Medicalization of Mental Health Discussion PDF

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Medicalization of Mental Health Discussion Discussion : How has medicalization helped/hurt people? By converting human problems faced by individuals in society into medical conditions, cures and treatments are made more feasible. Individuals that struggled with an inability to speak out before due to the high stigmatization of mental illnesses are able to have biomedical support making it easier to speak of their conditions and seek ways to cope. On the other hand, medicalization of mental conditions can often turn attention away from the illness and reduce it to a disease that is curable; this takes away from the social and psychological aspects of mental health. Overmedicalization vs. undermedicalization - When exploring the connection between medicalization and mental disorder, there is a historical tendency to overmedicalize or undermedicalize. - Biomedical reductionism → “only” body, forgetting about illness narrative → only looking at biological aspects of the disease -

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Mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders rely heavily on medication (sertraline, SSRIs, Haloperidol) as their primary source of treatment, excluding in a lot of cases the use of psychotherapy or other treatments. It has called into question the over-medicalization of subdued personality traits or emotional states for the profit of the pharmaceutical industry; this has been seen with the purposeful broadening of DSM categories that led to an increase of diagnoses of ADHD and social anxiety disorder.

The medicalization of mental health disorders shapes people's illness, how they think about and experience any of these diseases and others in the public view them. Whether a mental health problem needs to be treated clinically or by therapy/counseling holds paramount influence in its output on society. Recognizing struggle of mental health - In a modern context, physicians have recognized the importance of a multi-faceted approach to mental health, acknowledging behaviorist, cognitive, humanist, biologist, psychoanalytical, dramaturgical, and macro and micro sociological approaches.

Pharmaceutical companies → cost -

Insurance companies not covering some psychological therapies - Discredit issue → place cost on self → less availability for treatment

-----------------------The medicalization of mental health disorders shapes people's illness, how they think about and experience any of these diseases and others in the public view them. Whether a mental health problem needs to be treated clinically or by therapy/counseling holds paramount influence in its output on society. Medicalization is the introduction of an illness/condition into a medical context. This entails finding methods of treatment and symptom detection. For many years, mental health was not viewed as a biological illness, as many cultures viewed mental disorders through a lens of religion. While medicalization enabled patients in some cultures to seek better treatment, medicalization also had some drawbacks with regards to mental health patients. By converting human problems faced by individuals in society into medical conditions, cures and treatments are made more feasible. Individuals that struggled with an inability to speak out before due to the high stigmatization of mental illnesses are able to have biomedical support making it easier to speak of their conditions and seek ways to cope. On the other hand, medicalization of mental conditions can often turn attention away from the illness and reduce it to a disease that is curable; this takes away from the social and psychological aspects of mental health. When exploring the connection between medicalization and mental disorder, there is a historical tendency to overmedicalize or undermedicalize. Mood, anxiety, and psychotic disorders rely heavily on medication (sertraline, SSRIs, Haloperidol) as their primary source of treatment, excluding in a lot of cases the use of psychotherapy or other treatments. It has called into question the over-medicalization of subdued personality traits or emotional states for the profit of the pharmaceutical industry; this has been seen with the purposeful broadening of DSM categories that led to an increase of diagnoses of ADHD and social anxiety disorder. Some pharmaceutical companies have used overmedicalization to their advantage, setting extremely high prices on treatments. Some mental health medications are not covered by insurance companies, resulting in less availability to treatment, and discrediting the issues that patients face. In a modern context, physicians have recognized the importance of a multi-faceted approach to mental health, acknowledging behaviorist, cognitive, humanist, biologist, psychoanalytical, dramaturgical, and macro and micro sociological approaches....