whole health industry going mental

Now THIS is my kind of rant! Go Vinograd!

PUBLICATION: The Ottawa Citizen
DATE: 2006.06.09
EDITION: Final
SECTION: News
NAME: Letters
PAGE: A13
BYLINE: Caveat emptor.
SOURCE: The Ottawa Citizen

Drug firms keen to gain from mental 'disorders'
Re: Road rage identified as a mental disorder, June 6.

From May to September 1963, I did my first internship at a psychiatric hospital in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. One of my first patients was a young woman who had been hospitalized for many reasons, but whose main symptom was hysterical paralysis of her right arm and hand.
Using hypnosis, I was able to "cure" her "paralysis." When I informed her that I was soon to return to Ottawa to continue my formal training, her "paralysis" recurred.

Today hysterical paralysis is extremely rare. Do not believe for a moment that psychotherapists such as me, through diligent research and practice, have wiped this mighty scourge from the face of the planet. There is not a Jonas Salk among us.

What has happened, it seems, is that hysterical paralysis has fallen out of fashion.

Just this morning I read the latest of the latest: "Road rage identified as a mental disorder." Woe is me: I think I have another mental disorder! If a child has trouble sitting still for periods of time that are unreasonable to expect, he or she has attention-deficit disorder (ADD). If an adult is experiencing major turmoil in his or her marriage, the magic words presented to the psychotherapist are "I am depressed." Instead of probing the antecedents to the marital strife and attempting to resolve them, grab the DSM IV (Diagnostic & Statistical Manual) and pick a label, any label. Then medicate, medicate, medicate!

If the reader concludes that I am poking unnecessary jibes at the DSM IV, the authors of which determine what is and what is not a mental disorder, I draw your attention to the fact that an inordinate number of these scientists have an unusually high rate of direct and indirect connections to pharmaceutical conglomerates. And the remedies they recommend? Drugs and more drug therapy.

In fact, it seems to me that all we know about mental disorders is that some people say other people have them.

Caveat emptor.

Dr. Dov Vinograd,
Ottawa