Autism diagnosis or mental health issues??

[andy]

I like to have good left wing credentials and claim that we should be careful about over diagnosing syndromes. However, I have had several recent experiences of dual diagnosis services where the boundaries appear to be well and trully blurred. The most critical factor in diagnosis would appear to be the background and specialism of psychiatrists. How do you really diagnose depression or even establish that a person may be hearing voices. How do you distinguish autism? In my experience a diagnosis of autism can often help carers explain behaviours, whereas the variety ofmental health labels seem to lead to pharmacological interventions. I was even asked the other day what is the fdifference between OCD in autism and OCD in mental health populations. I think we need to get back to people rather than labels!!!!

[anon_e-mouse]

Behavioral phenotypes....
Classification by presentation
Enough atypical somethings and it becomes a typical something else.

I agree people are often disguised by their label rather than assisted. I am also not happy with the trend of leaning to-wards pharmacological interventions as first line of treatment.

Its surprising really that we ever believe any one particular psychiatrist considering how much difference of opinion there is in the sector. Often people are seen as experiments rather than people first.

How do people think that the individual experts own bias might be removed? (our own included.....)

[andy]

Well anon e mouse we are in agreement. If you look at the extensive usage of the drug respiridone the prognosis is not always great. Vulnerable populations are always at great risk of receiving such interventions. I do find it useful when conversing with psychiatrists to ask them questions like how long will it be before we see an effect of the medication? What side effects shall we look for etc etc.

[anon_e-mouse]

Well it had to happen that someday we would find something!

Well anon e mouse we are in agreement..

When you get to see so many people on a national scale that are connected by the phrase challenging behavior trends become apparent, why one particular drug rather than another is prescribed to a different diagnosis/prognosis.

I think that i have noticed that "how the staff feel" influences which drug a psychiatrist will give to a client!
My gut reaction is that staff have an effect on psychiatrists and that when staff have had a "bad time" sometimes medication is provided - Just not sure that the right medication went to the right individual on every occasion......

and
That staff can feel more intimidated and less in control of decisions made by psychiatrists than compared to decisions made by psychologists.

What i mean by this is that when done properly staff can feel that they are involved in the decision making that leads to things changing - hopefully for the better - when working with psychologists or psychology teams. But the reverse thinking applies with psychiatrists who "ultimately have liability for the choice of medication they select", staff often feel they have little control over what psychiatrists are doing and are "about to do to a client".