Psychiatry

[aphar]

My problem with psychiatry is the combination of the following two observations:

• Inability of psychiatrists to reliably diagnose mental illness or even agree on what is a mental illness


• Arrogation by psychiatrists of two rights:
  
  • to chemically meddle with the patients' brains
  
  
  • to deprive the patients of their civil rights by declaring them insane

While I agree that psychiatry is useful, and is usually used in the interests of the patients, I think a more cautious approach to the use of psychotropic drugs is a good idea.
Specifically, using psychotropic drugs usually means that the patient has to keep taking them for life (no exit strategy).

In some cases a more cautious - clinical - approach [1] might be better (cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy and other talking treatments).
Alas, it is being aggressively disputed [2] touting recent research (which makes fascinating claims like PTSD has been shown to be highly heritable despite being definitionally linked to specific experiences).

[1] vs [2] might be the usual turf struggle for funding, but I would hate to see people being medicated for life when it is possible to instead "talk them out of being ill".

PS. See also an old entry.

Comments

[ymarkov]

Скажи спасибо, что хоть лоботомизировать перестали.

[aphar]

Спасибо!