[wu-ikkyu]

>it's not feasible to haphazardly take biopsies of the brain to test for them

It is feasible post mortem but scientists still have no conslusive proof from such examinations.

>Conversely, my point still stands that the vast majority of somatic illnesses are diagnosed off subjective symptoms - doctors don't bother doing objective lab tests for a cold or a sprained ankle when the diagnosis is glaringly obvious based off subjective symptoms.

That is not in dispute because a cold and sprained ankle are objectively diagnosable post mortem. Mental illness is not.

[clfougner]

You're creating the same false equivalence again by stating that an objective post mortem diagnosis not being practically feasible is the same as an objective cause(s) not existing. In my previous post I linked to multiple pages listing objective causes/mechanisms for two mental illnesses. Diagnosing a mental illness post mortem isn't as simple as finding rhinovirus in a person's nasal cavity, but just because the current knowledge of the disease isn't sufficient to create a satisfactory model that can reliably make a diagnosis post mortem doesn't mean that it can't be done. And if you don't think mental illnesses subside in molecules and physical structures in the brain, where exactly do you think they come from?

Oh, and you kind of can diagnose certain mental illnesses post mortem: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181616/

[wu-ikkyu]

>if you don't think mental illnesses subside in molecules and physical structures in the brain, where exactly do you think they come from?

No ones knows for sure because no one can objectively explain the nature of consciousness and the mind in the first place. That is of course not to say that chemicals do not have a strong influence on the mind.

>Oh, and you kind of can diagnose certain mental illnesses post mortem: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3181616/

The study has no control group and therefore is not objective. If you read the Methodological Issues section, you'll see that this is essentially a study of the neurochemical effects of antipsychotic drugs.

[clfougner]

> No ones knows for sure because no one can objectively explain the nature of consciousness and the mind in the first place.

True, but I'm still waiting for a single proposal as to where a mental illness would subside other than physical structures/molecules, because the only other explanation I can think of are in the realm of the metaphysical

> The study has no control group and therefore is not objective. If you read the Methodological Issues section, you'll see that this is essentially a study of the neurochemical effects of antipsychotic drugs.

The article isn't a study/original research, it's a review based off of existing research - generally - in which brains from individuals with schizophrenia are compared to the brains of individuals without schizophrenia (controls). Antipsychotic drugs as a confounding factor is definitely an important factor in these studies though. There are however a number of factors that are are not affected by antipsychotics, notably genetics[1, 2]. Certain genetic variants strongly increase the risk of mental illnesses - by what mechanism does this work other than by translating to proteins that exert an objective, physical effect? (Note that studies on this are primarily GWAS based on large populations, not simple hereditary/familial studies in which one could argue that environmental factors were confounding)

  [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Causes_of_schizophrenia#Genetics
  [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bipolar_disorder#Genetic