Thread by @katelovesneuro

OPEN THREAD: An Open Letter to Generals, Admirals, and Members of both the Senate and the House of Congress:

The time has come that I can no longer remain silent, and based on collaborative thinking and conversation, I wanted to make a suggestion. I do so hesitantly, for (1)

I do not wish to alienate my community, after all they’ve well laid the groundwork for a badly needed public conversation. They chose based on their specialty and like good and honest professionals stayed within their lane. I specialized in something else, (2)

Clinical Neuropsychology. As a Post Doctoral resident in training, I am risking everything, as a citizen, I can’t let that stop me.

There are alot of folks calling for the 25th amendment based on personality disorders. While I agree with their assessment I believe (3)

A) it won't get much tread beyond professional circles and B) a call for the 25th should be made based on Dementia.

Please forgive the length but I intend to clearly lay out the case for such.

THE PROBLEM

While Trump clearly has clinically diagnosable personality (4)

disorders and criminal psychopathy to deal with, its his behavior, executive functioning, social judgement, constant eating talking (hyper-orality), verbal trailing off, word loss, CLEAR memory loss, disorientation and a few other things that give him away. This is NOT to (5)

say he had good social judgement before now, its the decline in function. This is also not to say he didnt eat junk food before, but its uncontrollable now as is his talking/tweeting (hyper-orality).

Hes always been not so smart, but he is cunning savvy and Ive noticed (6)

people seem especially interested and/or taken by not so smart cunning savvy  folks.

None of this takes away from or excuses his sadistic narcissistic criminal sociopathy, but with every additional diagnosis you confound the picture, meaning it gets harder and harder to (7)

attribute symptoms to this or that disorder. However, in my mind the first and foremost diagnostic question is always "whats driving this train" or "what and where is/was the first domino."

When we dont know, we use words like, multifactorial, confounded and idiopathic. In (8)

this case, dementia most likely, Fronto Temporal Lobular Disease-Behavioral Variant (FTD-bv) is driving the train. Trump had all the same Personality Disorders before running for office but had the wherewithall to keep it together enough to avoid blatant displays of dementia (9)

symptoms because they didn't yet exist.

The last 10 years though you begin to see a slow, at first almost imperceptible, decline that picks up speed like a snowball. Go back 15-20 years ago before he started his presidential run. Mr. Trump is on record. You can see the slow (10)

degeneration and decline in function right there in living Technicolor. Now fast forward the video tape. Thats NOT Personality Disorder thats dementia related decline in cognitive functioning IN THE OVAL OFFICE. And that's why its time for 25th amendment.(11)

THE SOLUTION

An MEB would likely be acceptable as a non partisan independent medical board that could be rapidly assembled and accepted by both parties in congress. Call for the 25th based on DEMENTIA symptoms plainly visible to all, and with full neuropsychological exam (12)

and PET scan to confirm diagnosis, the truth would be  incontrovertible.

The reason you'd need a neuropsychological exam is that even if a PET scan said he had FTD-bv, you could easily argue that, "well yes, Mr. Trump does have FTD-bv, but that doesnt mean he's not (13)

functional." Presently, only a neuropsychological exam can determine lack of functionality or incompetence, and then propose, based on findings, a provisional diagnosis which a PET scan could/would then air-tight confirm. While I may be off the mark in the type of (14)

the President of the United States has, I'm not wrong about the cognitive decline that's progressing and rapid decompensation that is clearly occuring.

An MEB for Dementia is the only legitimate reason the whole country could work with and the only incontrovertible (15)

evidence there might be to mount a call to activate the 25th amendment.

Thank you for your time.

Respectfully,

Kate (Kathleen) Shaw, M.A., M.S., Psy.D. Twitter: @katelovesneuro
LinkedIn Kate (Kathleen) Shaw, M.A., M.S., Psy.D. (16)

"It’s not what we know that will change the world, it’s recognizing ‘what we don't’ that will." 

"We are defined only by our choices and the courage of our hearts"
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