scholarly journals Madness Reconsidered in Susanna Kaysen’s Girl Interrupted

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 31-34
Author(s):  
Maria Vincent
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
The Social ◽  
Invisible Disability ◽  
Social Prejudice ◽  
The Invisible

This paper focuses upon the invisible disability of mind and how it is reflected in Susanna Kaysen’s Girl Interrupted. Normality and commonality are thus, challenged with the idea of uniqueness. The mental illness is brought forward to let society analyse and understand disability of mind. Mental illnesses are common, yet avoided due to the social prejudice and narrow perspectives. Thus, this paper serves as an awareness of inner struggle reflected in Girl Interrupted, claiming it to be a universal experience and to create a scale of normality.

scholarly journals The social adjustment of people with severe mental illness in São Paulo, Brazil

2005 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 309-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Gulinelli ◽  
Lilian R C Ratto ◽  
Paulo Rossi Menezes
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Social Functioning ◽  
Social Adjustment ◽  
Psychiatric Symptoms ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
The Social

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the social adjustment of individuals with severe mental illness living in the community in a large urban center of a developing country, and the characteristics associated with poor social functioning. METHOD: A cross-sectional study was performed in the city of Sao Paulo. Eligible subjects were residents of a defined geographic area, aged between 18 and 65, with a diagnosis of functional psychosis who had had contact with any public psychiatric service during a defined period. Structured assessments were used to obtain information on social-demographic characteristics, diagnosis (ICD-10), psychiatric symptoms (PANSS), and social adjustment (DAS). RESULTS: One hundred and eighty-eight subjects were included, of whom, 120 (63.8%) had some degree of impairment in social functioning. The most frequently affected areas of social functioning were work performance and sexual role. Twenty-four patients (12.8%) showed poor or very poor social adjustment in the month prior to the interview. Negative symptoms, number of previous admissions and general symptoms showed statistically significant associations with global social adjustment scores. CONCLUSIONS: The proportion of patients showing any degree of impairment in social adjustment was as high as in more developed societies. In order to successfully implement the new mental health policy in Brazil, better provision of community-based mental health services for those with severe mental illnesses is needed.

Stigmatising attitude and reflections towards mental illness at community setting, population-based approach, Baghdad City 2020

2020 ◽  
pp. 002076402096179
Author(s):  
Maha Sulaiman Younis ◽  
Arjan Hidayat Anwer ◽  
Hamid Yahay Hussain
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Stigma ◽  
Likert Scale ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Management Tool ◽  
P Value ◽  
Moderate Degree ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
The Social ◽  
Score Range

Background: Addressing the social stigma of mental illness is of importance in Iraq where mentally ill patients experience the compounded disadvantages of inadequate health services and illness stigma. Aims: To study the prevalence and magnitude of the social stigma towards mental illnesses. Method: A cross-sectional study has been carried out on 300 male and female participants at shopping malls and public cafes in Baghdad, Iraq. A self-administered questionnaire made data collection. Descriptive, and analytic statics procedure was operated as far as a convenience by using Excel 365 version as a data management tool. Results: About (80%) of the respondents revealed a moderate degree of stigmatising attitude towards mental illness with a Likert scale total equivalent score range of (2.34–3.669). About (20%) of respondents showed a low degree of stigmatising attitude towards mental illness, with a Likert scale total equivalent score range of (1–2.339). P-value was highly significant (=0.011798) <0.05 among gender variables while it is not significant among age, income, education, and positive family of mental illnesses. 83% of the respondents prefer the medical management of mental illnesses. Conclusions: There were no clear roles of socio-demographic factors in the stigmatic attitude towards mental illnesses. This finding warrants a more in-depth look into the Iraqi community’s cultural, social, and moral contexts.

scholarly journals Illness and mental health: two sides of the same coin?

2021 ◽  
Vol 31 (Supplement_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Margarida Pocinho ◽  
Fatima Ney Matos ◽  
Ana Amaral
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Recall Test ◽  
Social Representations ◽  
Social Representation ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Word Recall ◽  
The Social ◽  
Two Sides

Abstract Background Although we are sometimes unaware, mental illnesses are extremely common, and if they are not properly regulated they can affect all types of structures in a person's life Methods The study is qualitative, a word evocation test was used, began to be carried out in February 2019 and ended on May 27, 2019. The word recall test were: ‘If I tell you mental health, what are the first three words that come to mind?’ ‘If I tell you mental illness, what are the first three words that come to mind?’ To analyze and build the graphs for this investigation, the corpus was inserted in the IraMuteQ program. Results When analyzing the words we can see that the social representation of mental illness is very much associated with undesirable mental illnesses or conditions and seen as negative in society. Meanwhile, mental health is full of words that you would normally consider positive. Conclusions The social representations of health and mental illness are very clearly opposed, mental health is seen almost exclusively as something positive by society, not only has feelings like happiness, but also words like success and vitality, while mental illness is very much linked to the whole type of mental illness and conditions like stress, sadness, obsession.

Article

1979 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 459-470 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Collomb
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Medical Model ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Social Dimension ◽  
Social Model ◽  
Western World ◽  
Social Aspect ◽  
The Social ◽  
The Law

There is an imperialist dimension in occidental science; for instance, mental illnesses are defined and classified according to occidental criteria, which we in the western world tend to consider universal. In the medical model, reinforced by the developments of psychopharmacology, the sequence diagnosis — drugs — discharge tends to exclude the personal and social dimensions. Even the psychoanalytic approach does not get away from the concept of individual illness, and minimizes the social dimension of existence. In traditional African cultures, mental illness is integrated into social order and cosmic order. Each member of the culture has precise conceptual and operational models for the causes of the illness: the patient is the victim of an aggression, carried out by a living person or by a ghost, acting as representative of the law of the group. The social discourse, in particular, the healers, masks and reveals a deep and holistic truth: illness is the outcome of the characteristic and fundamental aggressiveness of the human species. The various representations, changing from one ethnic group to another, reflect two fundamental types of conflictual situations: conflict with the other, derived from the original conflict with the mother; and conflict with the law, which emanates not from the father but from the ancestors or the gods. A typical example is described: the Rab system used by the healers of Senegal. Man is not an isolated individual, perceiving his isolation, separated from the others and from the world. He is a link in a chain, very much part of a lineage, engaged in the universe, protected by the ancestors and the gods. Illness has a social value: it is a sign of a disorder in the community. The healer, whose knowledge and power have been acquired through initiation, does not address himself to the patient: his action, through symbolic procedures, is directed to the community. Not only does he aim at freeing the patient from the illness, but at restoring order in the group. African ethnopsychiatry is therefore a social psychiatry in the fullest sense. Occidental cultures have privileged other models: the medical model centered around the concept of illness, the psychological model around the concept of personality. The social model has not yet obtained the privileged place which it will perhaps reach once the essential importance of the social aspect of mental illness is recognized. These views have led the author to his action-research during twenty years of psychiatric practice and teaching in Senegal (1958–1978), where he found that the medical model as imported from France had proven inefficient. The Fann mental hospital, a cultural heritage of the colonial status, was changed from a closed asylum into a living community, open to families, friends, and former patients at any time of the day or night. A member of the family of each patient had to be hospitalized with him and to share the same life during his whole stay. All kinds of community activities were set out. A blurring of the roles of staff and patients took place. Slowly, madness, because of this liberal acceptance, disappeared from the institution. What has been possible in Africa cannot be achieved in Europe at the present. The pre-eminence of the medical model, the rigidity and hierarchy of the medical power, the heaviness and bureaucratic routines of the health care system are formidable obstacles.

Review of The Social Control of Mental Illness.

1982 ◽  
Vol 27 (12) ◽  
pp. 1002-1002
Author(s):  
No authorship indicated
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Control ◽  
The Social

Prescriptive Power: Biologism, Biopsychiatry and Drug-centred Psychopharmacology

Somatechnics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 9 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 291-309
Author(s):  
Francis Russell
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Illness ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Human Experience ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
False Consciousness ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Biological Ontology ◽  
Health Discourse

This paper looks to make a contribution to the critical project of psychiatrist Joanna Moncrieff, by elucidating her account of ‘drug-centred’ psychiatry, and its relation to critical and cultural theory. Moncrieff's ‘drug-centred’ approach to psychiatry challenges the dominant view of mental illness, and psychopharmacology, as necessitating a strictly biological ontology. Against the mainstream view that mental illnesses have biological causes, and that medications like ‘anti-depressants’ target specific biological abnormalities, Moncrieff looks to connect pharmacotherapy for mental illness to human experience, and to issues of social justice and emancipation. However, Moncrieff's project is complicated by her framing of psychopharmacological politics in classical Marxist notions of ideology and false consciousness. Accordingly, she articulates a political project that would open up psychiatry to the subjugated knowledge of mental health sufferers, whilst also characterising those sufferers as beholden to ideology, and as being effectively without knowledge. Accordingly, in order to contribute to Moncrieff's project, and to help introduce her work to a broader humanities readership, this paper elucidates her account of ‘drug-centred psychiatry’, whilst also connecting her critique of biopsychiatry to notions of biologism, biopolitics, and bio-citizenship. This is done in order to re-describe the subject of mental health discourse, so as to better reveal their capacities and agency. As a result, this paper contends that, once reframed, Moncrieff's work helps us to see value in attending to human experience when considering pharmacotherapy for mental illness.

Effective e-health design for those with, and without, mental health disorders: shallow navigation, concentrated contents, modest number of links, one screen area for links. (Preprint)

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Armando Rotondi ◽  
Jonathan Grady ◽  
Barbara H. Hanusa ◽  
Michael R. Spring ◽  
Kaleab Z. Abebe ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Severe Mental Illness ◽  
Success Rate ◽  
Fractional Factorial ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders ◽  
Design Elements ◽  
Website Usability ◽  
Schizophrenia Spectrum ◽  
Health Applications

BACKGROUND E-health applications are an avenue to improve service responsiveness, convenience, and appeal, and tailor treatments to improve relevance, engagement, and use. It is critical to user engagement that the designs of e-health applications are intuitive to navigate. Limited research exists on designs that work for those with a severe mental illness, many of whom infrequently seek treatment, and tend to discontinuation medications and psychosocial treatments. OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to evaluate the influence of 12 design elements (e.g., website depth, reading level, use of navigational lists) on the usability of e-health application websites for those with, and without, mental health disorders (including severe mental illness). METHODS A 212-4 fractional factorial experimental design was used to specify the designs of 256 e-health websites, which systematically varied the 12 design elements. The final destination contents of all websites were identical, only the navigational pages varied. Three subgroups of participants comprising 226 individuals, were used to test these websites (those with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, other mental illnesses, and no mental illness). Unique to this study was that the 12 design elements were manipulated systematically to allow assessment of combinations of design elements rather than only one element at a time. RESULTS The best and worst designs were identified for each of the three subgroups, and the sample overall. The depth of a website’s navigation, that is, the number of screens/pages users needed to navigate to find desired content, had the strongest influence on usability (ability to find information). The worst performing design for those with schizophrenia-spectrum disorders had an 8.6% success rate (ability to find information), the best had a 53.2% success rate. The navigational design made a 45% difference in usability. For the subgroup with other mental illnesses the design made a 52% difference, and for those with no mental illness a 50% difference in success rate. The websites with the highest usability all had several key similarities, as did the websites with the poorest usability. A unique finding is that the influences on usability of some design elements are variable. For these design elements, whether they had a positive or negative effect, and the size of its effect, could be influenced by the rest of the design environment, that is, the other elements in the design. This was not the case for navigational depth, a shallower hierarchy is better than a deeper hierarchy. CONCLUSIONS It is possible to identify evidence-based strategies for designing e-health applications that result in a high level of usability. Even for those with schizophrenia, or other severe mental illnesses, there are designs that are highly effective. The best designs have key similarities, but can also vary in some respects. Key words: schizophrenia, severe mental illness, e-health, design, website, usability, website design, website usability, fractional factorial design.

scholarly journals Use of a Consultation Service Following Pharmacogenomic Testing in Psychiatry

CNS Spectrums ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 26 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-180
Author(s):  
Daniel Dowd ◽  
David S. Krause
Keyword(s):  
Mental Illness ◽  
Drug Interactions ◽  
Metabolic Pathways ◽  
Patient Characteristics ◽  
Healthcare Resource Utilization ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Mental Illnesses ◽  
Variable Response ◽  
Drug Induced ◽  
Commercial Laboratory

AbstractBackgroundThere is a plethora of drugs available to psychiatrists for treatment of mental illness, which can vary in efficacy, tolerability, metabolic pathways and drug-drug interactions. Psychotropics are the second most commonly listed therapeutic class mentioned in the FDA’s Table of Pharmacogenomic Biomarkers in Drug Labeling. Pharmacogenomic (PGx) assays are increasingly used in psychiatry to help select safe and appropriate medication for a variety of mental illnesses. Our commercial laboratory offers PGx expert consultations by PharmDs and PhDs to clinician-users. Our database contains valuable information regarding the treatment of a diverse and challenging population.MethodsGenomind offers a PGx assay currently measuring variants of 24 genes relevant for selection of drugs with a mental illness indication. Since 2012 we have analyzed > 250,000 DNA samples. Between 10/18 - 8/20 6,401 reports received a consult. The data contained herein are derived from those consults. Consultants record information on prior meds, reason for failure or intolerability, potential risk-associated or useful drugs based on the genetic variants. Consultants only recommend specific drugs and doses consistent with a published PGx guideline.ResultsThe 5 most commonly discussed genes were SLC6A4, MTHFR, CACNA1C, COMT and BDNF. The 3 most commonly discussed drugs were fluoxetine, lithium and duloxetine. The most common reasons for drug failure were inefficacy and drug induced “agitation, irritability and/or anxiety”. SSRIs were the most common class of discontinued drug; sertraline, escitalopram and fluoxetine were the three most commonly reported discontinuations and were also the 3 most likely to be associated with “no improvement”. Aripiprazole was the most commonly reported discontinued atypical antipsychotic. The providers rated 94% of consultations as extremely or very helpful at the time of consult. An independent validation survey of 128 providers confirmed these ratings, with 96% reporting a rating of “very helpful” or “extremely helpful”. In addition, 94% reported that these consults were superior to PGx consults provided through other laboratories. Patient characteristics captured during consults via a Clinical Global Impressions-Severity (CGI-S) scale revealed that the majority of patients were moderately (54%) or markedly ill (23%). The most frequent symptoms reported were depression, anxiety, insomnia and inattentiveness.DiscussionThe large variety of psychotropic drugs available to providers, and their highly variable response rates, tolerability, capacity for drug-drug interactions and metabolic pathways present a challenge for even expert psychopharmacologists. Consultation with experts in PGx provides additional useful information that may improve outcomes and decrease healthcare resource utilization. This database may provide future opportunities for machine learning algorithms to further inform implications of included gene variants.FundingGenomind, Inc.

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