It seems to me like medicine has had trouble saying "I don't know" since the beginning. Throughout the ages we've had "default" diagnoses to fall back on when we couldn't figure out anything else better. And we don't seem to learn. Medicine should be conducted solely on the basis of evidence: in lieu of a clinically proven, statistically sound diagnostic test, the default should be, "I'm sorry, but I don't know" and a referral to a higher specialist.
I suppose we always want to feel like we can do something (and who knows, maybe the psychological counseling here will help), but ultimately it's not falsifiable. Maybe they'd have spontaneously resolved anyway? Or maybe it's truly a new disease. What is absolutely true, though, is that the human body, and especially the brain, are mindblowingly complex and can do crazy things. We barely understand even the most well known neurological disorders. But this speculation-based post hoc rationalizing is just bad medicine.
As an aside, I wonder if health insurance has limited the diagnostic work up on these girls or if the publicity ensured they were taken care of there. A full neuro imaging suite and chemical workup is easily over $100k in the US.
I suppose we always want to feel like we can do something (and who knows, maybe the psychological counseling here will help), but ultimately it's not falsifiable. Maybe they'd have spontaneously resolved anyway? Or maybe it's truly a new disease. What is absolutely true, though, is that the human body, and especially the brain, are mindblowingly complex and can do crazy things. We barely understand even the most well known neurological disorders. But this speculation-based post hoc rationalizing is just bad medicine.
As an aside, I wonder if health insurance has limited the diagnostic work up on these girls or if the publicity ensured they were taken care of there. A full neuro imaging suite and chemical workup is easily over $100k in the US.