Medicine's big new battleground: does mental illness really exist?

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45. Of course biology plays a role

yet I challenge you to show me one piece of objective scientific testing that will determine as of right now whether you or anyone else suffers from depression, anxiety, etc. Those of us in psychology have known for over a century that naturally there is a biomedical component to psychic states of being. Any one with a cursory understanding of neuropsychology and endocrinology understands this.

Might there be one some today? Perhaps. Sure there is a supposed blood test due out soon for depression. The corporation responsible, of course, hasn't really shared a whole lot with us actual mental health professionals about it though. But right now there are no blood tests, no diagnostically relevant imaging studies that your Psychiatrist or Internist can send you to get, and in fact, the diagnosis is made as it always has been by psychologists. We discuss personal history, family history, behaviors, signs and symptoms on an individual basis and compare it to an idea of the statistical normative behavior for that gender, age range, and current life circumstances.

If you are seeing someone like me, then I use a set of tools and techniques some verbal others behavioral and yet others in my case as a somaticist that are physical to assist you in managing or dealing with depression or anxiety. Many are quite effective and shown so empirically. If you are seeing a Psychiatrist, then they will choose medications, often with side-effects for most individuals, that may or may not alleviate your depression on a case by case basis. If the drug works, then it was the right one. If the drug doesn't, then they test another. If they find one that works, maybe it works permanently. Often it does not and dosages are adjusted accordingly.

Bluntly, psychiatry and psychology are both doing the best they can with what we currently know about how the body/mind actually works and functions over the life-span of an individuals. Sometimes one approach is preferred over the other. Sometimes both work well in tandem. Are there individual psychologists who promote crank theories and bogus treatments? Sure, but not the majority of them. Are there individual psychiatrists who are only concerned about promoting the Big Pharma's next break through drug treatment at the expense of the patient's well-being? Sure, but not the majority of them.

The problem both of us have with Pharma right now is that there is a push by corporations to label, market, and sell their products at the expense of large swashes of the populations well-being. Your family doctor has no place diagnosing and given their patients anti-depressants. Hell, as a professional in the field for over twenty five years, I most certainly do. Yet, the AMA does not want a Ph.D prescribing and encroaching on their cabal.

The newest DSM is a travesty. The constant thrust for finding only a biochemical basis of mental health and illness is an equal travesty. I applaud those on either side who are attempting like this group to address these flaws and make positive change. Are you? Or are you just concerned with your own state of being alone? Do you believe that your experience alone is true for all that suffer from depression and anxiety as you do? Why does what this group propose makes you feel so very threatened?