MRCO BLOG
Medical Musings, Health Hypotheses & Therapeutic Thoughts
Five people in this group have had a diagnosed mental illness and five people in this group have not. Are you able to guess who is who? The picture is of a documentary I watched last night. The documentary follows ten volunteers, half have a psychiatric disorder, and the other half do not. Over five days the group are put through a series of challenges under the observation of a panel of mental health clinicians. Can the clinicians correctly identify and diagnose the individuals within the group? Can you? The documentary explores the character traits of mental illness and highlights how just like all of human emotional experience, mental illness is on a spectrum. Additionally, the documentary shows just how subjective our judgments, and mental illness diagnosis, can be; participants with a disorder can lead a "normal" life, undetected by specialists, and those without a disorder can display "abnormal" behaviours. The idea behind this documentary comes from a psychological experiment conducted in the 1970s by psychologist David Rosenhan. The Rosenhan experiment asked some "pseudopatients" (healthy volunteers) to report that they heard voices to admissions clinics. All were admitted into a psychiatric clinic and given a diagnosis of a psychiatric disorder. Despite telling hospital staff that they felt fine and no longer experienced auditory hallucinations, the pseudopatients were only released upon admitting that they had a mental illness and by agreeing to take antipsychotic medication. The average length of stay was 19 days (!) Although there are plenty of scientific flaws in the documentary and the psychological experiment, they are both worthy social studies for showing the public, and reminding mental health professionals, how subjective our judgements on mental disorder can be. Keen to hear your thoughts... Claire Click here to watch Part 1 of the documentary. Click here to watch Part 2 of the documentary Click here to read David Rosenhan's paper published in Science titled "Being sane in insane places". PS. To be fair to the expert panel, it wasn't a fair game! It would usually be completely inappropriate to diagnose based on observation alone. In a clinical setting we would normally obtain information from multiple sources including; observation, client interview, questionnaires, information from referring professional, information from family & friends.
1/11/2013 Online resources for anxietySometimes you have to sift through a lot of rubbish to get to information gold!
I often find myself frustrated with the amount of unsupported information (or worse still, incorrect information!) that is available. In an effort to help with your search, please see below some links to evidence based treatment programs, or information sheets, for helping with anxiety: www.mentalhealthonline.org.au This website offers free online self help programs for a range of mental health disorders (including Generalised Anxiety Disorder, Panic Disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Social Anxiety Disorder and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder). These programs offer Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) and includes online information, downloadable material and videos. There is empirical evidence to support the effectiveness of the programs. You can also choose to have the support of an online therapist by paying a small fee ($120 for 12 sessions).(Disclaimer: I am one of the researchers and clinicians involved with the OCD STOP! program). www.cci.health.wa.gov.au/resources/infopax.cfm?Info_ID=44 The Centre for Clinical Interventions (CCI) have a range of downloadable programs and worksheets that are freely available. The therapeutic approach tends to be either CBT or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT). They are fantastic... almost all of my private patients, at some point or another, will receive one of the information sheets from this website! The link posted is for the Panic treatment program, but there are other treatment programs for social anxiety and generalised anxiety (worries). I'm sure that there are many more that I am missing out on. I will continue to update this post as I remember them! If you find an online resource that has been helpful for you, please post it in the comments box below. Claire (Picture sourced from imgfave.com/view/1449377) |
AuthorsDrs. Edmund Bruce-Gardner and Soraya Burrows are osteopaths Categories
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Osteopathy at Moreland Road Clinic
High quality & personalised service from experienced professionals. A safe, effective & collaborative approach to patient care. All osteopaths undertake a 4-5 year university degree and are licensed and registered healthcare pracitioners. |
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Osteopathy at Moreland Road Clinic is on Moreland Road, near the corner of Nicholson Street/Holmes Street, on the border of Coburg, Brunswick & Thornbury.
This makes Osteopathy at Moreland Road Clinic the ideal location for people in the inner north and outer northern suburbs of Melbourne, including: Coburg, Coburg North, Coburg East, Brunswick, Brunswick East, Brunswick West, Fawkner, Oak Park, Glenroy, Preston, Pascoe Vale, Pascoe Vale South, Gowanbrae, Hadfield, Essendon, Moonee Ponds, Thornbury and Reservoir. |
22/11/2013
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