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Study finds psychiatric diagnosis to be ‘scientifically meaningless’

Judee

Psalm 46:1-3
Messages
4,461
Location
Great Lakes
https://neurosciencenews.com/meaningless-psychiatric-diagnosis-14434/

Lead researcher Dr. Kate Allsopp, University of Liverpool, said: “Although diagnostic labels create the illusion of an explanation they are scientifically meaningless and can create stigma and prejudice. I hope these findings will encourage mental health professionals to think beyond diagnoses and consider other explanations of mental distress, such as trauma and other adverse life experiences.”
[underline mine]

Umm...Like times where one has a real disease where the body is literally going haywire and people keep saying it's all up in our heads? :eek:

(Sorry if this was already posted. I didn't see it listed in the suggestions when I was setting up this thread.)
 

Hip

Senior Member
Messages
17,824
What a lot of dubious ideas from Dr Kate Allsopp at the University of Liverpool. Here are some quotes from the article:
I hope these findings will encourage mental health professionals to think beyond diagnoses and consider other explanations of mental distress, such as trauma and other adverse life experiences.”

This study provides yet more evidence that the biomedical diagnostic approach in psychiatry is not fit for purpose

And some quotes from a Guardian article on Dr Kate Allsopp's views:
Allsopp and Kinderman have previously written in the Lancet that instead of recording a diagnosis of, say, “moderate personality disorder”, clinicians could record the series of adverse events and mental health difficulties that the person is experiencing, such as personal history of sexual abuse, partner violence and low income which lead (understandably) to anger, depressed mood and self-injury.

Dr Kate Allsopp follows the footsteps of many psychiatrists who do not understand the biomedical mechanics of the brain, so they ignore the brain and posit that mental illnesses are caused by psychogenic and psychosocial factors.

Psychogenic and psychosocial factors are easier to understand, because they are soft sciences. It takes a different type of intelligence to understand both these soft sciences, as well as the hard science of brain biology.

Quite a few mental health conditions have in recent years been linked to brain inflammation (which in turn might turn out to be caused by infection). So unless mental health professionals start learning more about brain biology and immunology, they will likely never get to the bottom of the actual causes of mental illness.

I've experienced first hand what how a viral infection can cause mental health illnesses: as the virus I caught spread to friends and family, it triggered lots of cases of anxiety and depression.
 

Wolfcub

Senior Member
Messages
7,089
Location
SW UK
Yes I am not surprised @Hip
I've experienced first hand what how a viral infection can cause mental health illnesses: as the virus I caught spread to friends and family, it triggered lots of cases of anxiety and depression.

Even a dose of the flu can cause depression, though for a limited time usually, after the worst of the symptoms appear to have passed. And that is in normally non-depressed people.