I've been thinking...
So much about diagnosing mental illnesses has to do with societal norms. There are often no objective scientifically sound impartial & reliable tests to confirm them. Often mental illnesses themselves seem to be culturally defined & based on norms, religious beliefs & taboos .
Many mental illnesses can be detected in the brain through scans etc, they can see a tumour & determine by its size & location within the brain, what the likely effects will be on the patient. Schizophrenia can also be seen in the brain through fMRI scans that reveal the very unusual brain activity. Other tests (like blood tests) can sometimes link symptoms of mental illnesses to hormone imbalances, food allergies & nutritional deficiencies etc. There are other objective means that can be used for legitimate diagnostic purposes such as examining a person's history & noting that they've suffered repeated or one big concussion or other head injury.
The problems, for me, begin when someone receives a diagnosis NOT based on any objectively verifiable testing (& I don't mean a series of questionnaires!), the person gets labelled & possibly even MEDICATED! Many of these illnesses weren't in the DSM until fairly recently. Others that used to be there no longer are. The fifth edition is being written now & there will be new illnesses added still (which means PROFIT since costly drugs will be prescribed for them).
Am I the only person terrified by this prospect? While the period for comments by the general public to the editors of the DSM V about the proposed changes is over, & going into more detail here would require several blogs, the fallout in 2013 promises to be very vocal. If there are any other followers of this psych geek stuff out there, I'd appreciate your comments.
So much about diagnosing mental illnesses has to do with societal norms. There are often no objective scientifically sound impartial & reliable tests to confirm them. Often mental illnesses themselves seem to be culturally defined & based on norms, religious beliefs & taboos .
Many mental illnesses can be detected in the brain through scans etc, they can see a tumour & determine by its size & location within the brain, what the likely effects will be on the patient. Schizophrenia can also be seen in the brain through fMRI scans that reveal the very unusual brain activity. Other tests (like blood tests) can sometimes link symptoms of mental illnesses to hormone imbalances, food allergies & nutritional deficiencies etc. There are other objective means that can be used for legitimate diagnostic purposes such as examining a person's history & noting that they've suffered repeated or one big concussion or other head injury.
The problems, for me, begin when someone receives a diagnosis NOT based on any objectively verifiable testing (& I don't mean a series of questionnaires!), the person gets labelled & possibly even MEDICATED! Many of these illnesses weren't in the DSM until fairly recently. Others that used to be there no longer are. The fifth edition is being written now & there will be new illnesses added still (which means PROFIT since costly drugs will be prescribed for them).
Am I the only person terrified by this prospect? While the period for comments by the general public to the editors of the DSM V about the proposed changes is over, & going into more detail here would require several blogs, the fallout in 2013 promises to be very vocal. If there are any other followers of this psych geek stuff out there, I'd appreciate your comments.
