Psychiatric Diagnoses: The Epidemic of Mental Illness

The New York Review of Books carried and a scathing and mostly right-on article about the medicalization and over-medication of mental illness by Marcia Angell. It's a review of three books about the history of psych meds, the power of the drug companies, and the minimization of psychotherapy. Read it here.

Comments

[judy Miller]

Having worked in a state mental hospital admitting ward, I agree we are over medicating our patients. More than that I believe that patients are NOT getting the right medication and they are being wrongly diagnosed. Every one is not bipolar. People do not understand how early trauma influences the adult and child. Antipsychotics don't work on those people. Doctors refuse to dig deeper and get a decent history of the patients....
One thing that is changing is medicating people out of control and acting out. Our hospital is trying very hard to find alternative ways of calming people....by not using medication.....anti anxiety meds are needed in the acute setting and then outside depending on the memories and PTSD that exists in the trauma patient, at least in the beginning.

[Robin Shapiro]

Judy, I completely agree. Psychiatrists rarely learn about trauma and dissociation and how to treat it. Many of my "bipolar" clients turned out to have complex early trauma. Clear the trauma, work the attachment issues, and poof! bipolar goes away. Some truly are genetically bipolar and need the meds. Thanks for writing.

[Lisa]

Good to see that you're back, have missed your blog posts! Also hope that your neck is healing. /Lisa, Sweden

[Robin Shapiro]

Thanks, Lisa.