Into the Void

Online list of DSM-IV diagnoses.

September 28th, 2008

PSYweb has a list of the DSM-IV Diagnosis Codes. Notice that there are a lot of psychiatric diagnoses caused by psych meds. This makes it totally clear that your meds can make you sicker, a good argument for doing the minimum meds to make you functional vs. medicating yourself into oblivion.

The following are a few examples of iatrogenic (physician-caused) psychiatric disorders:

292.84: Opioid-Induced Mood Disorder
Yes, pain meds can make you look like a bipolar.
333.99: Neuroleptic-Induced Acute Akathisia
He’s agitated, let’s give him more neuroleptic. Neuroleptics are old-fashioned antipsychotics such as Haldol.
292.12: Amphetamine-Induced Psychotic Disorder, With Hallucinations
Some of the ADHD meds they give to kids, including Ritalin and Adderall, are amphetamines. Can you imagine turning your kid into a Speed Freak?
292.89: Sedative-, Hypnotic-, or Anxiolytic-Induced Anxiety Disorder
Anxiety from anti-anxiety pills? Some of the benzodiazepines can even induce hypomania, however there doesn’t seem to be a diagnosis code for it. Maybe in the DSM-V. Or maybe not. I hear it’s being written by Big Pharma.

Another cool thing on psyweb is a Mood Disorder Flow Chart that is able to distinguish bipolar disorder from the other mood disorders. A real kick in the head is the question “Symptoms Psychotic in nature, occur at times other then during Manic or Mixed Episodes?”

This seems to imply that bipolars don’t have psychotic depressions, but other mood disorders do. Note that the only the 296 numbers are mood disorders, and only a few of those are called bipolar disorder. Been there, done that, bought the t-shirt.

A couple of years ago I did a decision tree for the bipolar disorders based on the DSM-III. It’s a little different from the DSM-IV-based version.

Psyweb also has a decision tree for differential diagnosis, and that’s a better choice than the mood disorders tree, even for diagnosed bipolars. This tree helps you figure out whether you have another psych diagnosis masquerading as bipolar, something that a 15-minute psych eval will definately miss. That would be truly disastrous, being treated for life for bipolar instead of dealing with something less severe. Have fun!

I think I’m going to invent Seroquel jimmies for ice cream.

Tags: amphetamines, anxiety, Big Pharma, bipolar disorder, DSM-IV, hypomania, iatrogenic, mood disorders, neuroleptic, Psychiatry, Psychotic Disorder, ritalin
Posted in ADHD/ADD, Bipolar Disorder, Psychiatry | 1 Comment »

Pathologizing Poverty

February 1st, 2007

The 2002 report of the US Surgeon General says that 1 in 5 adults will be diagnosed as mentally ill.

I believe that statistic reflects the unfortunate fact that minor differences in temperament, coping style, cultural affiliation, and even socioeconomic status are being pathologized by out-of-control sickness-manufacturing industry.

Does the Surgeon General consider a depressed person to be Mentally Ill? Or does he agree that occasional misfortune – and the usual emotional reaction to helplessness in the face of that misfortune – is a fact of life? Isn’t “usual” equal to “normal?” I believe that the Surgeon General is pathologizing people who have temporary setbacks in life – and therefore making it more difficult for them to get insurance, good medical care, and even jobs.

I don’t believe that a full 20% of the population is abnormal. That’s just plain crazy. Maybe it’s time to re-evaluate what is “normal” and forget about the political nonsense.

Surgeon General is an appointed position – if Big Pharma and the insurance industry owns the politicians, it owns him too.

I believe that it is healthier to make sure people have jobs and homes than it is to diagnose them as Mentally Ill and pump them full of drugs when there is an economic downturn or if they were born into poverty. I believe that more opportunity and less lip-service to their abstracted freedom is the answer.

I also think we should reserve the Mentally Ill label for those of us who have life-long difficulties.

Technorati: Surgeon+General socioeconomic+status Mentally+Ill Big+Pharma poverty freedom