You thoughts on the this subject.

[[Do...]]

There are a lot of segments in medicine.

 

I never heard of a more despised Branche in medicine then psychiatry.

 

I really haven't...so many people online saying psychiatry ruined their lives,. so many negative talk about it... anti psychiatry groups.

 

Just wondering have you ever heard of a single branch in medicine that was talked about so negatively to this day?

 

 

[[Cl...]]

None.

I think every medical branch is based on Science: patients are tested (blood, urine, X rays, MRI...), then diagnosed and then treated. But Psichiatry is only a pseudoscience... a mental illness cannot be fully tested yet...Treatments for mental dissorders are based on Statistics only.

[[Ro...]]

Part of the problem with Psychiatry- is that they seldom deal in tangibles.

 

You can usually detect what's wrong with a person physically- even if it's with an autopsy.

 

But what's wrong with the mind? That's more difficult.  But with better tools such as MRI's and Cat Scans Psych docs are able to perceive what changes in the brain occur during some mental illnesses.

 

Psychiatry also has a 'history'. Examples: Lobotomy. Electro-shock 'therapy'. And of course ....benzos/barbituates. The drugs were often prescribed in many inappropriate situations, and often still are.

[[Te...]]

Maybe proctologists... they're kinda like psychiatrists, but they took the "getting to know your inner self" a little too seriously they make great submariners, what with all that "Up scope" and "Down scope" stuff...ok, maybe it is the melatonin hour...g'night all...hope some one is smiling

[[Ro...]]

I'd say that the biggest beef that so many non-psych docs have about Psychiatry: They at least can demonstrate some empathy; which is something that appears to be almost null and void in the American Medical Industry.

[Guest [jc...]]

lmao

[[lo...]]

If you look at the history of medicine in the UK,  surgeons were very despised in the early days, mainly because their methods were not very successful. Surgeons were not regarded as professionals but as tradesmen. They were denied the title of doctor.  This continues today. Surgeons are called Mr, Mrs, Ms or Miss. Physicians were seen as the real doctors. This still has some resonance in the profession with some physicians regarding themselves as the elite of the profession.

 

General practitioners have historically been considered as the second class citizens of the profession.  The best doctors are accepted to train for the hospital specialities, the less able become GPs. Not saying this is true but entry to many hospital specialties is very competitive and many trainee doctors do not get in and become GPs instead.  Training for GP is shorter than medicine and surgery.  Primary care is much better funded now and GPs are better respected in the profession.

 

Specialties which do not involve direct patient care are seen as less prestigious. These include pathology and radiology. 

 

The less prestigious the specialty, the more likely it is to be female dominated and/or to have a high proportion of ethnic minority doctors.  This is true of general practice, radiology, pathology.  Not sure about psychiatry just now.  Female doctors preferred to go into specialties which offered part time work. This is now on offer in most specialties. They still prefer specialties with hours which fit in with family life.

 

Psychiatry has always been an unattractive specialty mainly because of the stigma of mental illness in society.  It has also been under funded in the past.  Geriatric medicine or medicine for the elderly was also underfunded due to the fact that the elderly were seen to be less important in society. This has improved but not sure how much.

 

That is as much as I can remember for now.  It is interesting to hear doctors criticise each other!!  Just like any other sphere of human endeavour.

 

What the public think is less clear.  They are probably unaware of these internal divisions and the history behind them. They tend to judge the specialty they or their family have experienced directly. Given the number of patients who die due to medical errors I would imagine there is a lot of unhappy relatives of patients across the main specialties.

 

There does seem to be an anti psychiatry movement at the present time giving a voice to unhappy patients. This sort of coordinated action is not evident for other specialties so dissatisfied patients/ relatives may be less likely to find a place to articulate their dissatisfaction. It is true that there is a more fundamental questioning of the basis of psychiatry just now which is rather different from dissatisfaction due to medical errors.

 

Obstetrics has the highest litigation rate in the UK because of compensation claims in relation to childbirth.

 

Don't suppose you wanted to know all this!! 

 

 

 

 

[[Ro...]]

Don't suppose you wanted to know all this!!

 

That is good to know.

[Guest [Mi...]]

Actually, it's very interesting to "know all this", LF!

 

It's really easy to criticize psychiatry, but it's pointless. I also want to point out that there is a difference between the anti-psychiatry movement and the psychiatric survivors movement.

 

Anti-psychiatry wants to abolish psychiatry, which is not practical. Psychiatric survivors are trying to 1. survive and 2. change the system at the core, which are where the problems are located. The DSM and the influence of the pharmaceutical companies are two examples of entities that are problematic.

 

I posted a thread on the coverage of the Hearing Voices Movement in Newsweek because we rarely see alternatives to drugs show up in main stream medicine (http://www.benzobuddies.org/forum/index.php?topic=125545.0).

 

It's easy to criticize and much harder to change. But I'm hopeful that change will come.

[[lo...]]

Positive change would be good.

 

:thumbsup:

[[...]]

I'm going to have to vote on neurology.  They seem to always want to do an MRI, blood work. Hmmmm, don't know what's wrong with you.  Come back in 6 months and we'll do another MRI.  Treatment they provide is called wait and see.

Kyra

[[...]]

Oh and my psychiatrist who I actually really like, has never heard of tolerance w/d 

Kyra

[[Te...]]

And my psychiatrist was busy asking my light bulb if it REALLY wanted to change...

[[...]]

:laugh:

[[be...]]

There are a lot of segments in medicine.

 

I never heard of a more despised Branche in medicine then psychiatry.

 

I really haven't...so many people online saying psychiatry ruined their lives,. so many negative talk about it... anti psychiatry groups.

 

Just wondering have you ever heard of a single branch in medicine that was talked about so negatively to this day?

 

Nope. But then again I haven't looked. I don't think very much of surgeons after I found out that my mom's surgeon botched her hip replacement only to learn that he was on oxycotin when performing it. Surgeons. Bleh.