
Psychiatric Illness and Its Prejudiced Critics
Mental illness is medically real.
AFFIRMING PSYCHIATRY
Mental Illness Versus Real Medical Illness
Mental illness is a tough sell. All of us have patients who do not truly believe they have a medical illness, but insist they are ‘feeling sorry for themselves,’ and ‘just need to toughen up.’
On the one hand, critics portray “real doctors” who diagnose medically defined illnesses with objective testing; on the other hand, psychiatrists are portrayed as would-be imitation doctors who insist that their arbitrary categories are biologically real.3 “Real” doctors treat real diseases with targeted and scientifically-proven cures, while psychiatrists “throw medications” at confused and victimized patients. “Real” doctors can cure real medical illnesses, while psychiatrists poison patients with
Acute Versus Chronic Medical Illness
These particular critiques of psychiatry are the products of ignorance and bias, for they carry the distorting weight of hidden assumptions that are profoundly misleading. What assumptions? Critics of all stripes routinely act as if true medical illnesses are easily definable, precisely diagnosable, and regularly curable. But these assumptions apply, at most, to 1 subtype of medical illness—acute illness.
Their assumptions completely fail as accurate descriptions of the other main type of medical illness—chronic illness. By confusing the two, would-be reformers of psychiatry confuse themselves and mislead the public, discouraging our patients and undermining efforts to help them. It is our job, as psychiatrists, to untangle these misunderstandings.
Critics mistakenly compare psychiatric illness to acute illness, with predictably misleading results. Acute illnesses, by definition, begin and end rapidly. Common examples are influenza, appendicitis, and cholecystitis. Acute illnesses often have well defined causes, such as an infective agent, injury, or internal bodily obstruction. People get sick from a virus, suffer a heart attack from a clotted coronary artery, or fracture bones in an accident. Diagnosis tends to be more definite than for chronic illnesses, with X-rays or lab work that can rapidly confirm the doctor’s suspicions. Treatments tend to be correspondingly definitive, such as
But psychiatric illnesses are overwhelmingly chronic, and chronic illnesses tend to be different in all of these ways. Chronic illnesses commonly have fuzzy boundaries and lack definitive cures. Yet chronic illnesses also constitute our most important public health problems today. Understanding them is critical to understanding just how real, devastating, and treatable mental illness is. So what does the public need to know about chronic medical illness?
Chronic illnesses are common. Critics blame psychiatrists for manufacturing an epidemic of mental illness, citing surveys which find up to 50% lifetime occurrence.5 They wrongly assume that no medical illness can be so common. On the contrary, chronic illnesses are extraordinarily common: Up to 90% of people will develop hypertension during the lifetime, 40% will get
Chronic illnesses lack precise diagnostic boundaries. Critics charge that psychiatric diagnosis lacks clear and objective boundaries, leading psychiatrists to confuse normal grief with
Chronic illnesses are complex entities that have multiple causes. Critics have long held that social and psychological factors in mental illness undermine the notion of its biological reality. Yet the rest of medicine is currently waking up to the biopsychosocial nature of chronic illnesses, known as the social determinants of health. So it is rapidly becoming obvious that, while type II diabetes is a biological illness, its onset and course are profoundly influenced by personal health habits (psychology) and even more by social circumstances related to food availability,
Chronic illnesses are disabling and life shortening. By definition, chronic illnesses do not rapidly kill people. Yet illnesses like emphysema and diabetes take years off the lifespan and progressively impair functioning over time. The same is true of mental illness, which shortens the lifespan by an average of 10 years, and causes more years spent in disability than any other category of medical illness.8 By contrast, critics assert that it is psychiatrists who are hurting patients, by diagnosing them with stigmatizing labels and treating them with toxic medications.
Chronic illnesses frequently cooccur. Critics take psychiatry to task by noting high and implausible levels of comorbidity among psychiatric illnesses.9 For instance,
Chronic illnesses are treatable, but typically not curable. Do we have a cure for cardiovascular disease? Do we have a cure for type II diabetes? Can we eliminate osteoarthritis or osteoporosis? We have cures for none of these diseases, and yet no one despairs of getting treatment for them. In the same way, critics who emphasize our lack of definitive cures for major mental illness have overlooked the fact that we have scientifically validated biopsychosocial treatments for all of them. In fact, a meta-analysis by Leucht et al showed that psychiatric medications alone are as effective as the medications used in primary care for the most common conditions treated by each specialty.13
Concluding Thoughts
Mental illness is medically real, and we can demonstrate this by the same standards that apply to chronic medical illnesses. It is time for critics of psychiatry to step out of the dream world of idealized modern medicine and into the realities of life with chronic medical illness. We will all be a lot better off when they do.
Dr Morehead is a psychiatrist and director of training for the general psychiatry residency at Tufts Medical Center in Boston. He frequently speaks as an advocate for mental health and is author of Science Over Stigma: Education and Advocacy for Mental Health, published by the American Psychiatric Association. He can be reached at
The author wishes to thank Ronald W. Pies, MD, for his review and comments on an earlier draft of this article.
References
1. Kisner J. The diagnosis trap. The Atlantic. September 13, 2022. Accessed December 1, 2022.
2. Insel T. Transforming diagnosis. NIMH Director’s Blog Posts. April 29, 2013. Accessed December 1, 2022.
3. Horwitz AV. DSM: A History of Psychiatry’s Bible. Johns Hopkins University Press; 2021.
4. Whitaker R. Anatomy of an Epidemic: Magic Bullets, Psychiatric Drugs and the Astonishing Rise of Mental Illness. Crown; 2010.
5. Jaffe DJ. Antipsychiatry vs. psychiatry. Mental Illness Policy Org. Accessed December 1, 2022.
6. Morehead D. Science Over Stigma: Advocacy and Education for Mental Health. American Psychiatric Association Publishing; 2021.
7. Blas E, Kurup AS, eds. Equity, Social Determinants and Public Health Programmes. World Health Organization; 2010.
8. Borrell-Carrió F, Suchman AL, Epstein RM.
9. Van Loo HM, Romeijn JW.
10. Pollack MH.
11. The 2019 National Survey of Drug Use and Health. SAMSHA. Accessed December 1, 2022.
12. Fox CS, Pencina MJ, Wilson PWF, et al.
13. Liu NH, Daumit GL, Dua T, et al.
14. Leucht S, Hierl S, Kissling W, et al.
Newsletter
Receive trusted psychiatric news, expert analysis, and clinical insights — subscribe today to support your practice and your patients.