Is having the conversation about mental illness and horrendous violent crime stigmatizing?

[BainsBane]

18. Another point

If this gunman suffered from a personality disorder, such as anti-social personality disorder, he might have a psychiatric diagnoses but--from what I know--would not be eligible for psychiatric treatment under insurance plans. When dealing with such cases, psychiatrists often list an Axis I diagnosis (mood and thought disorders), most commonly depression, even if that is not the patient's actual problem. The reason for this is that psychiatrists have assumed personality disorders are not treatable--they are instead the nature of the personality, characteristics that makes him or her maladaptive, but cannot be characterized as treatable mood or thought disorders. Borderline Personality Disorder has proven to be responsive to Dialectical Behavioral Therapy and even curable. Therefore it is not expected to be categorized as a personality disorder in the new DSM coming out later this year. Better insurance coverage for personality disorders and development of targeted, effective therapies might an important step in curbing violence. Prisons are full of sociopaths who meet the criteria for anti-social personality disorders, but so is the corporate world. Moreover, sociopathy can actually be an advantage in some professions like the military or firefighters because their inability to feel much emotion enables them to avoid the fear that would paralyze many of us. Sociopathic tendencies exist on a continuum, so people experience different degrees of inability to feel empathy or otherwise access emotions. And only a small percentage of sociopaths become criminals.

It's also possible that psychiatrists should not so readily prescribe anti-depressants for non-depressives. But I don't have the medical background to speak authoritatively on this. Still, I do wonder.