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Medical Scribblings - October 10 / 2001

An article caught my eye the other day about a survey by the World Health Organisation showing that a quarter of people suffered from mental problems sometime in their lives. What struck me as strange was not how common this condition was but that more people had not admitted to problems. Somehow it is far more acceptable to break your arm than to have an episode of depression. Its actually an area that has seen great improvements over recent years and the treatments are far more effective.

We tend to look for causes in our modern lifestyle and there may be some truth in this, but the more you look at historical accounts and the more other animals are studied in the wild, the more it becomes apparent that it is intrinsic in our makeup. The chemistry of the brain somehow just goes out of balance. To my mind it is no different to a diabetic patient being short of Insulin and needing this replaced. I feel sure that in time our understanding of the brain will be such that much more targeted treatments will become available.

Besides drugs there have been advances in Psychological approaches. The most effective method seems to be Cognitive Behaviour Therapy. People write textbooks on the subject but basically it is a very pragmatic approach looking for practical ways that people can cope with the world.

The message from all this is that mental illness is just like anything else and is very amenable to treatment.

John Schofield