Monday, April 19, 2010
At one point, the term “mental illness” was only heard in psychiatric wards. Now, we encounter it on television commercials, website advertisements and even in the discourse of general practitioners.
Does your 10-year-old have trouble focusing in school? Well, he must have ADHD, and he needs a psychiatric drug to focus. Do you have times when you feel very sad that are followed by times when you are very happy? Well, you are bipolar and need to be prescribed an antidepressant.
Diagnoses for “mood disorders” such as these have skyrocketed over the years. Except, there seems to be something very strange about how they are diagnosed: evaluations are completely subjective.
Unlike other medical conditions such as diabetes, cancer and heart disease, there is no scientific test to verify any of these disorders, which apparently affect nearly a fourth of the population.
Of course, mental problems such as depression and anxiety can be very disruptive in some cases. Nonetheless, there are other theories as to why we all seem to think that we have “mental illnesses.”
According to Citizens Commission on Human Rights International, a mental health watchdog, none of us are really sick. The organization believes that the billions of dollars spent by psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries to convince the public, legislators and press that conditions such as ADHD and depression are actual diseases is the cause for the U.S.’s new mental illnesses.
In the late 80’s, industry fronted advocacy groups such as the Anxiety Disorders Association of America (ADAA) redefined new mental conditions as a “treatable illness.” This opened the doors to extremely profitable possibilities of being able to diagnose and medicate people for newly created mental “disorders.”
In truth, these disorders seem to be much more like behaviors. At times, everyone gets depressed, happy, neutral and even crazy, but that does not mean they have a mental illness.
Yet, if you are told by your television, your computer and your doctor that you are sick, eventually you will believe it. The psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries have created an incubator for mental health issues, and the money is rolling in.
According to a study by the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), doctors write prescriptions for more antidepressants than any other drug in the this country. Of the 2.5 billion drugs prescribed in 2005, 118 million were anti-depressants.
Go to the doctor with stress-related symptoms that range from moderate to severe, and your doctor will happily prescribe Prozac or Zoloft to solve your “disorder.” If symptoms continue, go back to the doctor to be prescribed an additional anti-depressant for the rather depressing side effects of your anti-depressant. Wait…what?
In prescription augmentation, patients are actually prescribed an additional drug for the adverse side effects of their antidepressant. It seems that pharmaceutical companies have found a medication for everything.
The psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries’ effort to diagnose all of us with mental illnesses is working. Children’s moods are being altered by unneeded medication and we all seem to believe that we should always feel unnaturally happy. Once again, the Food and Drug Administration is failing to regulate destructive practices of another multi-billion dollar industry.
— Katz is a junior from Overland Park in creative writing and political science.
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Comments
Katz: Duped and drugged
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Katz: Duped and drugged
I'm not ecstatic about the willingness of doctors to prescribe medication for disorders, but that does not mean these disorders do not exist. Mr. Katz it seems you have never suffered from mental illness or at least that is what your cavalier attitude suggests. Although you cannot run a blood test for bipolar disorder, it is not as simple as "I'm sad and happy in the same day." There are diagnostic guidelines (currently found in the DSM IV-TR) that psychologists and psychiatrists are trained to follow. If they were to find a person fit the diagnostic guidelines for bipolar disorder, then something might be prescribed (maybe Lithium, a mood-stabilizer, not an anti-depressant). You may want to do some research before suggesting that an entire science has been created for little more than monetary gain.
Katz: Duped and drugged
Katz, are you a scientologist or just laughably ignorant of the entire field of cognitive neuroscience? People with mood disorders have different brain activation patterns when examined with fMRI, they often have genetic precursors for mental illness (which can be determined with a simple cheek swab), and they have marked differences in the way their neurons process neurotransmitters. I mean really, what do you think anti-depressants do if you don't believe there is a biological basis to these mental illnesses? They change the absorption rates of neurotransmitters thus alleviating the mood disorder, and they work better than placebos.
I also like how you wantonly declare a psychologist's diagnosis as non-scientific despite the fact that you clearly have no knowledge of the scientific research behind mood disorders. The standardized behavioral criteria psychologists use to diagnose mood disorders is highly correlated with the biological indicators of mood disorders I listed above. In other words, given that we know that specific biological changes cause specific behavioral symptoms, one can infer the biological changes in a person by studying their behavioral symptoms. When you subject large groups of people to these behavioral criteria, the people who fall on the extremes of the bell curve usually have the biological markers of the given mood disorder, whereas the people who fall in the middle do not. Thus people diagnosed with mood disorders not only have accompanying biological changes but they also experience behavioral symptoms which fall far beyond the range of the normal "depressed, happy, neutral and even crazy" spectrum of emotions you describe.
Thank you for this 15th century dualist assessment of mood disorders, but next time you choose to dismiss thousands upon thousands of biologists', neuroscientists', and cognitive neuroscientists' work (not to mention millions of people's suffering), at least do them the favor of reading some wikipedia articles.
Katz: Duped and drugged
Braden - I essentially agree with the premise of your piece. However, you didn't back up your assertions with one shred of evidence to support them. Hopefully you'll do better the next time out.
I've gotten to know too many people in the workplace and in regular life who couldn't find a way to solve their emotional issues without a prescription. The problems don't go away, but a new issue gets added to the mix with the meds.
Better luck next time.
Katz: Duped and drugged
It's one thing to take a controversial stance, but this column is merely a flagrantly uninformed diagnosis of the problem, quickly made and with little foundation. Katz, you're doing exactly what you purport psychiatrists do.
Katz: Duped and drugged
Mental disorders aren't just about being very sad or very happy or unable to focus. They are significant brain disorders whose cause is yet to be found. They can produce significant disability and mortality (due to suicide). Depression isn't just being very sad; it often comes with physical problems like an inability to get out of bed, excessive fatigue, pain with no obvious origin. It often drives people to suicide.
Bipolar disorder isn't just getting very happy at times and very sad at others. It can be very bad to the point of psychosis (a loss of touch with reality consisting of delusions or hallucinations) and reckless impulsive behaviors, all of this not due to drug abuse.
ADHD isn't just a matter of being a pain in the butt to teachers. It's a complete inability to focus on tasks, oftentimes not being able to follow conversations or learn anything that requires focus. Its treatment works, though is paradoxical. Stimulants in hyper kids?! They're calming for them.
Of course, this article fails to mention the more debilitating mental disorders. Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness characterized by positive symptoms of psychosis and negative symptoms of flattened affect and failure to take care of oneself among others. It also consists of cognitive deficits that make it impossible to work.
Having panic attacks can have severe consequences, too. Panic attacks aren't just being nervous and frantic. Their symptoms can include heart palpitations, chest pain, nausea, tremors, and paresthesias. People often go to ERs with panic attacks, thinking they're having heart attacks. Worse yet would be a dead person who chalked up a heart attack to being just another panic attack.
Epilepsy is a brain disorder consisting of unpredictable seizures. However, if someone were alone at the time of a seizure and didn't seek help until having recovered, it could be nearly impossible for the doctor to verify that a seizure happened, except perhaps by symptoms and signs (e.g. injury from falling or biting the tongue).
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