Tag: overdiagnosis

Psychiatric diagnoses can be shaped by prejudice, reflecting biases that ignore trauma, diminish populations, and invalidate humanity and experience.

Medical researchers present evidence that ADHD is overdiagnosed in children and teens, which can lead to significant harm.

Autism is an umbrella diagnosis at this point. The broadness of the diagnosis doesn’t tend to be useful to clinicians. But it is very useful to the individuals who live with it.

There are three steps to modern psychiatry’s successful business formula: 1. Get people to think that they’re stupid even though they’re smart. 2. Train them to actually think stupidly. 3. Directly stupidify them with chemicals.

When it comes to ADHD, some researchers suggest that medical textbooks provide inaccurate and misleading information.

It is important to tell parents the truth about what can and cannot be known about their child. In this way, people come to appreciate that labels and treatments offered by psychiatric professionals are far from being grounded in hard science.

A new article examines the implications of relative age on the ADHD diagnosis.

School-based strategies such as the “talk to your doctor” campaign about any childhood problem have been extremely effective in helping the pharmaceutical industry to marginalize traditional child-rearing practices and replace them with advice from mental health “experts” and the use of dangerous drugs. These campaigns are reminiscent of now-illegal vintage tobacco ads in which doctors endorsed cigarette smoking.

Imagine being a parent at a meeting with educators to discuss Johnny's academics or behavior. Suddenly, your child’s teacher is telling you that he needs to see a doctor for an assessment of a suspected “mental disorder,” which usually leads to a prescription for medication. Warned of “the risks against failing to intervene,” you will likely acquiesce.

Diagnosing children with juvenile or pediatric bipolar disorder is largely an American phenomenon. Do we actually have more “bipolar” children in the United States—or are we simply labeling more of them as such? If it is ever fair to call a child “manic,” isn’t the child’s environment the direction in which we should look?

A new report on pediatric bipolar critically examines the current evidence base and calls for more research before the diagnosis is used.

Two new articles find that rates of ADHD diagnosis and stimulant prescription continue to rise all over the world.

Researchers offer a critical take on the inclusion of the Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder in the DSM-V.

A new review in BMJ investigates overdiagnosis in primary care settings, where the majority of mental health care is provided in the U.S.

New data shows that calls to US poison control centers have increased significantly for children taking stimulant ADHD drugs.

A new study finds that mental health apps promote a one-dimensional view of mental health.

From MobiHealthNews: "'We identified two dominant messages about mental health: one, poor or fragile mental health is ubiquitous; and two, individuals can easily manage their...

From The Lown Institute: "Is overdiagnosis inherently bad? Overdiagnosis not only leads to overtreatment but creates stress for patients who have to deal with this...

A new study finds that stimulant prescribing rates to children continue to rise despite the well-established evidence documenting overdiagnosis of ADHD and overprescription of stimulants.

Lack of overdiagnosis parameters stifles communication across fields seeking to mitigate its potential harm.

Psychiatric diagnoses are ballooning in scope and in numbers, many have dramatic and life-changing consequences, reliability levels are poor, co-morbidity levels are high, and the validity of many are doubtful. Despite all this, they have escaped any kind of regulation. It's time for that to change.

New research demonstrates that children diagnosed with ADHD at younger ages are more likely than those diagnosed later to receive multiple medications within five years of their diagnosis.

From The Concordian: On October 30th, Dr. Joel Paris, a professor of psychiatry at McGill University, gave a lecture about the dangers and consequences of...

Psychiatry’s harms extend far beyond those people it ‘treats’ — they are undermining our society’s entire foundation. In just thirty years in America, the medical model's widespread acceptance has largely undone the huge adaptive potential that millions of years of brain evolution had provided.

Are diagnoses of mental disorders among children and adolescents in developed countries disproportionate to disease prevalence trends?