Beyond the Disease Model of Mental Disorders

Beyond the Disease Model of Mental Disorders PDF Author: Donald Kiesler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313373736
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Kiesler's Beyond the Disease Model of Mental Disorder goes beyond recent volumes which argue that psychotropic medications are being overused and abused in contemporary mental health settings. Elliott Valenstein, for example, an emeritus professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, recently argues that people should be highly suspicious of the claim that all mental illness is primarily a biochemical disorder. In his 1998 book, Blaming the Brain: The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health, Valenstein does not argue that drugs never work or that patients should discontinue taking medication. Valenstein's central point, instead, is that drugs do not attack the real cause of a disorder, since biochemical theories are an unproven hypothesis and probably a false one. Inasmuch as Kiesler's volume is concerned exclusively with scientific explanations of mental disorders, it does not review at all the evidence for psychotropic medications or for other treatments of mental disorders. Kiesler does highlight a message similar to that of Valenstein, who rejects the hypothesis that mental illness is primarily a biochemical disorder. After a comprehensive review of the relevant scientific evidence, Kiesler concludes that henceforth the study of mental disorders must be guided by multicausal theories and research that systematically include an array of biological, psychological, and sociocultural causal factors. Kiesler adds that, in order for this to be accomplished, the mental health field and the public at large must first abandon the invalid monocausal biomedical (disease) model of mental disorder.

Beyond the Disease Model of Mental Disorders

Beyond the Disease Model of Mental Disorders PDF Author: Donald Kiesler
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 0313373736
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 244

Get Book Here

Book Description
Kiesler's Beyond the Disease Model of Mental Disorder goes beyond recent volumes which argue that psychotropic medications are being overused and abused in contemporary mental health settings. Elliott Valenstein, for example, an emeritus professor of psychology and neuroscience at the University of Michigan, recently argues that people should be highly suspicious of the claim that all mental illness is primarily a biochemical disorder. In his 1998 book, Blaming the Brain: The Truth about Drugs and Mental Health, Valenstein does not argue that drugs never work or that patients should discontinue taking medication. Valenstein's central point, instead, is that drugs do not attack the real cause of a disorder, since biochemical theories are an unproven hypothesis and probably a false one. Inasmuch as Kiesler's volume is concerned exclusively with scientific explanations of mental disorders, it does not review at all the evidence for psychotropic medications or for other treatments of mental disorders. Kiesler does highlight a message similar to that of Valenstein, who rejects the hypothesis that mental illness is primarily a biochemical disorder. After a comprehensive review of the relevant scientific evidence, Kiesler concludes that henceforth the study of mental disorders must be guided by multicausal theories and research that systematically include an array of biological, psychological, and sociocultural causal factors. Kiesler adds that, in order for this to be accomplished, the mental health field and the public at large must first abandon the invalid monocausal biomedical (disease) model of mental disorder.

The Perspectives of Psychiatry

The Perspectives of Psychiatry PDF Author: Paul R. McHugh
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 1421404141
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 499

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Book Description
Substantially revised to include a wealth of new material, the second edition of this highly acclaimed work provides a concise, coherent introduction that brings structure to an increasingly fragmented and amorphous discipline. Paul R. McHugh and Phillip R. Slavney offer an approach that emphasizes psychiatry's unifying concepts while accommodating its diversity. Recognizing that there may never be a single, all-encompassing theory, the book distills psychiatric practice into four explanatory methods: diseases, dimensions of personality, goal-directed behaviors, and life stories. These perspectives, argue the authors, underlie the principles and practice of all psychiatry. With an understanding of these fundamental methods, readers will be equipped to organize and evaluate psychiatric information and to develop a confident approach to practice and research.

The Culture of Our Discontent

The Culture of Our Discontent PDF Author: Meredith F. Small
Publisher: Joseph Henry Press
ISBN: 9780309100663
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
By many estimations, the Western medical model of mental health is dangerously incomplete. If we step outside of the traditional disease model there are many new and different ways to understand, treat, and even accept mental illness. Culture--how we collectively live, interact, and view the world--frames our mental outlook. Arguably, culture even creates it. Western culture, for example, has completely embraced the medical model of mental illness. We quickly turn to physicians if we are unhappy or otherwise mentally discomfited, seeking solutions on a prescription pad. We expect brain chemistry to be at the root of any mental malady, forgetting the deeply entwined relationship between the biology of the brain and the environment in which we think, feel, and react. But every culture has a different view of the world, a lens through which normal or insane are viewed and defined. Anthropologist Meredith Small contends there is much to be learned from stepping away from the traditional Western medical model to explore and embrace alternative perspectives. By examining culture itself, rather than focusing on biology and medicine, we can fully understand the nature of our discontent. Looking at social, evolutionary, cross-cultural, and nutritional influences, Small deconstructs mental illnesses like depression and anxiety conditions that appear in different forms and for different reasons within the culture that defines them. By rethinking assumptions and questioning standard treatment programs, she helps us gradually relax our grip on the medical model to discover a new perspective on mental illness.

The Medical Model in Mental Health

The Medical Model in Mental Health PDF Author: Ahmed Samei Huda
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0192534092
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 384

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Book Description
Many published books that comment on the medical model have been written by doctors, who assume that readers have the same knowledge of medicine, or by those who have attempted to discredit and attack the medical practice. Both types of book have tended to present diagnostic categories in medicine as universally scientifically valid examples of clear-cut diseases easily distinguished from each other and from health; with a fixed prognosis; and with a well-understood aetiology leading to disease-reversing treatments. These are contrasted with psychiatric diagnoses and treatments, which are described as unclear and inadequate in comparison. The Medical Model in Mental Health: An Explanation and Evaluation explores the overlap between the usefulness of diagnostic constructs (which enable prognosis and treatment decisions) and the therapeutic effectiveness of psychiatry compared with general medicine. The book explains the medical model and how it applies in mental health, assuming little knowledge or experience of medicine, and defends psychiatry as a medical practice.

The Mental Hygiene Movement

The Mental Hygiene Movement PDF Author: Clifford Whittingham Beers
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Mental illness
Languages : en
Pages : 104

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Book Description


The Myth of Mental Illness

The Myth of Mental Illness PDF Author: Thomas S. Szasz
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062104748
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 436

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Book Description
“The landmark book that argued that psychiatry consistently expands its definition of mental illness to impose its authority over moral and cultural conflict.” — New York Times The 50th anniversary edition of the most influential critique of psychiatry every written, with a new preface on the age of Prozac and Ritalin and the rise of designer drugs, plus two bonus essays. Thomas Szasz's classic book revolutionized thinking about the nature of the psychiatric profession and the moral implications of its practices. By diagnosing unwanted behavior as mental illness, psychiatrists, Szasz argues, absolve individuals of responsibility for their actions and instead blame their alleged illness. He also critiques Freudian psychology as a pseudoscience and warns against the dangerous overreach of psychiatry into all aspects of modern life.

Common Mental Health Disorders

Common Mental Health Disorders PDF Author: National Collaborating Centre for Mental Health (Great Britain)
Publisher: RCPsych Publications
ISBN: 9781908020314
Category : Health services accessibility
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
Bringing together treatment and referral advice from existing guidelines, this text aims to improve access to services and recognition of common mental health disorders in adults and provide advice on the principles that need to be adopted to develop appropriate referral and local care pathways.

Creating Mental Illness

Creating Mental Illness PDF Author: Allan V. Horwitz
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022676589X
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 302

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Book Description
In this surprising book, Allan V. Horwitz argues that our current conceptions of mental illness as a disease fit only a small number of serious psychological conditions and that most conditions currently regarded as mental illness are cultural constructions, normal reactions to stressful social circumstances, or simply forms of deviant behavior. "Thought-provoking and important. . .Drawing on and consolidating the ideas of a range of authors, Horwitz challenges the existing use of the term mental illness and the psychiatric ideas and practices on which this usage is based. . . . Horwitz enters this controversial territory with confidence, conviction, and clarity."—Joan Busfield, American Journal of Sociology "Horwitz properly identifies the financial incentives that urge therapists and drug companies to proliferate psychiatric diagnostic categories. He correctly identifies the stranglehold that psychiatric diagnosis has on research funding in mental health. Above all, he provides a sorely needed counterpoint to the most strident advocates of disease-model psychiatry."—Mark Sullivan, Journal of the American Medical Association "Horwitz makes at least two major contributions to our understanding of mental disorders. First, he eloquently draws on evidence from the biological and social sciences to create a balanced, integrative approach to the study of mental disorders. Second, in accomplishing the first contribution, he provides a fascinating history of the study and treatment of mental disorders. . . from early asylum work to the rise of modern biological psychiatry."—Debra Umberson, Quarterly Review of Biology

Beyond Mental Illness

Beyond Mental Illness PDF Author: David Moyer LCSW
Publisher: Xlibris Corporation
ISBN: 1493168193
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 579

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Book Description
Can infections cause Alzheimer's disease, multiple sclerosis, Lou Gherig's Disease and mental illness? Yes, but not just the infections. The body's unique defense against these infections plays a role. This is but one of the startling facts uncovered in Moyer's third book, Beyond Mental Illness. Moyer is a retired licensed clinical social worker with a lifetime of professional experience dealing with mental illness. He has been free to follow the research independent of the cultural limitations that might inhibit other investigators. Moyer's bipolar odyssey began with a novel exploration of factors contributing to his father and son's bipolar disorder. His first book, Too Good to be True? Nutrients Quiet the Unquiet Brain, addressed, among other things, the role of nutrients in treating mental disorders. In Beyond Mental Illness, that odyssey has now morphed into an exploration of factors contributing to mental illness as well as other physical disorders. In this book, Moyer provides a perspective beyond the standard DSM-5 diagnoses and even the very concept of mental illness. The stove-piped diagnoses dominating current medical practices are obsolete. While the medical establishment resists the need for major reformation, the public is beginning to demand science-based diagnoses and treatments. Here Moyer outlines deficiencies in current diagnostic systems that consign many to a lifetime of chronic illness. Their illnesses are not being properly diagnosed and treated. Since the publication of Beyond Mental Illness in 2014, a plethora of academic research in some of the best journals has validated some of his hypotheses. The key for more effective treatments is not to be found in drugs that mitigate downstream biological processes. The key is to identify and treat the diagnosable and treatable upstream biological processes.

The Social Determinants of Mental Health

The Social Determinants of Mental Health PDF Author: Michael T. Compton
Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub
ISBN: 1585625175
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The Social Determinants of Mental Health aims to fill the gap that exists in the psychiatric, scholarly, and policy-related literature on the social determinants of mental health: those factors stemming from where we learn, play, live, work, and age that impact our overall mental health and well-being. The editors and an impressive roster of chapter authors from diverse scholarly backgrounds provide detailed information on topics such as discrimination and social exclusion; adverse early life experiences; poor education; unemployment, underemployment, and job insecurity; income inequality, poverty, and neighborhood deprivation; food insecurity; poor housing quality and housing instability; adverse features of the built environment; and poor access to mental health care. This thought-provoking book offers many beneficial features for clinicians and public health professionals: Clinical vignettes are included, designed to make the content accessible to readers who are primarily clinicians and also to demonstrate the practical, individual-level applicability of the subject matter for those who typically work at the public health, population, and/or policy level. Policy implications are discussed throughout, designed to make the content accessible to readers who work primarily at the public health or population level and also to demonstrate the policy relevance of the subject matter for those who typically work at the clinical level. All chapters include five to six key points that focus on the most important content, helping to both prepare the reader with a brief overview of the chapter's main points and reinforce the "take-away" messages afterward. In addition to the main body of the book, which focuses on selected individual social determinants of mental health, the volume includes an in-depth overview that summarizes the editors' and their colleagues' conceptualization, as well as a final chapter coauthored by Dr. David Satcher, 16th Surgeon General of the United States, that serves as a "Call to Action," offering specific actions that can be taken by both clinicians and policymakers to address the social determinants of mental health. The editors have succeeded in the difficult task of balancing the individual/clinical/patient perspective and the population/public health/community point of view, while underscoring the need for both groups to work in a unified way to address the inequities in twenty-first century America. The Social Determinants of Mental Health gives readers the tools to understand and act to improve mental health and reduce risk for mental illnesses for individuals and communities. Students preparing for the Medical College Admission Test (MCAT) will also benefit from this book, as the MCAT in 2015 will test applicants' knowledge of social determinants of health. The social determinants of mental health are not distinct from the social determinants of physical health, although they deserve special emphasis given the prevalence and burden of poor mental health.