Posted by Dinah on July 25, 2003, at 10:49:04
In reply to Re: Actually drugs don't descriminate, posted by stjames on July 25, 2003, at 10:35:42
> > Yes, you are right that the dammage varies
> > from person to person (some get cancer/some don't), based on *many* other factors, but the simple fact remains that tobbacco smoke dammages the lungs in specific ways.
>
>
> The "permanent brain damage" is based totally on studies done with experimental animals, with the findings extrapolated to encompass the human subject. In a simple statement, there have been no studies in man that have indicated brain damage.
>
> -Dr. Shungrin
Just in curiousity, have there been any studies in man that show there is no brain damage?As they discover more and more how so many things from CBT (which changes neuroimaging results in OCD) to early childhood experiences (prolonged trauma causing a smaller hippocampus, is it?) mold and shape brain functioning. With the question of whether schizophrenia or the drugs used to treat them cause the differences in brain structure observed in schizophrenics. With so many unknowns about what does what to the brain. (And my own absolute conviction that either postpartum depression or the drugs used to treat it caused permanent changes in my own wiring - ok, i admit to bias). It seems hard to believe that everything doesn't have some effect on the brain, and no way of knowing how long those effects last.
In fact, in a recent consultation someone told me that my year on thorazine as a preteen probably had lasting effects, and that it was a shame that it was prescribed for severe depression/OCD.
If experiences can change brain structure and function, surely drugs targeted at the brain can.
poster:Dinah
thread:243723
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/20030723/msgs/245160.html