The Unified Theory of the Nervous System
and Behavior
Cognitive Philosophy /Brain Theory by Steven Michael Harris
DeFilippo's pain was a result of something called RSD, or Reflex Sympathetic Dystrophy, a chronic neurological syndrome characterized by severe burning pain, pathological changes in bone and skin, excessive sweating, tissue swelling, and extreme sensitivity to touch. An injury DeFilippo suffered during the accident brought on RSD, which sent his nervous system out of control and triggered pain signals that were out of proportion to reality.
This article describes a new treatment for people with constant pain that is attributed RSD as described here. (They don't mention itching as one of the symptoms but I bet itching is in there as well but the pain makes an itch less noticeable.)
When you understand how stress is half of the language of the nervous system and that it collects in different areas of processing, you get a better understanding of how such a disorder is possible and understanding of how wrong this kind of treatment can be.
Current treatments almost always use stress to cure stress. The professionals are just unaware of how stress applied to the same regions that are over-stressed can give relief of a symptom or symptoms while, at the same time, increasing the overall stress of the system and taking it closer to complete shutdown (death).
If a subset of nervous system processing is stressed, pain or discomfort along with impairment can result. Some of the impairment of ability caused by a stressed subset of processing is caused by the vast number of neurons receiving stressed signals from the impaired subset. If you increase the impairment in as focused way as possible to that subset of processing (using drugs or surgery) then the impairment communicated to other parts of the brain is (temporarily usually) relieved. But this technique gets the benefit by addressing the stressed subset by increasing the stress that was the cause of the problem to begin with, until the processing of that subset goes into a “coma” of processing. You relieve that subset of pain but you also remove function (and some piece of memory) at the same time.
Notice how almost all medical treatments become more severe when the disorder being addressed is more severe. In the case of the article that I'm responding to, the disorder of constant pain (created by stress in the nervous system) was caused by a severe accident in which the patient was probably in a coma for a period of time (it is not mentioned but he was probably, at least, in an artificial coma when he was put under for surgery). Now the pain does not go away so they give another coma, for five days, which adds severe stress to his system so that the stressed subset receives enough stress to go into a coma and stop sending the signals that interfere with his comfort. This is the opposite of a cure because they have increased the impairment of this patient (and at great risk to his life as well). What they don't mention here is the loss of function that surely comes with this approach. This kind of treatment is a massive insult to the nervous system much like that caused by ECT (Electro Convulsive Therapy or “Shock Therapy”). (I am willing to bet that the same results, although at a different statistical occurrence, can be achieved by ECT, and I am willing to bet that the same results of relieving depression can be achieved sometimes by inducing coma in depressed patients. I am NOT suggesting that this is a good idea though.)
Dr. Robert Schwartzman, professor and chairman of neurology at the MCP Hahnemann School of Medicine in Philadelphia, has researched RSD for more than 30 years. He says it's important to understand that this is not a psychological condition.
"That injury changes the genetics of the spinal cord," Schwartzman said. "It happens in children and it can happen to anybody. And it is absolutely not psychological."
First, it is time that doctors admit that psychological conditions are caused by the same factors as physical conditions, so this doctor clouds the understanding by suggesting that psychological conditions are not real. As I read this quote by the doctor, I fear that the reporter misquoted him because the statement is incredibly ignorant. He is the chair of neurology and he says here that the injury changes the genetics of the spinal cord! The DNA, the genes, the genetics are not changed by an injury. This is ridiculous. But I fear that this is actually a statement by the doctor because genetics is so often cited as the explanation for every complex unknown concerning the body. [See my article Evolution is the New Religion]
What the accident changes is the learning of the nervous system as all experiences shape the body, and most of development of a body is caused by learning the shape in response to a normal (or extreme world in the case of this body changed by trauma). The doctor witnesses great change in the way this body responds to the world and assumes that the shaping of a body is always caused by the god of genetics and then attributes such massive change to change in the genetics when there has been no change (or reason to expect change) inside the cells to their DNA.
This kind of extreme treatment is a throwback to insulin shock treatment or the various kinds of tortures given to mental patients in earlier centuries. (It is very possible that a percentage of these RSD patients will improve following torture too.)
This article does not mention the large number of side-effects that are probably experienced by these patients that are doing this risky procedure in Germany. They most likely have loss of memory and memory function, short-term and long-term, from this treatment. That which was overly sensitive probably becomes insensitive or even slightly numb from such a treatment. There are probably lingering gastro-intestinal problems as well. Loss of focus control is another risk. These patients will be more inclined to receive concussions from head trauma than other patients.
"What we're doing is changing your spinal cord back to normal. The downside is, yes, it's very risky," Schwartzman said.
Schwartzman is giving a self-serving theory with this statement but with no evidence that a change is being made back to normal at all. He is wrong to state with confidence that the reduction of pain is the return to a previously normal state and he is wrong to say that the changes being made are all in the spinal cord either. Most of the change that occurs with this treatment is probably in the brain as well as the spinal cord. The large number of side-effects and dangers dispute that the result is a “normal state.” He is definitely ignoring the truth in such a statement in order to promote his future importance bringing this treatment to the United States (he is the only American doctor working on this team in Germany), which will mean big money for him lecturing and treating patients if the treatment is approved.
The risks the article cites are blood clots in the lungs and infections from catheters. This is much too short a list. But later in the article some other risks are mentioned such as that the pain will return:
He says the process only blocks the extreme pain patients' experience, but doesn't fix the underlying problem. As a result, the pain associated with RSD can return.
The reason it only blocks the “extreme pain” is that the most extremely stressed subsets of nervous system processing are always the closest to going into a coma as a subset. I've written that all cures will require a form of withdrawal instead of the opposite which is to further stress subsets. Removing these patients pain also removes some of their functioning (functioning that may or may not be observable or noticeable). To truly cure these patients would require a reduction of stress that for a time would be a period of stress much like that of a drug-withdrawal, but doing this restores functions rather than reducing them. (There is a lot of brain so there is a lot of brain that can be removed from functioning with current approaches with life going on, but later in life the accumulation of these stresses from a lifetime of drug and other treatments that add stress to get effect will add up. Our population is having ever-increasing rates of mental illness and Alzheimer's from the way drugs are used throughout a lifetime in modern history, for instance.)
Look more closely at these patients and you will find that their experience is not really back to normal. The reduction in pain caused by this procedure is probably the result of a reduction in all feeling related to the previously experienced pains.
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