OOne of the most significant concerns of diagnosing a patient is whether or not the diagnosis is valid or reliable. The validity of a diagnosis is whether a patient is given an accurate diagnosis. Reliability is whether patients with the same symptoms would constantly get the same diagnosis from various psychiatrists. However, there are many factors that affect the validity and reliability of diagnoses. These factors include confirmation bias and cultural bias. Confirmation bias is the tendency to interpret information in a way that fits your understanding and cultural bias is bias towards one’s culture or against another culture. In this essay, I will discuss the effect of confirmation bias on the validity of diagnosis using Rosenhan’s study …show more content…
Seven of them were diagnosed with schizophrenia and were admitted to the psychiatric hospital. As soon as they got admitted they all said that the voices were gone and that they felt fine. After 19 days, they were discharged with the label schizophrenia in remission. Rosenhan then conducted a second study to test the validity of psychiatric diagnoses. Rosenhan told the psychiatrist that pseudo-patients would claim false symptoms and try to gain entrance to psychiatry hospitals even though there weren’t any. This resulted in 41 patients begin labelled as pseudo-patients by at least 1 staff member. From the results, Rosenhan concluded that it was not possible to tell the difference between patients with real symptoms and those with the fake symptoms. This is because when the psychiatrists were informed about the “fake” symptoms experienced by the pseudo-patients, they interpreted these symptoms with the symptoms that correspond to schizophrenia and thus displaying confirmation bias. This study showed how some diagnoses have issues when it comes to validity. It also shined a light on …show more content…
The aim of Li Repac’s study was to investigate whether different cultures would be diagnosed differently when displaying the same mental illness. In her study, there were ten participants, five white and five Chinese, who have been diagnosed with various mental illnesses such as schizophrenia and neurotic. The participants were asked general questions in videotaped interviews. These interviews were randomly assigned to five white and five Chinese psychiatrists, who were first asked to establish the concept of normality in patients using a 112-item test. The result showed no significant differences between the two groups and instead showed that they had a similar understanding of normality. They were then asked to rate four videos, two showing white patients and two showing Chinese patients. The results showed that the Chinese psychiatrist saw the white patients as being more aggressive than the Chinese patients. Similarly, the white psychiatrist saw the Chinese patient as more depressed and less socially competent. This study illustrates that diagnoses can be influenced by the attitudes and prejudge of the psychiatrists which then affects the reliability of the diagnoses given. For example, a particular group might be expected to get depression and as such, they have a higher likelihood of getting diagnosed with
1. The main thesis of the article is that deviance means going against the social norms. Social norms are also different for which person. Rosenhan says that pseudo patients are never detected as sane because each staff member has a confirmation bias. The setting of the mental hospital confirms their bias and they read each behavior from every patient and taper the behavior to fit the diagnosis.
A physician has an unenviable position; he is closest to man approaching a god-like stature. And despite the demise of 'doctor knows best', we still need to trust his diagnosis-something that is increasingly difficult in a world where information is widely available, and Google substitutes for a doctor. In the case of psychiatry the issue of trust is amplified since diagnosis is based on a patient's expressed thoughts and overt behaviours rather than solely on biological phenomena. And these thoughts and behaviours are influenced by the patient's environment-a mix of his social, cultural and technological experiences.
Culture is a collection of religion, traditions, and beliefs that are passed down from generation to generation. Culture is created and maintained through the repetition of stories and behavior. It is never definite because it is continuously being modified to match current trends, however, historical principles are still relevant. With respect to mental illness, culture is crucial to how people choose to deal with society and the methods used to diagnose and cope with mental illnesses. In Watters’
Hays, P. A. (2008). Addressing cultural complexities in practice: Assessment, diagnosis, and therapy (2nd ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
According to (Barlow, 2001), Schizophrenia is a psychological or mental disorder that makes the patient recognize real things and to have abnormal social behavior. Schizophrenia is characterized by symptoms such as confused thinking, hallucinations, false beliefs, demotivation, reduced social interaction and emotional expressions (Linkov, 2008). Diagnosis of this disorder is done through observation of patient’s behavior, and previously reported experiences (Mothersill, 2007). In this paper, therefore, my primary goal is to discuss Schizophrenia and how this condition is diagnosed and treated.
We all have our own perception of psychiatric hospitals. Some people may see them as a terrifying experience, and others may see them as a way to help people who cannot keep their disorders under control. David Rosenhan's perception led him to a variety of questions. How could psychiatric hospitals know if a patient was insane or not? What is like to be a patient there? According to Rosenhans study, psychiatric hospitals have no way of truly knowing what patients are insane or not; they quickly jump to labeling and depersonalizing their patients instead of spending time with them to observe their personality.
Pseudopatients pretended to have symptoms of mental disorders and admitted to various mental hospitals. Rosenhan assumed that if pseudopatients were discovered to be normal and released from the hospitals, sanity could be distinguished from insanity and terms like “mental illness” and “manic-depressive” would be reliable. Surprisingly, all pseudopatients were admitted to the hospitals. Although the patients in the hospitals were able to “‘detect’ the pseudopatients’ sanity”, clinicians and nurses often attributed those normal behaviors to the labeled insanity (Rosenhan, p. 181). Rosenhan found “physicians are more inclined to call a healthy person sick … than a sick person healthy” (p. 181), and “behaviors that are stimulated by the environment are commonly misattributed to the patient’s disorder” (p. 182). Therefore, Rosenhan concluded the psychiatric diagnosis is not reliable, and “we cannot distinguish insanity from sanity” (p.
Schizophrenia has been studied and determined to have five different categories. Paranoid schizophrenia is apparent when the patient shows signs of being suspicious and a thought of always being persecuted. Disorganized schizophrenia is determined by the patient’s behavior of having a...
Culture has a huge influence on how people view and deal with psychological disorders. Being able to successfully treat someone for a mental illness has largely to do with what they view as normal in their own culture. In Western cultures we think that going to a counselor to talk about our emotions or our individual problems and/or getting some type of drug to help with our mental illness is the best way to overcome and treat it, but in other cultures that may not be the case. In particular Western and Asian cultures vary in the way they deal with psychological disorders. In this paper I am going to discuss how Asian cultures and Western cultures are similar and different in the way they view psychological disorders, the treatments and likelihood of getting treatment, culture bound disorders, and how to overcome the differences in the cultures for optimal treatments.
Coined by Eugen Bleuler in 1950, the term ‘Schizophrenia’ refers to a group of mental disorders with heterogeneous outcomes. The most prevalent subtype of schizophrenia is the paranoid subtype. Typically, this disorder is characterized by psychosis, in which the patient suffers from altered perceptions of reality. According to the 5th edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM – V), the typical subtypes – paranoid, catatonic and disorganized, among others have been eliminated, although the general definition of the disorder remains unchanged. These changes were made due to the clinically diverse prognosis, pathophysiology and etiology of the disorder, which add to its heterogeneity1, 2. In addition, sex of the patient and age of onset of the disorder also contribute to schizophrenia’s diverse effects. The age of onset and sex of the patient heavily influence the demographics and course of paranoid schizophrenia, and in turn are also affected by the patients ethnicity and any premorbid conditions the patient may have suffered1, 3...
Schizophrenia is a serious, chronic mental disorder characterized by loss of contact with reality and disturbances of thought, mood, and perception. Schizophrenia is the most common and the most potentially sever and disabling of the psychosis, a term encompassing several severe mental disorders that result in the loss of contact with reality along with major personality derangements. Schizophrenia patients experience delusions, hallucinations and often lose thought process. Schizophrenia affects an estimated one percent of the population in every country of the world. Victims share a range of symptoms that can be devastating to themselves as well as to families and friends. They may have trouble dealing with the most minor everyday stresses and insignificant changes in their surroundings. They may avoid social contact, ignore personal hygiene and behave oddly (Kass, 194). Many people outside the mental health profession believe that schizophrenia refers to a “split personality”. The word “schizophrenia” comes from the Greek schizo, meaning split and phrenia refers to the diaphragm once thought to be the location of a person’s mind and soul. When the word “schizophrenia” was established by European psychiatrists, they meant to describe a shattering, or breakdown, of basic psychological functions. Eugene Bleuler is one of the most influential psychiatrists of his time. He is best known today for his introduction of the term “schizophrenia” to describe the disorder previously known as dementia praecox and for his studies of schizophrenics. The illness can best be described as a collection of particular symptoms that usually fall into four basic categories: formal thought disorder, perception disorder, feeling/emotional disturbance, and behavior disorders (Young, 23). People with schizophrenia describe strange of unrealistic thoughts. Their speech is sometimes hard to follow because of disordered thinking. Phrases seem disconnected, and ideas move from topic to topic with no logical pattern in what is being said. In some cases, individuals with schizophrenia say that they have no idea at all or that their heads seem “empty”. Many schizophrenic patients think they possess extraordinary powers such as x-ray vision or super strength. They may believe that their thoughts are being controlled by others or that everyone knows what they are thinking. These beliefs ar...
Certain labels the western culture has can vary tremendously and may even be non-existent in different cultures. Labeling for example is not accepted in certain cultures, for example in Muslim communities having a mental health condition is associated with a negative stigma and access to the sick role for mental health is not accepted. In return this stigma causes people to not even seek care or treatment. Such as seen in the study conducted by Oman, Al-Adawi and colleagues (2002) found that groups believed that mental illness is caused by spirits and rejected genetics as a significant factor. In the same study, both groups endorsed common stereotypes about people with mental illness and affirmed that psychiatric facilities should be segregated from the community.(3) This stigma in itself shows that different cultures do not have the same attitude and acceptance of the DSM’s labels, which results in different ethnocentric approaches to handle mental illness, labeling people and the access to health care for these
Kendell, R. and Jablensky, A. (2003), Distinguishing between the validity and utility of psychiatric diagnoses, American Journal of Psychiatry, Vol. 160, No. 1, pp. 4-12.
middle of paper ... ... This misdiagnosis is a result of diagnostic tools that fail to properly take cultural differences into consideration, as well as a lack of education on how to interpret these cultural differences. African-Americans are also less likely to seek and receive specialized treatment for cultural and economic reasons. Black patients benefit most from treatment by those in their own ethnic group, as well as clinicians with a mindful awareness of cultural differences and the justified mistrust of psychiatric care.
When patients are labeled with a mental illness they start to believe they actually have that illness. In more severe cases, misdiagnosis can result in the patient’s death or simply taking their own life. According to Dr. Mercola “Diagnostic errors are just one type of error that occurs in the medical field, and you might be surprised at just how common errors occur. While the 1999 IOM report blamed 98,000 deaths a year on hospital errors, a 2013 study in the Journal of Patient Safety projected that medical errors now account for 210,000 to 440,000 US deaths annually”. To better understand the severity of misdiagnosis, imagine a close family member getting diagnosed with a mental disorder that he or she doesn’t have and from that they decide to take their own life due to unnecessary treatment that is harmful to their