Healthy Skepticism Library item: 11475
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Publication type: Journal Article
Thomas P, Bracken P, Cutler P, Hayward R, Et AL.
Challenging the globalisation of biomedical psychiatry
Journal of Public Mental Health 2005 Sep; 4:(3):
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa4427/is_200509/ai_n15704473
Abstract:
For over 100 years biomedical psychiatry has dominated the way people throughout the western world understand their sadness and distress, despite the lack of empirical evidence that distress has a biological basis. Now, the interests of the global pharmaceutical industry and trans-national professional elites such as the World Health Organisation and the World Psychiatric Association are extending these biomedical accounts across the globe. This paper briefly describes biomedical psychiatry and its origins before considering how this project is closely aligned to the interests of the pharmaceutical industry. It ends with a call for a new agenda in mental health, driven by the concerns and interests of ordinary people in local communities, and an outline of recent developments in Britain and elsewhere that illustrate this challenge to the biomedical hegemony.
In September 2005 the 13th World Congress of Psychiatry will take place in Cairo under the title Five Thousand Years of Science and Care: Building the Future of Psychiatry (XIII World Congress of Psychiatry, 2005). Following the 12th World Congress in Yokohama in 2002, a more appropriate subtitle for this year’s event might be Building the Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry. The 2002 congress included satellite symposia organised by pharmaceutical companies. Some dealt with the transcultural aspects of diagnosis: ‘Psychiatric treatment of mental health disorders across populations – do east and west meet?’ (Pfizer), ‘Transcultural aspects of depression and anxiety disorders’ (GlaxoSmithKline), ‘Recognition and treatment of depression: differences between American, European and Japanese practices’ (Janssen), ‘Eye on Asia: Reducing the socio-economic burden of depression’ (Wyeth). Others dealt with the management of psychosis: ‘Raising the level of schizophrenia care’ (Janssen-Cilag) and Optimising patient outcomes in schizophrenia’ (Pfizer). The main sponsors of the 2005 congress are Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka Pharmaceutical. Nationally and internationally, the interests of psychiatry and the pharmaceutical industry are becoming ever more tightly-woven.
In this paper we examine these developments critically. Biomedical psychiatry has enormous power to shape our understandings of ourselves – especially our sadness and distress. We see the globalisation of this view as undemocratic, unsustainable andwithout a clear ethical focus. There is, in our view, an urgent need for a new agenda in mental health, driven by the concerns and interests of ordinary people in local communities…
Keywords:
biomedicine psychiatry postpsychiatry globalisation community development
Notes:
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