Letter: Question on due process of lab tests
Just a question to medical personnel on due process of laboratory tests.
No medical personnel would diagnose a patient as diabetic with high sugar levels and give them insulin to lower sugar levels without a laboratory test for even resting blood sugar levels. Sometimes high levels of sugar can be found in urine tests that suggest erratic behavior is caused by insulin imbalance.
Even low or high estrogen, and/or testosterone levels, can cause mood change, including depression and anger.
Why then, do medical personnel diagnose patients with mental illnesses — such as bipolar, attention deficit disorder, panic and personality disorders, even the worst schizophrenia — and give a patient antipsychotics without a laboratory test for dopamine levels? With high levels of dopamine, a patient may overreact to a situation they perceive as dangerous. However at low levels of dopamine, a mental patient or normal person is unable to fight or flee a situation they perceive as dangerous, such as rape.
Let’s not give a diagnosis or a stereotype without adequate laboratory tests, and let’s try to turn negatives into positives with sound or quiet meditation.
Dawn Wood, Kennewick
This story was originally published August 25, 2016 at 4:13 AM with the headline "Letter: Question on due process of lab tests."