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Full-Text Articles in Medicine and Health Sciences
Behavior Analysis In The Era Of Medicalization: The State Of The Science And Recommendations For Practitioners, W. Wyatt
W. Joseph Wyatt
Recent decades have witnessed an increase in biological explanations of common disorders such as depression and anxiety, a phenonmenon termed “medicalization” (Conrad, 2007). Behavior analysts may find it difficult to implement non-drug treatment with a populace that has become inundated with biological explanations and a preference for medication as the treatment of choice. Research frequently cited in support of medicalization includes studies of drug effectiveness, as well as family studies and studies of brain structure and function. Methodological and interpretation difficulties within those bodies of research are described and recommendations are made so that behavioral practitioners may function optimally within …
Medicalization Of Mental Disorders: 1970- To The Present, W. Joseph Wyatt
Medicalization Of Mental Disorders: 1970- To The Present, W. Joseph Wyatt
W. Joseph Wyatt
A thirty-five year escalation of emphasis on biological causation has rendered, for many, medications as the treatment of choice for mental disorders. Non-drug treatment may be cast aside, as a result.
Biological Psychiatry: A Practice In Search Of A Science, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff
Biological Psychiatry: A Practice In Search Of A Science, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff
W. Joseph Wyatt
The rise of the biological causation model in the past thirty years is traced to psychiatry’s efforts to regain lost status and to protect itself from intrusions by non-medical practitioners, as well as to the pharmaceutical industry’s drive for profits. Evidence in support of the model, including studies of identical twins and of brain structure and function, are less revealing than was earlier thought, due to problems in methodology and interpretation. Organized psychiatry, when challenged in 2003, was unable to provide compelling evidence for biological causation of most mental and behavioral disorders. A paradigm shift away from biological causation and …
Six-To-One Gets The Job Done: Comments On The Reviews, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff
Six-To-One Gets The Job Done: Comments On The Reviews, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff
W. Joseph Wyatt
We are pleased to note that six of the seven responses to our article were marked by approval, and/or thoughtful contemplation, regarding our central theses—that the research said to support biological causation of mental disorders is relatively weak, and that the claims of drug effectiveness are often overstated.
Psychiatry’S Thirty-Five-Year, Non-Empirical Reach For Biological Explanations, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff
Psychiatry’S Thirty-Five-Year, Non-Empirical Reach For Biological Explanations, W. Joseph Wyatt, Donna M. Midkiff
W. Joseph Wyatt
This is our third article in a series that began with a special issue of Behavior and Social Issues in 2006. Here we briefly review our central points from the first two articles. First is that over the past thirty-five years, claims of biological causation of mental and behavioral disorders have gone well beyond the research data, for reasons that are largely related to psychiatry’s lost esteem and protection of its “turf,” as well as to the financial interests of the pharmaceutical industry. Our second position is that claims of psychotropic drugs’ effectiveness have been overstated. We respond, as well, …