summary: A new study finds that misleading information about depression is widespread, making it difficult for people to understand the source of their distress. The study criticizes the circular reasoning used in psychiatric diagnoses, noting that depression is often incorrectly presented as a disorder that causes symptoms, rather than an explanation for them.
This misrepresentation is perpetuated by major health organizations, and researchers are calling for clearer communication to help people better understand their mental health.
Key Facts:
- Psychiatric diagnoses, like depression, are descriptive, not causal.
- Major health organizations often misrepresent depression as a causative illness.
- Communicating clearly about mental health conditions can help improve understanding.
sauce: University of Turku
A recent Finnish study found that people often receive misleading information about depression, which researchers say makes it harder for people to understand the source of their distress.
Most psychiatric diagnoses are purely descriptive. For example, a diagnosis of depression is merely a description of a range of psychological symptoms, not a description of their causes. Cause Depression and other symptoms.
Researchers describe this as a form of circular reasoning, meaning that psychiatric diagnoses are often spoken of in a circular way, as if they explain the causes of symptoms. This makes it difficult for people to understand their distress.
“Depression should be thought of as a diagnosis similar to a headache. Both are medical diagnoses, but neither explains the cause of the symptoms. Like a headache, depression is a description of a problem that can have a variety of causes.
“Just as a headache diagnosis does not explain the cause of a headache, a depression diagnosis does not explain the cause of a depressed mood,” says Jani Kayanoja, MD, a postdoctoral researcher in psychiatry at the University of Turku in Finland.
This misconception is also spread by mental health professionals, according to a recent study by the University of Turku and the University of the Arts Helsinki.
In this study, the researchers analyzed public information about depression provided by major international health organizations. They selected the websites of English-language organizations that had the most influential information about depression, based on search engine results.
Participating organizations included the World Health Organization (WHO), the American Psychiatric Association (APA), the UK’s National Health Service (NHS), Harvard University, and Johns Hopkins University.
Most organizations portray depression on their websites as a disease that causes symptoms and/or describes the causes of symptoms, but this is not true. None of the organizations present a diagnosis as merely a description of symptoms, which would be accurate.
“Presenting depression as a homogenous disorder that causes depressive symptoms is a circular argument that obscures understanding of the nature of mental health issues and makes it difficult for people to understand their own distress,” Kajanouja says.
The researchers suggest that the problem may be caused by cognitive bias.
“People seem to have a tendency to think that a diagnosis provides an explanation, even if it isn’t. It is important that professionals do not reinforce this misunderstanding through their communication and instead help people understand their condition,” says neuropsychologist Jussi Valtonen, professor at the University of Arts Helsinki.
About this depression research news
author: Tuomas Koivula
sauce: University of Turku
contact: Tuomas Koivula – University of Turku
image: Image courtesy of Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Descriptive diagnosis or causal explanation? Accuracy of portrayals of depression on the websites of leading health organizationsJani Kajanoja et al. Psychopathology
Abstract
Descriptive diagnosis or causal explanation? Accuracy of portrayals of depression on the websites of leading health organizations
introduction: Although psychiatric diagnoses are essentially descriptive, the public often mistake them for causal descriptions. It is unclear whether this logical fallacy, a form of circular reasoning, is sometimes inadvertently reinforced by health authorities themselves.
This study investigated the prevalence of misleading etiological explanations of depression in information provided by authoritative mental health organizations on widely accessed internet sites.
Method: We searched popular websites maintained by major mental health organizations and conducted content analysis to assess whether depression was accurately presented as a symptom description or inaccurately presented as a causal explanation.
result: Most websites used language that inaccurately described depression as a cause of depressive symptoms.
Conclusion: Major professional medical and psychiatric organizations often confuse the descriptive diagnostic label of depression with causal explanations on their most-visited information websites. We argue that scientifically inaccurate causal representations in depictions of psychiatric diagnoses are potentially harmful because they can mislead the public about the nature of mental health problems.
Mental health authorities providing psychoeducation should clearly state that psychiatric diagnoses are purely descriptive, so as not to mislead the public.
