Creating the illusion of an explanation

Natalie Rahhal reports in the Daily Mail,

Psychiatric diagnoses are 'useless,' experts say: Study suggests depression, anxiety and schizophrenia symptoms blur together in the 'psychiatrist's Bible'

...'Although diagnostic labels create the illusion of an explanation they are scientifically meaningless and can create stigma and prejudice,' said lead study author, Dr Kate Allsopp, a University of Liverpool psychiatry professor.

'Although diagnostic labels create the illusion of an explanation they are scientifically meaningless and can create stigma and prejudice.'

Echoing her sentiments, Professor John Read, a psychiatry professor at the University of East London said: 'Perhaps it is time we stopped pretending that medical-sounding labels contribute anything to our understanding of the complex causes of human distress or of what kind of help we need when distressed.'

The DSM has been instrumental to a school of thinking that treats psychiatric distress as disease to be 'fixed' with pharmacology.

But in recent years, there's been push-back against this 'biomedical' definition, and more experts have advocated for sparing drug prescribing, and only in combination with psychotherapy.

The new study, published in the Lancet, suggests that these biomedical diagnoses are just obscuring and sterilizing much more deep-rooted experiences and resulting problems for many people.

Read more here.