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Whereas the diagnosis, explanation, and treatment of physical
illness are scientifically sound, this is not true of psychiatric
care of mental disorder. Depression, the #1 psychiatric diagnosis,
illustrates this failure and it is the subject of Grifting
Depression: Psychiatry's Failure as a Medical Science. Psychiatry's
current form of medicalization began in 1980 with publication of
DSM-III, the diagnostic manual that became the basis for the
chemical imbalance theory, psychiatry's explanation for depression,
and for reliance on antidepressant drugs to treat depression,
"revolutionizing psychiatric care." DSM-III became the model for
all the DSM manuals that followed. However, unlike other medical
diagnostic manuals, the DSM fails to meet scientific and medical
standards of reliability and validity. The chemical imbalance
theory is based on research that violates basic tenets of the
scientific method. Tests of the theory contradict it. In addition,
tests of treatment effectiveness find antidepressant drugs to be no
better than placebo. Studies show that the benefit attributed to
antidepressant drugs is a placebo effect, but unlike placebos, the
chemicals in these drugs are harmful to many. Research strongly
supports an alternative theory, a behavioral explanation
(psychological rather than biological) for most of the mental
disorders listed in the DSM, including most cases of depression.
Moreover, although it has not been recognized as the treatment of
choice for depression, outcome studies convincingly show behavior
therapy is more effective than drug treatment and it is safe.
Conflict of interest, not science, is determining psychiatric care.
Whereas the diagnosis, explanation, and treatment of physical
illness are scientifically sound, this is not true of psychiatric
care of mental disorder. Depression, the #1 psychiatric diagnosis,
illustrates this failure and it is the subject of Grifting
Depression: Psychiatry's Failure as a Medical Science. Psychiatry's
current form of medicalization began in 1980 with publication of
DSM-III, the diagnostic manual that became the basis for the
chemical imbalance theory, psychiatry's explanation for depression,
and for reliance on antidepressant drugs to treat depression,
"revolutionizing psychiatric care." DSM-III became the model for
all the DSM manuals that followed. However, unlike other medical
diagnostic manuals, the DSM fails to meet scientific and medical
standards of reliability and validity. The chemical imbalance
theory is based on research that violates basic tenets of the
scientific method. Tests of the theory contradict it. In addition,
tests of treatment effectiveness find antidepressant drugs to be no
better than placebo. Studies show that the benefit attributed to
antidepressant drugs is a placebo effect, but unlike placebos, the
chemicals in these drugs are harmful to many. Research strongly
supports an alternative theory, a behavioral explanation
(psychological rather than biological) for most of the mental
disorders listed in the DSM, including most cases of depression.
Moreover, although it has not been recognized as the treatment of
choice for depression, outcome studies convincingly show behavior
therapy is more effective than drug treatment and it is safe.
Conflict of interest, not science, is determining psychiatric care.
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