Many different types of anxiety and depression exist, new study finds

an article from Stanford University published in Medical XPress [via World of Psychology]

Five new categories of mental illness that cut across the current more broad diagnoses of anxiety and depression have been identified by researchers in a Stanford-led study.

The five categories, defined by their specific symptoms and areas of brain activation, are: tension, anxious arousal, general anxiety, anhedonia – the inability to feel pleasure – and melancholia.

"We are trying to disentangle the symptom overlap in our current diagnoses which can ultimately guide tailored treatment choices," the researchers wrote in their study, which was published in JAMA Psychiatry.

The research is part of an ongoing effort by Leanne Williams, PhD, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and senior author of the study, and her lab, along with other groups within the field of psychiatric neuroscience, to better define mental illness in order to provide improved treatment plans for the millions of Americans who suffer from these disorders.

Currently, depression and anxiety are the leading cause of disability and lost productivity worldwide with only one-third of patients recovering from treatment, the study said. [I am not sure where this figure of one-third came from but it seems to me to be a very high proportion.]

The broad diagnostic categories as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, such as anxiety and depression, have so many overlapping symptoms that it’s difficult to identify biological markers for potential treatments or cures, the researchers explained.

Continue reading

---

We need to rethink how we classify mental illness

an article by Tamara Kayali Browne for the Guardian

Psychiatric diagnosis must serve an ethical purpose: relieving certain forms of suffering and disease. Science alone can’t do that

How do we decide what emotions, thoughts and behaviours are normal, abnormal or pathological?

This is essentially what a select group of psychiatrists decide each time they revise the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), considered a “bible” for mental health professionals worldwide.

But questions like this cannot be answered by scientists alone. This was famously demonstrated when homosexuality was declassified as a mental illness in the DSM in 1973. The decision was not based on new scientific evidence but came about due to pressure from activists. Cases such as this show the limitations of psychiatry and is where I believe philosophers, sociologists and ethicists could be of use.

Continue reading

Anyone, and I do mean anyone, who has ever been in contact with psychiatric diagnoses will find this interesting.

---