Some critical thoughts on the medical model and mental illness #psychiatry #labeling http://critpsych.blogspot.com Labeling and drugging is a convenient way of treating mental health disorders, and is profitable for insurance and pharmaceutical compa

http://www.winmentalhealth.com/mental_illness_stigma_labeling_theory.php

 

 

The Medical Model - Psychiatric Labeling and Drugging
---------An Inadequate Foundation for Mental Health Treatment

 

There are other models of mental health which provide foundations which approach psychiatric disorders and mental health from a totally different angle, though not as popular, they are equally, or even more-viable, realistic, holistic and productive, than the medical model."

"The medical model is convenient, it provides the practicioner with a clear-cut approach to handling individual situations, but most of all, it has been used by the psychiatric world in a way that leads to labeling and subsequent prescribing of psychiatric drugs. The typical procedure for the medical model of mental health involves, identifying symptoms, assigning an appropriate label, and administering what is deemed appropriate drugs.

Labeling and drugging is a convenient way of treating mental health disorders, 
and is profitable for insurance and pharmaceutical companies."

 

 

 

 

http://www.hedweb.com/bgcharlton/depression.html

 

 

The malaise theory of depression: Major depressive disorder
is sickness behavior and antidepressants are analgesic
Bruce G Charlton MD

 

"Although animals demonstrate sickness behavior mediated by cytokines in the same way as humans, only conscious animals such as humans can suffer from the distinctive 'existential' state of depression, with feelings such as nihilism, worthlessness, guilt and suicidal ruminations. The state of malaise which prevails in sickness behavior interacts with memories of the past and anticipations of the future such that a demotivated, exhausted and profoundly dysphoric state of malaise fills and colors past, present, and the anticipations of future mental life.

Prolonged sickness behavior therefore creates a nihilistic mental state where life seems devoid of gratifying possibilities (ie. pessimism) because emotional feedback registers a physiological state that is locked-into sickness behavior, and unresponsive to the usual appetites (ie. a state of anhedonia). Another factor is that the sufferer from SB does not know that they are sick, and often interpret their lack of energy, lack of motivation, and poor concentration as a moral failure - leading to feeling of guilt and unworthiness. Given the nature of this subjective mental landscape, the high rate of suicide in MDD is unsurprising.

To put malaise at the core of the depressive syndrome may seem a radical inversion of the usually accepted causal interpretation, since symptoms of malaise have traditionally been interpreted as secondary to the mood change in MDD. Traditionally (eg. in DSM-IV) it is supposed that depressed people complain of tiredness and aching limbs because they are miserable - whereas the malaise theory suggest that they are miserable because they are tired and have aching limbs. Eventually chronic misery imposes itself on incoming perceptions, these associations are learned, and the depressive cognitive style becomes habitual so it may persist even after resolution of the hyper-immune state that originally caused SB."

 

 

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16061329?dopt=Abstract

Metabolic depression in hibernation and major depression: an explanatory theory and an animal model of depression.
Tsiouris JA.
George A. Jervis Clinic, NYS Institute for Basic Research in Developmental Disabilities, Staten Island, NY 10314, USA. john.tsiouris@omr.state.ny.us

 

"We propose that a form of metabolic depression, and not mitochondrial dysfunction, is the process underlying the observed hypometabolism, state-dependent neurobiological changes and vegetative symptoms of major depression in humans."

 

 

 

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pmed.0030240

 

 

Do Antidepressants Cure or Create Abnormal Brain States?

 

"The disease-centred model in psychiatry leads researchers to infer antidepressant effects from patients' scores on symptom rating scales presumed to assess the manifestations of the disease. The drug-centred model, on the other hand, suggests that physiological and subjective effects of drugs should be examined in their own right."
"Antidepressants are assumed to work on the specific neurobiology of depressive disorders according to a "disease-centred" model of drug action. However, little evidence supports this idea. An alternative, "drug-centred," model suggests that psychotropic drugs create abnormal states that may coincidentally relieve symptoms."

 

 

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/health-and-families/health-news/britain-on-the-couch-we-are-in-the-grip-of-an-epidemic-but-are-drugs-the-only-answer-419166.html

 

 

Britain on the couch: We are in the grip of an epidemic. But are drugs the only answer?
Dr Rufus May argues that, rather than trying to cure our sadness with pills, we must accept it as part of life. Only then can we start to change it

 

"I meet people who've bought into the idea that their sadness is caused by a chemical imbalance. Many of them have resigned themselves to one cocktail of medication after another. They have given up on their own ability to find a solution. After all, what can they do about their faulty brain-wiring?"
"We have also set up a network of public meetings that explore different approaches to mental well-being. What we have discovered is that people find a vast range of things helpful in dealing with distress, from diet and herbal medicine, through meditation and spiritual healing, to dance and artistic expression. "