons (normal infants and toddlers as well) in the US being drugged for such “major psychiatric disease,” thousands to tens of thousands, are forcibly hospitalized and “treated,” against their will, for these very same “diseases,” for which you provide us no proof. Either there is proof of abnormality/disease, psychiatric diagnosis-by-psychiatric diagnosis or such representations, coming from the NIMH and from all of organized psychiatry, is fraud and deception perpetrated against the American people.
Sincerely,
/s/
Fred A. Baughman Jr., MD
CC
Lewis P. Rowland, Editor
Neurology Today
710
Neurological Institute NI-14
NeuroToday@LWW.com
CC
Sandra F. Olson, MD, President
55116
CC
Congressman Duncan Hunter