From Chemical Imbalance to Power Imbalance: A Macropsychology Perspective on Mental Health

2021 ◽  
pp. 29-44
Author(s):  
Peter Kinderman
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Power Imbalance ◽  
Chemical Imbalance

Is Social Anxiety Making Us Depressed?: A Social Evolutionary Hypothesis for Why SSRIs Work

2008 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 16-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura K. Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
United States ◽  
Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors ◽  
Alternative Hypothesis ◽  
The United States ◽  
Global Competition ◽  
Low Levels ◽  
Chemical Imbalance ◽  
Developed Nations ◽  
Developed World

In the developed world, the use of selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) has skyrocketed since 1988, when Prozac was first released in the United States. Biomedical psychiatry’s explanation for their success is an unsubstantiated hypothesis that claims SSRIs treat a chemical imbalance in people who suffer from low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin. Using social evolutionary theory, this article provides an alternative hypothesis for why SSRIs work for some people. SSRIs’ success is attributed to their capacity to adapt people to the increased status anxiety occurring in developed nations grappling with the effects of unprecedented global competition. Biomedical psychiatry is depicted as adjusting patients to prevailing social norms rather than contributing to mental health.

Client Empowerment in Psychiatry and the Professional Abuse of Clients: Where Do We Stand?

2000 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 61-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailesh Kumar
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mentally Ill ◽  
Literature Search ◽  
Power Imbalance ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
People With Mental Illness ◽  
Consumer Organizations ◽  
Primary Care Sector ◽  
Mental Health Clients

Objective: There is a considerable imbalance of power in psychiatry that sits in favor of professionals. The abuse and discrimination of the mentally ill are not just restricted to the mental health system but may also exist in the primary care sector. This article aims to evaluate the effects of power imbalance on discrimination and abuse of people with mental illness by professionals. Methods: A literature search was carried out on MEDLINE using the key words consumerism, client empowerment, abuse, and mental illness. Publications of two leading British consumer organizations: MIND and the Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health were hand searched. Relevant cross-references from the papers reviewed were consulted. Studies with information on the reasons for power imbalance and prevalence of discrimination and abuse of clients were critically reviewed. Explanations are offered as to why abuse and discrimination of clients by professionals may still occur despite the onset of the client empowerment movement. Results and Discussion: The available evidence suggests that reasons for abuse of mental health clients fall under two broad categories: 1) direction from the imbalance of power and 2) those pertinent to the nature of physical or sexual abuse. Different grades of client empowerment and ways of strengthening it are described. Conclusions: There appears to be a link between power imbalance and abuse of clients with mental illness by professionals in all health care sectors. Client empowerment may help rectify the power imbalance. Prospective studies are required to establish whether client empowerment can reduce discrimination and abuse of clients and whether abuse is a consequence of power imbalance. Recommendations for future studies are made.

scholarly journals Chemical imbalance and mental health

2021 ◽  
Vol 6 (9) ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Depressive Disorders ◽  
Biological Marker ◽  
Health Condition ◽  
Psychological Effects ◽  
Cartesian Dualism ◽  
The Central Nervous System ◽  
Serotonin Deficiency ◽  
Chemical Imbalance ◽  
The Brain

No chemical imbalances have been proven to exist in relation to any mental health condition, like serotonin deficiency in synapses in the so-called depressive disorders or dopamine imbalance and dopamine receptors distribution in socalled schizophrenia. No independent objective biological marker or current brain imagining science like fMRI exist to date in support of any psychiatric diagnosis, and finally yet importantly, no biological causes exist for any of the socalled psychiatric disorders. If we avoid Cartesian dualism, the claim that mental disorders are biological is obviously a tautology. Given the facts above, psychiatric diagnostic manuals, such as the DSM and ICD, are school examples of what evidence-based science is not and represent nothing but a failed attempt to build a legal road from Health Care to Hell Care by over-medicalization and by the suffering of human and non-human animals. Furthermore, psychiatric drugs can have long-lasting effects on the brain and the central nervous system, while, the withdrawal from them can cause a range of severe physical and psychological effects.

Therapy and prevention for mental health: What if mental diseases are mostly not brain disorders?

2019 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
Author(s):  
John P. A. Ioannidis
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disease ◽  
Brain Disorders ◽  
Social Stressors ◽  
Labor Education ◽  
Mental Diseases ◽  
Long Term Follow Up ◽  
Political Decisions

AbstractNeurobiology-based interventions for mental diseases and searches for useful biomarkers of treatment response have largely failed. Clinical trials should assess interventions related to environmental and social stressors, with long-term follow-up; social rather than biological endpoints; personalized outcomes; and suitable cluster, adaptive, and n-of-1 designs. Labor, education, financial, and other social/political decisions should be evaluated for their impacts on mental disease.

A Tribute to the Late William J. Curran

1996 ◽  
Vol 24 (3) ◽  
pp. 274-275
Author(s):  
O. Lawrence ◽  
J.D. Gostin
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Health Care ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Mental Health Care ◽  
Harvard University ◽  
Legal Medicine ◽  
General Assembly ◽  
International Institute ◽  
University Professor

In the summer of 1979, a group of experts on law, medicine, and ethics assembled in Siracusa, Sicily, under the auspices of the International Commission of Jurists and the International Institute of Higher Studies in Criminal Science, to draft guidelines on the rights of persons with mental illness. Sitting across the table from me was a quiet, proud man of distinctive intelligence, William J. Curran, Frances Glessner Lee Professor of Legal Medicine at Harvard University. Professor Curran was one of the principal drafters of those guidelines. Many years later in 1991, after several subsequent re-drafts by United Nations (U.N.) Rapporteur Erica-Irene Daes, the text was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly as the Principles for the Protection of Persons with Mental Illness and for the Improvement of Mental Health Care. This was the kind of remarkable achievement in the field of law and medicine that Professor Curran repeated throughout his distinguished career.

Prevalence of Self-Reported Depression Symptoms and Perceived Anxiety Among Community-Dwelling U.S. Adults Reporting Tinnitus

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 959-970
Author(s):  
Kelly M. Reavis ◽  
James A. Henry ◽  
Lynn M. Marshall ◽  
Kathleen F. Carlson
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Fold Increase ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Self Report ◽  
Depression Symptoms ◽  
Community Based Interventions ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Health Distress ◽  
Validated Questionnaire ◽  
Mental Health Distress

Purpose The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between tinnitus and self-reported mental health distress, namely, depression symptoms and perceived anxiety, in adults who participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examinations Survey between 2009 and 2012. A secondary aim was to determine if a history of serving in the military modified the associations between tinnitus and mental health distress. Method This was a cross-sectional study design of a national data set that included 5,550 U.S. community-dwelling adults ages 20 years and older, 12.7% of whom were military Veterans. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression was used to estimate the association between tinnitus and mental health distress. All measures were based on self-report. Tinnitus and perceived anxiety were each assessed using a single question. Depression symptoms were assessed using the Patient Health Questionnaire, a validated questionnaire. Multivariable regression models were adjusted for key demographic and health factors, including self-reported hearing ability. Results Prevalence of tinnitus was 15%. Compared to adults without tinnitus, adults with tinnitus had a 1.8-fold increase in depression symptoms and a 1.5-fold increase in perceived anxiety after adjusting for potential confounders. Military Veteran status did not modify these observed associations. Conclusions Findings revealed an association between tinnitus and both depression symptoms and perceived anxiety, independent of potential confounders, among both Veterans and non-Veterans. These results suggest, on a population level, that individuals with tinnitus have a greater burden of perceived mental health distress and may benefit from interdisciplinary health care, self-help, and community-based interventions. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12568475

Stress and fitness in ward-based mental health nurses

1997 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 419-420 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome Carson ◽  
Leonard Fagin ◽  
Sukwinder Maal ◽  
Nicolette Devilliers ◽  
Patty O'Malley
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Health Nurses
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