Mental health awareness week includes neurological conditions?

Here is an extract that arrived in my inbox this morning as part of my employers support of the above.

“One in four people will be affected by mental or neurological disorders at some point in their lives and nearly two-thirds of people with a known mental disorder will never seek help from a health professional.

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others and make choices.

Often, the biggest challenge is recognising that you or someone you know is experiencing poor mental health and needs to access the right support as soon as possible. Key signs and symptoms can include low moods, low energy levels, lack of interest in things, poor concentration, eating too much or too little and sleep disruption. If you believe someone is at risk, ask them how they are feeling and listen to them. Being able to talk things through can be therapeutic in itself.”

Looks like neurological conditions such as Parkinson’s, MS, muscular dystrophy, epilepsy all now benefit from talking therapies etc. and are now akin to mental health conditions.

Having two of these myself I thought this was lovely that all my work colleagues have now been given this additional layer of misinformation to help with a wider understanding.

It appears to originate from the comms packs sent out by this charity.

https://www.mentalhealth.org.uk/publications/new-way-forward

Hopefully this is just a mistake and nothing more sisnister? It might be worth keeping an eye out for similar conflation during this week?

 

Blimey....

I've often heard the old one in four statistic re mental health. Never heard it conflate with neuro conditions before.

 

My mother suffered from epilepsy. (1950’s) She was taken to a doctor that treated mainly psychological illnesses. Her cousin talked her into going to a neurologist at University of Pennsylvania. Was put on correct medication for grand mal seizures and never has another seizure.

It is unbelievable that this is being lumped into “ mental” health in 2018. Enough already should be laughed out of the room.

 

Remember when Peter White called for an end of the distinction between mental and neurological conditions. Maybe he's still trying.

 

Here’s a bit more about it now that my initial annoyance has subsided a bit

https://fullfact.org/health/misquot...ource=content_page&utm_medium=related_content

However most disturbing is this


https://www.nhs.uk/news/mental-health/scale-of-mental-health-problems-examined


“When both mental disorders and neurological disorders (including dementia, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis) were considered, the researchers estimated that they make up 26.6% of the total disease burden in the EU (30.1% of the disease burden in women and 23.4% in men). Overall, the most disabling single conditions were depression, dementias, alcohol use disorders and stroke, although the order differed with gender and age. The most disabling single condition in women was depression, causing 1 in 10 healthy years of life to be lost. Alcohol use disorders were the most disabling conditions in men.”

The conflation appears to be widespread and in part due to the inability of anyone to get an accurate number. There are many overhangs from diseases previously thought to be psychiatric in origin (epilepsy, MS, Alzheimer’s). Although why this should persist for decades and decades I do not know.

What is disturbing is that these mainly European studies are still being quoted in the press and the mental health charities today.

Perhaps a few emails are needed to the neurological charities ....may be worth a shot? Although the chances of influencing the press is fairly limited I think.

 

People are dumb, which is also true. Yesterday, someone told me patients were protesting the categorisation of ME as neurological. I had to explain that neurology was the correct category, and that it was wrongful treatment by psychiatry/psychology that was harmful.

People seem to think neurology is psychology! It's not helped by the increase in 'neuropsychology', and the fact many neurologists are now neuropsychologists.

 

The Swedish charity Hjärnfonden (The Swedish Brain Foundation) ran an ad in social media a few weeks ago.

Their ad on Instagram consisted of an image, a text and a video that all explained that brainfog "is a stress-related mental health issue", called for "a friendlier work-climate" and the need to fight "harmful stress". No mention at all of stroke, MS, Parkinsons, traumatic brain injuries or anything else along those lines.

They used the word "hjärntrötthet" (literally "brain tiredness/fatigue"), which is one of the scientific names for brainfog in Swedish.

Very unhelpful and misleading, in my opinion

 

The NHS still lists mental health problems as a risk factor for CFS/ME. A casual reader might assume CFS/ME is at least partly a mental health issue.

https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-cfs/

 

I agree with you. But I also think that a friendlier work climate and less harmful stress would be positive for everyone.

 

Since depression is "proven" to be biochemical it is a neurological disorder

 

I think the point is that lumping all disorders together and saying that talking therapies are the solution to fix them is is misleading ....particularly since the on size fits all approach is inappropriate. It is also is ironic that an awareness campaign is sending out misinformation of this sort, particularly when the purpose is to help people understand and be tolerant etc.

I think depression has many routes to it and it can be both a condition in itself and a symptom of other things that have gone wrong.

I don’t think you can define it as neurological though...that is very different to physiological specific areas of the nervous system that are faulty and a little bit tenous when so little is known at the moment. Regardless of this, depression isn’t classed as neurological at the moment it is classed as psychiatric. Putting them all together is misleading and only serves to confuse and conflate adding to the stigma to people who have a diagnosable condition with very very different treatments.

There is a movement in the uk to conflate these conditions as mental health to save money and I suspect it has sir Simon at the bottom of it.

You may find this article of interest with regards to neurological vs psychiatric

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/...sychiatric-vs-neurological-can-the-brain-tell

I am not trying to diminish depression but I think it’s important to make a distinction between diseases so that you can get better medical treatment for all and by explaining them properly you make a start on understanding them which is your first step to reducing stigma and bias.

Anyone like myself who has a neurological condition and had an inappropriate specialist who thinks they can help you by applying the wrong treatment would agree...especially when the correct doctor and treatment may be in the same building!

I would also say that treating someone who has a non treatable degenerative tissues disease as a psychiatric case is extremely despicable and unethical....it can only lead one way..more suffering and a roadblock to finding out the real reason via appropriate research.

 

It is misleading, every condition is unique and the treatments vary on the cause. If someone has a brain tumour and has depression, its very likely to be the cause, if someone has suffered abuse and has PTSD then you deal with the cause correctly to have the best results.
The 1 in 4 statistic has been used as "evidence" that the only viable treatment is drugs and much money had been blown looking for the "biochemical imbalance" which has come up with zilch. Of course few accept this and theories abound from neuro inflammation to lack of serotonin or in yesteryear lack of dopamine, imbalances in GABA and so on. Starting with a conclusion and working backwards leads to garbage science because confirmation bias is a narrow tunnel.
That said i don't have the mental energy to read the pdf so i can't say much about its contents

 

I think it's important to keep repeating this.

2015 CDC Multisite Assessment: "ME/CFS patients show significant impairment, particularly in vitality and physical functioning subscale scores, but with preservation of mental health and emotional role functioning."

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/65/wr/mm655051a4.htm

 

Other relevant citations:

NY State Dept of Health: "ME is not a psychiatric disorder and it is not caused by a lack of exercise."

National Academy of Medicine: ME/CFS "is a medical — not a psychiatric or psychological — illness."

 

My favorite graph. Perfectly describes my ME experience.