Argumentative Essay On Psychiatry

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The controversial branch of medicine ‘psychiatry’ has been criticised as a ‘pseudoscience.Figures such as Tom Cruise claim that individuals affected by a mental illness should seek natural techniques rather than utilising the medicine that psychiatrists prescribe as psychiatry concerns the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of mental illnesses or abnormal behaviour. Critiques of this study, such as Cruise, stress that it is merely a pseudoscience, a method or practice that lacks scientific foundation. To explore this in a context that concerns the mental health community, the limitations, advantages and perceptions of the community in addition to the insight of medical professionals will be applied to the different approaches individuals …show more content…

In Australia, numerous citizens seek the aid of medicine concerning mental illnesses. The Australian Bureau of Statistics shows that 34% of all people aged 75 years and over are accessing such drugs in 2011. As this shows that this is a common approach used by individuals a question that arises from this fact as to why individuals and mental health care providers employ this method.While psychological abnormalities themselves are complex and difficult to comprehend approaches such as; biological, psychoanalytic and cognitive-behaviour models aid to explain this.However, this also suggests that science behind the medicine is also a complicated and debatable topic amongst professionals. The ‘placebo theory’ questions the effects of medicine, exploring this concept, the application of antidepressants shows that the results significantly vary of patients. From a significant impact to no apparent change, these results can average out due to “controlled trials used to assess efficacy, and could account for lacklustre findings in group studies” (Reidbord,2011 ). The placebo effect theory consists of “ an apparent improvement in health that is not due to any treatment but rather to the patient’s belief that he or she will improve”(Borsook and Becerra, 2005). This effect concerns the application of conventional medicine, as Psychiatrist Steven Reidbord

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