Mental Health or Overdiagnosis Crisis?

 

James Flanagan

HST401-A

Mental Health or Overdiagnosis Crisis?

Is it just me or is everyone talking about mental health nowadays? Well, it isn’t just me; 90% of U.S. adults believe the United States is in the middle of a mental health crisis. Don’t get me wrong; it’s great that the stigma around mental health is fading and its becoming normal to talk about. However, it might be going too far. I’ve had friends self-diagnose me and others with ADHD, depression-- you name it. Mental health conditions are certainly real, but they are becoming more and more common. I wonder, how much of this mental health crisis is due to actual need versus overdiagnosis? The increasing frequency of diagnoses raises questions on what criteria needs to be met to be diagnosed.

              Antidepressants have been a common response to these diagnoses, a quick fix for deeper underlying problems. The increasing use of medication is not without any consequences. Patients become dependent on these medications and change people in more ways than just treating their negative symptoms. This becomes increasingly problematic when people who were overdiagnosed and do not need medication become dependent on anti-depressants that can alter their personal identity. I am going to explore cause of the growing use of anti-depressants, how it is related to overdiagnosis in mental health, and the consequences of overdiagnosis on affected individuals.

              How easy is it to get a depression or bipolar disorder diagnosis? According to the NIH, “To be diagnosed with depression, a person must have symptoms most of the day, nearly every day, for at least 2 weeks. One of the symptoms must be a depressed mood.” It’s pretty obvious that if you feel depressed for a long time you have depression. The difficulty in diagnosis stems from one’s personal definition of ‘feeling depressed’ and considering external factors that could be a temporary cause of depression.

 Normal parts of human life, such as breakups, divorce, loss of a loved one are all cause to feel depressed, that’s a completely normal response. For some, they may feel this way for a while, but just because they are depressed, it doesn't mean that they will feel this way forever and have depression. In a Psychology Today article Jonathan Rottenberg, an Associate Professor of Psychology at the University of South Florida, cites a Johns Hopkins study which, “examined over 5000 adults who had been told by a clinician that they suffered from depression. The major finding was when these same people were independently assessed for major depressive episodes using a structured interview, only a minority (38.4 percent), met all the official diagnostic criteria for depression in the last year. Nevertheless, strong majorities of study participants were prescribed and used psychiatric medications.” Current tests for depression just do not work. It is subjective if an individual meets the criteria for depression. As mental health is talked about more, more people may believe that they have depression. If someone thinks they have depression, they may be biased towards answering test questions that suggest they have depression. Which makes it even more difficult for professionals to correctly identity individuals with depression.

It is possible that people in this study may have been going through hard times when they got their diagnosis, and things have gotten better for them since then. Its great that they do not have depression, however they are still on psychiatric drugs they do not need. Elisabeth Walter’s story in madininamerica, Letting Go of Lithium, is a great example of why psychiatric drugs can be dangerous for those who don’t need them. As a teenager, Elizabeth sometimes felt sad, and had a sister who was already on anti-depressants was just assumed to also have depression and was prescribed Paxil, an SSRI antidepressant. Her usage of Paxil led to her developing bipolar disorder as it can trigger it in people who are predisposed to it. She lost herself to bipolar disorder and spent the next 20 years trying to find herself again. Her life was completely changed because of one bad diagnosis as a teenager, she did not have depression and never needed Paxil. Psychiatric drugs are powerful and should only be given to those who desperately need them, because they have serious consequences.

Overdiagnosis of mental health conditions is a serious issue that is leading to increasing numbers of people taking psychiatric drugs they do not need. It is the potential cause of unnecessary suffering and illness in many. There needs to be a better method to diagnose depression and other mental-health disorders in people. Psychiatrists need to know what the drugs they prescribe do and be held accountable for over diagnosing. The best option to stay safe from overdiagnosis and receive the appropriate treatment, people should seek a second or third opinion from specialists. By implementing these changes, I would expect to see a reduction in certain diagnoses.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sources

Depression: Over-diagnosed?

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/charting-the-depths/201305/depression-over-diagnosed

What is depression?

https://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/depression#:~:text=To%20be%20diagnosed%20with%20depression,or%20pleasure%20in%20most%20activities.

Letting Go of Lithium

https://www.madinamerica.com/2023/11/letting-go-of-lithium/

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