Are You Depressed Today?The APA Says It's SAD
From Today's Los Angeles Times:
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Psychiatry's sick compulsion: turning weaknesses into diseases
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By Irwin Savodnik
Irwin Savodnik is a psychiatrist and philosopher who teaches at UCLA.
January 1 2006
IT'S JAN. 1. Past time to get your inoculation against seasonal affective
disorder, or SAD #8212; at least according to the American Psychiatric Assn. As
Americans rush to return Christmas junk, bumping into each other in Macy's and
Best Buy, the psychiatric association ponders its latest iteration of feeling
bad for the holidays. And what is the association selling? Mental illness. With
its panoply of major depression, dysthymic disorder, bipolar disorder and
generalized anxiety disorder, the association is waving its Calvinist flag to
remind everyone that amid all the celebration, all the festivities, all the
exuberance, many people will "come down with" or "contract" or "develop" some
variation of depressive illness.
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The complete article can be viewed at:
The Los Angeles Times. The gist of the article is that the American Psychiatric Association has been over the years developing many more named and classified illnesses as psychiatric conditions than probably it should. Anyway, that is this psychiatrist's opinion. I wonder what Shrinkette or others in the profession think about this.
Can't make and keep a list of New Years resolutions? Looking forward to paying your holiday bills? Feeling a bit depressed? Well, it is January 1st and time to develop SAD (8212), Seasonal Affective Disorder, that is. Happy New Year! ..Maurice.
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posted by Maurice Bernstein, M.D. @ 1:39:00 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
As always, you've given me something to think about. Dr. Savodnik's criticisms are not new. Many psychiatrists share his concerns. I will try to think of a way to respond, in a post.
I have some real issues with psychiatry for this very reason - the tendency to pathologize that which is not pathological. If a patient hospitalized for depression does not want to color a picture during "recreational therapy" then they get labeled "resistant to treatment" or labeled with a personality disorder for being a problem patient. I would recommend that if they want a patient to feel less pathological, then stop having them do childish activities. That's not going to make them feel independent, it just perpetuates the feelings of helplessness. Celebrate when patients resist tooling a leather wallet.
Anonymous, excellent comment! I wonder how a psychiatrist would respond. Shrinkette are you around? ..Maurice.
On 1-23-2006, Shrinkette wrote as a followup to her first comment here: "Yes, I think that we psychiatrists tend to over-pathologize. Yes, psychiatry must take responsibility for this behavior, and be vigilant about exposing and preventing it. No, I don't think that mental illness is a myth. I don't think personal responsibility is a myth, either. One of our most important jobs is to help patients take responsibility for their behavior. (And one of our thorniest issues is: when does illness impair a person's capacity to take responsibility?)" Hmmn. To me it may be the same as when a patient has the specific capacity to make their own medical decisions. I think that it depends on what the patient has to decide about. So it probably is with all responsibilities, it depends on the responsibility..Maurice.
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