Op-ed filled with hurtful, misleading information

On July 27, The Herald published an article written by David Cohen and Keith Hoeller regarding the current push to include mental health care within in the current health insurance system. The attitude they displayed towards those suffering from mental illness was both cruel and uninformed. I am the mother of a bipolar child. My daughter is a loving, gifted and courageous child who has one more hurdle to cross than her friends – she is not “damaged” goods.

There is strong evidence to suggest that bipolar disorder is caused by a chemical imbalance in the brain and researchers are predicting that within the next ten years they will have developed a blood test to diagnose the disease. Would diabetes be less of a disease if there were not sophisticated methods of diagnosis? Cohen and Hoeller state that the “stigma” has to do with “the messages that people know come with a psychiatric diagnosis: that they are damaged, that no treatment can cure their illness and that prescribed treatment – usually drugs and more drugs – would be needed indefinitely.” Once again, please consider the diabetic. There is no cure for their illness either and medication is certainly needed indefinitely. So are they “damaged,” too?

The bulk of the push for mental health coverage is for chronic schizophrenia and bipolar sufferers. Cohen and Hoeller cite the current controversies on the treatment of depression, but do not define it as such, leaving the inference that none of the psychiatric medicines are effective. In fact, the medications now available allow many who are burdened with the diseases of bipolar or schizophrenia to function as contributing members of society.

The authors comment that claims for the effective treatment of mental illness are “misleading, false and dangerous.” Actually, their lack of knowledge make their claims most misleading, false and dangerous. Lumping all mental health patients into one group is misleading. Stating that medications are not effective and implying that the research on anti-depressants applies to all psychiatric medication is false. The stigma is still a major problem in getting patients to seek help, and the weight of the misinformation they have added is nothing less than dangerous.

Snohomish

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