Diagnostic Controversy
Diagnostic Controversy

Author: Carolyn Smith-Morris

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-08-20

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1317383060

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This collection is dedicated to the diagnostic moment and its unrivaled influence on encompassment and exclusion in health care. Diagnosis is seen as both an expression and a vehicle of biomedical hegemony, yet it is also a necessary and speculative tool for the identification of and response to suffering in any healing system. Social scientific studies of medicalization and the production of medical knowledge have revealed tremendous controversy within, and factitiousness at the outer parameters of, diagnosable conditions. Yet the ethnographically rich and theoretically complex history of such studies has not yet congealed into a coherent structural critique of the process and broader implications of diagnosis. This volume meets that challenge, directing attention to three distinctive realms of diagnostic conflict: in the role of diagnosis to grant access to care, in processes of medicalization and resistance, and in the transforming and transformative position of diagnosis for 21st-century global health. Smith-Morris’s framework repositions diagnosis as central to critical global health inquiry. The collected authors question specific diagnoses (e.g., Lyme disease, Parkinson's, andropause, psychosis) as well as the structural and epistemological factors behind a disease’s naming and experience.

Diagnostic Controversy
Diagnostic Controversy

Author: Carolyn Smith-Morris

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-08-20

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1317383052

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This collection is dedicated to the diagnostic moment and its unrivaled influence on encompassment and exclusion in health care. Diagnosis is seen as both an expression and a vehicle of biomedical hegemony, yet it is also a necessary and speculative tool for the identification of and response to suffering in any healing system. Social scientific studies of medicalization and the production of medical knowledge have revealed tremendous controversy within, and factitiousness at the outer parameters of, diagnosable conditions. Yet the ethnographically rich and theoretically complex history of such studies has not yet congealed into a coherent structural critique of the process and broader implications of diagnosis. This volume meets that challenge, directing attention to three distinctive realms of diagnostic conflict: in the role of diagnosis to grant access to care, in processes of medicalization and resistance, and in the transforming and transformative position of diagnosis for 21st-century global health. Smith-Morris’s framework repositions diagnosis as central to critical global health inquiry. The collected authors question specific diagnoses (e.g., Lyme disease, Parkinson's, andropause, psychosis) as well as the structural and epistemological factors behind a disease’s naming and experience.

Dangerous Diagnostics
Dangerous Diagnostics

Author: Dorothy Nelkin

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 1994-03

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 9780226571294

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A study of the pervasiveness of diagnostic testing and the potential it offers institutions to classify, categorize and ultimately control individuals. The ethical, social and legal implications of technologies that can lead to new forms of discrimination are also included.

Improving Diagnosis in Health Care
Improving Diagnosis in Health Care

Author: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

Publisher: National Academies Press

Published: 2016-01-29

Total Pages: 473

ISBN-13: 0309377692

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Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.

Making the DSM-5
Making the DSM-5

Author: Joel Paris

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-05-17

Total Pages: 182

ISBN-13: 1461465044

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In 2013, the American Psychiatric Association published the 5th edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Often referred to as the “bible” of psychiatry, the manual only classifies mental disorders and does not explain them or guide their treatment. While science should be the basis of any diagnostic system, to date, there is no knowledge on whether most conditions listed in the manual are true diseases. Moreover, in DSM-5 the overall definition of mental disorder is weak, failing to distinguish psychopathology from normality. In spite of all the progress that has been made in neuroscience over the last few decades, the psychiatric community is no closer to understanding the etiology and pathogenesis of mental disorders than it was fifty years ago. In Making the DSM-5, prominent experts delve into the debate about psychiatric nosology and examine the conceptual and pragmatic issues underlying the new manual. While retracing the historic controversy over DSM, considering the political context and economic impact of the manual, and focusing on what was revised or left unchanged in the new edition, this timely volume addresses the main concerns of the future of psychiatry and questions whether the DSM legacy can truly improve the specialty and advance its goals.

The Diagnostic System
The Diagnostic System

Author: Jason Schnittker

Publisher: Columbia University Press

Published: 2017-08-08

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 0231544596

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Mental illness is many things at once: It is a natural phenomenon that is also shaped by society and culture. It is biological but also behavioral and social. Mental illness is a problem of both the brain and the mind, and this ambiguity presents a challenge for those who seek to accurately classify psychiatric disorders. The leading resource we have for doing so is the American Psychiatric Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual, but no edition of the manual has provided a decisive solution, and all have created controversy. In The Diagnostic System, the sociologist Jason Schnittker looks at the multiple actors involved in crafting the DSM and the many interests that the manual hopes to serve. Is the DSM the best tool for defining mental illness? Can we insure against a misleading approach? Schnittker shows that the classification of psychiatric disorders is best understood within the context of a system that involves diverse parties with differing interests. The public wants a better understanding of personal suffering. Mental-health professionals seek reliable and treatable diagnostic categories. Scientists want definitions that correspond as closely as possible to nature. And all parties seek definitive insight into what they regard as the right target. Yet even the best classification system cannot satisfy all of these interests simultaneously. Progress toward an ideal is difficult, and revisions to diagnostic criteria often serve the interests of one group at the expense of another. Schnittker urges us to become comfortable with the socially constructed nature of categorization and accept that a perfect taxonomy of mental-health disorders will remain elusive. Decision making based on evolving though fluid understandings is not a weakness but an adaptive strength of the mental-health profession, even if it is not a solid foundation for scientific discovery or a reassuring framework for patients.

The Medical Model in Mental Health
The Medical Model in Mental Health

Author: Ahmed Samei Huda

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2019-05-16

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 0192534092

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Many published books that comment on the medical model have been written by doctors, who assume that readers have the same knowledge of medicine, or by those who have attempted to discredit and attack the medical practice. Both types of book have tended to present diagnostic categories in medicine as universally scientifically valid examples of clear-cut diseases easily distinguished from each other and from health; with a fixed prognosis; and with a well-understood aetiology leading to disease-reversing treatments. These are contrasted with psychiatric diagnoses and treatments, which are described as unclear and inadequate in comparison. The Medical Model in Mental Health: An Explanation and Evaluation explores the overlap between the usefulness of diagnostic constructs (which enable prognosis and treatment decisions) and the therapeutic effectiveness of psychiatry compared with general medicine. The book explains the medical model and how it applies in mental health, assuming little knowledge or experience of medicine, and defends psychiatry as a medical practice.

The Selling of Dsm
The Selling of Dsm

Author: Stuart A. Kirk

Publisher: Transaction Publishers

Published: 1992-01-01

Total Pages: 282

ISBN-13: 0202368785

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When it was first published in 1980, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Third Edition--univer-sally known as DSM-III--embodied a radical new method for identifying psychiatric illness. Kirk and Kutchins challenge the general understanding about the research data and the pro-cess that led to the peer acceptance of DSM-III. Their original and controversial reconstruction of that moment concen-trates on how a small group of researchers interpreted their findings about a specific problem--psychiatric reliability--to promote their beliefs about mental illness and to challenge the then-dominant Freudian paradigm.

Advancing DSM
Advancing DSM

Author: Katharine A. Phillips

Publisher: American Psychiatric Pub

Published: 2008-08-13

Total Pages: 265

ISBN-13: 1585627496

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In Advancing DSM, leading psychiatric clinicians and researchers contribute case studies that are unresolved, are rife with controversy, and illuminate limitations of the current diagnostic system. Along with analysis of clinical cases, the contributors recommend broad changes to DSM to incorporate new knowledge from psychiatry and neuroscience and findings from new methods of diagnostic testing. Advancing DSM is a rich treasury of intriguing information for all clinicians and researchers. You will Develop an understanding of some of the shortfalls of the current system that will help you make better clinical decisions. Accurate diagnosis is the foundation for selecting the best treatment, determining prognosis, and enhancing our understanding of patients. With the help of real-world case examples, you'll develop a solid understanding of the complexities involved in making clinical diagnoses. Learn about developments that will advance future editions of DSM. Find out how new developments in psychiatry and neuroscience and new diagnostic testing tools such as functional MRI are changing the face of psychiatric diagnosis and will inform future editions of DSM. Be alerted to some of the vital questions that must be answered before a new DSM is developed. Each chapter raises important questions to answer if we are to develop new, more accurate, and more reliable diagnoses. For example, how do we determine the causes of mental disorders? How do we define a mental disorder? How should the groupings of disorders be revised to reflect information on etiology and pathophysiology? What are the implications of laboratory testing and neuroimaging for psychiatric diagnosis and practice? and many more. DSM has been a landmark achievement for the field. By allowing reliable diagnosis, it has brought order out of chaos and fostered groundbreaking advances in research and clinical care. Advancing DSM will brief you on exciting changes in psychiatry today that will impact the DSM of tomorrow.

Adjustment Disorder
Adjustment Disorder

Author: Patricia Casey

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-03-10

Total Pages: 253

ISBN-13: 0191089508

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Although adjustment disorders (AD) have been included in the major psychiatric diagnostic classifications for over 50 years, no book devoted solely to the topic of AD's has been published to date. Apart from scant coverage in psychiatric textbooks, there is little to assist the doctor or therapist in understanding or making a diagnosis of AD. The result is the under-recognition of AD's in settings where it is believed to be a common condition. In general practice, where AD's are said to be the most common disorder, they are seldom recognized and are misdiagnosed as depressive illness (major depressive disorder) or generalized anxiety disorder. Even among psychiatrists, AD's are underdiagnosed, except in consultation-liaison psychiatry, and even there, changes in diagnostic practice are afoot. Adjustment Disorder: From Controversy to Clinical Practice provides concise and comprehensive information on AD's and advances a greater understanding and better diagnostic skills among those clinicians working with this group of patients. This accessible and clinically driven book is amplified by up-to-date theoretical information such as exploring the psychobiology of AD's, considering the best evidence-based treatments, and touching on the philosophical questions that AD's raise, such as whether AD's are actually a disease. The chapters follow a natural progression beginning with the history and controversies, through to epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment, then addressing the biology of AD's and concluding with an examination of AD's in special groups such as children and adolescents as well as in medico-legal settings.