Jake Young is a 
Aside from believing that cell phones give you cancer, many individuals report that feelings of illness around cell phones and other electromagnetic fields. This being in spite of the fact that human beings possess no sensory apparatus to detect electromagnetic waves -- unless of course you believe that an X-men-esque revolution is impending. Researchers in Britain have shown that these feelings of sickness are all in their heads:
Roughly 4% of Britons claim to be affected by radio waves from sources such as telephone transmitters and other electrical equipment.Fox and her colleagues tested 44 people who claimed to suffer various illnesses as a result of exposure to mobile telephone signals, and 114 people who did not. They used a laboratory set-up containing a replica transmitter broadcasting both conventional and '3G' telephone signals.
When told that the transmitter was switched on for 50 minutes, 'sensitive' individuals reported higher anxiety, discomfort and tension. But when asked to tell whether the transmitter was on or off, only two of the 44 'sensitive' volunteers were correct six times out of six. Five of the controls were equally successful. And the severity of symptoms reported by the volunteers, as well as their heart rate and levels of sweating, did not depend on whether the transmitter was switched on or off, the researchers report in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives.This suggests that although peoples' symptoms are genuine, they may be triggered by the knowledge that they are near a telephone mast, rather than being an effect of the electromagnetic waves themselves.
We have a word for this. It is called psychosomatic.
Psychosomatic illnesses are serious in that they feel quite real; patients as best as we can tell are actually feeling nausea. Thus, it is unfair to discount these symptoms as simple hysteria. However, we also should not treat psychosomatic illnesses as if we were treating the associated physical symptom. It is not a physical illness. A person needs treatment, but the best treatment is probably from a psychologist.
Comments
> human beings possess no sensory apparatus to detect electromagnetic waves
Except of course for wavelengths between about 400 and 700nm, where the eyes are sensitive. For longer or shorter wavelengths, you're correct.
Posted by: rfguy | July 30, 2007 11:00 AM
rfguy,
Point taken. You are correct.
Posted by: Jake Young | July 30, 2007 11:04 AM
Don't deny the possible existence of psychosomatic illnesses, but do say the ability to diagnose them reliably is virtually non-existent. The diagnosis relies critically on the assumption that we can rule out all (plausible) physical causes. The fact that these folk cannot pick when the EMR is active, doesn't rule out a physical cause, it only shows that they are incorrect in attributing the cause to EMR.
Psychosomatic diagnosis has a very long and troubled history, the most recent example being stomach ulcers, which were widely regarded as the archetypal psychosomatic disorder, proven beyond doubt, and we all know what happened there.
Frankly, I think this diagnostic category, which includes labels like Functional Somatic Syndromes, is far too often just a cop out for lazy, incompetent, and even dishonest clinicians and researchers who simply don't want to admit they don't know what is causing these symptoms, and so instead indulge in pseudo-scientific psycho-dramas and morality plays to cover their personal egos and professional butts.
Is that a little harsh? Maybe. But far less harsh than inflicting this untestable diagnosis on patients, with all the potential adversity that involves.
Why not just say 'I don't know what the cause of your problem is'? Your patients will respect you a whole lot more.
Posted by: Obdulantist | July 31, 2007 7:44 AM