Over-Medicalization of Everyday Life

Mental Health Europe (MHE) is a non-governmental organization “… committed to the promotion of positive mental health and well-being, the prevention of mental health problems, the improvement of care, advocacy for social inclusion and the protection of the human rights of (ex)users of mental health services and their families and carers.” It is composed of associations, organizations, and individuals who are active in the mental health field, including users and ex-users of services, volunteers, and professionals. MHE subscribes to the following values: dignity and respect; equal opportunities; freedom of choice; non-discrimination, social inclusion, democracy and participation. You can read more about them here. ...

Of all the evils perpetrated by American psychiatry in the past 60 years, the administration of neuroleptic drugs to children is arguably the worst. And it is a practice that is growing each year. The essential purpose of these drugs is to make people more docile and more easily managed by destroying brain tissue. The side effects are devastating. Recently Gabrielle Carson, MD, a psychiatrist at Stony Brook Children’s Hospital, wrote a paper on The Dramatic Rise in Neuroleptic Use In Children: Why Do We Do It and What Does It Buy Us? You can see Dr. Carlson’s commentary here. (Thanks to yobluemama2 on Twitter for flagging the article.) ...

There’s an interesting article in the NY Times Sunday review. You can see it here. It was written by Sally Satel MD, a psychiatrist, currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. The article is called: “Why the Fuss Over the DSM-5?” Dr. Satel’s central point is that psychiatrists only treat symptoms anyway and pay little attention to the DSM. She expresses the belief that the manual’s diagnoses are “…passports to insurance coverage, the keys to special education and behavioral services in school and the tickets to disability benefits.” ...

There’s an interesting article on Vermont’s Seven Days. It’s called Burlington’s HowardCenter Tries a New Approach to Treating Mental Illness: More Talk, Fewer Meds. You can see it here. (Thanks to Steven Coles on Twitter for the link.) Apparently Vermont’s Department of Mental Health is promoting a “new” kind of treatment for psychosis: talk therapy. The project leader is Dr. Sandra Steingard, who for most of her career accepted the orthodox view of schizophrenia and the need for neuroleptic drugs. ...

Today, after two years of deliberation, the Division of Clinical Psychology (which is part of the British Psychological Society) issued a Position Statement on the Classification of Behavior and Experience in Relation to Functional Psychiatric Diagnosis. It is subtitled “Time for a Paradigm Shift.” The DCP summarizes its paper as follows: "The DCP is of the view that it is timely and appropriate to affirm publicly that the current classification system as outlined in DSM and ICD, in respect of the functional psychiatric diagnoses, has significant conceptual and empirical limitations. Consequently, there is a need for a paradigm shift in relation to the experiences that these diagnoses refer to, towards a conceptual system not based on a ‘disease’ model." ...

In the current issue of Clinical Psychology Review (April 8, 2013), you will find a very interesting article by Brett Jason Deacon, PhD, who is an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of Wyoming. The article is called The Biomedical Model of Mental Disorder: A Critical Analysis of its Tenets, Consequences, and Effects on Psychotherapy Research. You can see it here. The article is a critique of the biomedical model from a theoretical and a practical perspective. The author has managed to elucidate a comprehensive range of criticisms of the biomedical model, and has blended them together into a coherent and compelling account. ...

There’s an interesting article in the May 2013 issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry. It’s called “The future of academic psychiatry may be social” by Stefan Priebe, Tom Burns, and Tom K. J. Craig. You can see it here. The abstract states: "The past 30 years have produced no discoveries leading to major changes in psychiatric practice. The rules regulating research and a dominant neurobiological paradigm may both have stifled creativity. Embracing a social paradigm could generate real progress and, simultaneously, make the profession more attractive." ...

BACKGROUND Sam Thompson (University of Liverpool) posted the following tweet on April 27: Can anyone point me to a good, succinct summary of the case for equating mental distress with illness? (serious, non-sarcastic question) On the face of it, this looks like a straightforward question, and one might think that a straightforward answer could be found. But this is not the case, because ultimately it boils down to a matter of definition. And psychiatry is a field where definitions are notoriously fuzzy. MENTAL DISORDER ...

BACKGROUND On April 29, Thomas Insel, Director of NIMH, published a paper called Transforming Diagnosis. You can see it here. Dr. Insel is critical of DSM: "While DSM has been described as a 'Bible' for the field, it is, at best, a dictionary, creating a set of labels and defining each." "The weakness is its lack of validity." This has created quite a stir, in that it appears to support the position of those of us who have been criticizing the DSM on these kinds of grounds for decades. It also suggests a fundamental rift between the NIMH and the APA, two groups who up till now had appeared to be joined at the hip. The article has generated a great deal of comment. So far, there’s been nothing from the APA. ...

I keep two dictionaries on my desk. The first is a 1964 Webster’s; the second is a 2009 Webster’s. This morning I looked up the word “depression” in both books. 1964: n. 1. a depressing or being depressed. 2. a depressed part or place; hollow or low place. 3. low spirits; dejection. 4. a decrease in force, activity, amount, etc. 5. a period marked by slackening of business activity, much unemployment, falling prices and wages, etc. ...