User:LBird BASc/sandbox/ATK/Seminar6/Truth/Mental illness

Treatment

Psychological Treatment

Subjective treatment Psychotherapy is a way to treat mental illnesses by psychological means. Psychological treatment relies on talking with a patient, also, it could include her/his family members or other important people support. As results vary depending on the support of family members, patient’s personality, competence, experience of psychotherapist it is often not considered to be an objective way to treat mental illnesses. Also, the impact of therapies usually can be described mostly by subjective means as patient’s feedback, feelings afterwards, So, psychological treatment could be considered as an interpretative truth, because it relies on human factor.

However, psychological treatment is popular as it helps for quite a few people. There are many types of psychotherapies, but firstly it is important to choose a specialist that would suit the patient's personality and guide one to the right direction. Afterwards mental health professional analyses conditions, related problems, patient’s character and suggests techniques that could improve mental health. Also, in psychological treatment a very important part is communication, thus, specialist is always aware of one’s thoughts, behaviour, feelings and is responsive to these aspects. A person usually gains knowledge about his/her illness and knows what is he/she able to do, how he/she can improve the situation. It helps to feel included in treatment, learn to cope and manage stress, which often is a problem with scientific treatment as it is focused on scientific data and medicine, but not the feelings of a person with mental illness.

Moreover, people going to group therapies might feel more included in society as they find people that are experiencing similar symptoms, understands him/her easier. Family therapies also help not only patient, but the people surrounding him/her to understand his/her situation better and act in a way that would help solving problems rather than creating additional ones. This support from surroundings motivates people struggling with mental health to seek better results, it makes them not to feel alone and to be able to get help not only from specialists.

Treatment with medication

Objective Treatment When we look on the internet how to treat mental illnesses, websites mostly tell people how to treat it at home, without medication, simply by following a therapy. However, mental illnesses are diseases and need to be treated with medication, like any other illness. Medicine is a drug, or a substance used to minimise the effects of the disease. Using good medication is often very efficient to treat the different illnesses. It is reliable as we know the effects it has on the body and we can anticipate its action. Medicine for mental illnesses change the chemical reactions in the patient’s brain, to try and balance the hormone levels, and limit the progress of the illness. Medication for mental illnesses is a scientifically proven treatment and acts directly on the anatomical problem. However, medication doesn’t work as efficiently on every patient. The dose and type of medication depends on each patient and how their body will react. This is why treating a mental illness needs to involve a doctor which knows you, who will prescribe the right treatment for the patient.

Diagnosis

Subjective

Diagnosis of mental illness- How it could be subjective?

For example, depression: The official NHS website states:

The main way your GP will tell if you have depression is by asking you lots of questions about your general health and how the way you're feeling is affecting you mentally and physically.

From this we could say that how depression, one of the most common mental illness is diagnosed almost purely based on the conversation between patient and the physician, which is easily influenced by the particular personality traits, ways of expression, the patient’s self-judgement and many varying factors etc. It illustrates how this process is subjective to both parties, as the patient could be exaggerating/ underestimating the severity of their symptoms or misjudging their mood and feelings. The GP would also determine the patient’s condition by assessing their mood, physical health and how they are getting on with life, this could include judgement based on the patient’s dress code, their job/work, and their facial and physical expressions during the conversation. All those observations would be judged subjectively by the GP to determine the condition of the patient, despite that the physical will try his best to use professional knowledge, his judgement would be based on his own personal experiences and interpretation of the patient’s words/ expressions.

In cases of other mental illness, for example psychotic ones like schizophrenia, the diagnosis involves a more complex process. The patient would be refereed to a specialist and a series of tests would be run on them, which includes surveys and possible brain scan. Nevertheless it is undeniable that it is still largely subjective. As one of the predominant symptom of schizophrenia is hallucination and hearing voices, the patient could be denying those sensations and not admitting to his illness; or he could be believing that as a spiritual conversation.

Objective

It is important in the field of medicine to have a degree of objectivity in determining a patient's state in the diagnosis of a treatment.

Defining mental illnesses is hard as there are many symptoms, which vary from person to person. Therefore, a proper diagnosis of mental illness has to involve objective exams and tests to avoid any errors. An American Psychiatric Association managed to detail symptoms of each mental illness in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5). Mental health professionals therefore use this to diagnose mental conditions. Psychiatrists and psychologists hence do physical exams, lab tests and psychological evaluations to diagnose their patients. During these exams, the doctor tries to find the origin of the patient’s symptoms, thoughts and feelings, checks the functioning of some organs such as the thyroid, and checks the patient’s background regarding alcohol and drugs. All these tests lead to an objective diagnosis of a specific mental illness, which will help the patient get the appropriate help and care.

Another objective method of diagnosis of mental illnesses is through brain scans. Brains scans through MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) machines are used to help doctors diagnose their patients with certain mental illnesses and determine what type of treatment would be appropriate for the patient. For example, for an illess such as depression, which is a general diagnosis for patients with vastly different symptoms, brain scans may help determine the potentially different types of depression, and therefore give more specific and personalised treatments to patients suffering from different symptoms. A study at Emory University showed that successful treatment through Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) showed a pattern in the patients' scans, while for patients with a different brain scan pattern, medication was a more effective treatment than therapy. As such, two patients, both diagnosed with major depression can show different symptoms and patterns that make it challenging for doctors to treat. Using brain scans as a more objective method of determining the state of the patient, the diagnosis of mental illnesses can be categorised and personalised to suit each patient.