A no Pills story by Donie

Grief not a mental illness, says the Lancet journal

  

Grief is not an illness, according to The Lancet. In an editorial, the medical journal states that grief following the death of a loved one isn’t a “mental illness” that requires psychiatrists and anti-depressants.

A leading medical journal has today warned that bereaved relatives should not be given pills and treated as if they are clinically depressed.

“Grief is not an illness,” the journal’s editors say. They argue that ‘medicalising’ such a normal human emotion is ‘not only dangerously simplistic, but also flawed’, and say doctors who are tempted to prescribe pills ‘would do better to offer time, compassion, remembrance and empathy’.

The editors are worried by moves which appear to categorise extreme emotions as problems that need fixing.

Fears have been prompted by the publication of a new draft version of the psychiatry ‘bible’, the fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, known as DSM-5, which may also include shyness as a mental illness.

In terms of grief, the draft says ‘no exclusion for bereavement’ before diagnosis of a ‘major depressive disorder’. They write that this means: “Feelings of deep sadness, loss, sleeplessness, crying, inability to concentrate, tiredness, and no appetite, which continue for more than two weeks after the death of a loved one, could be diagnosed as depression, rather than as a normal grief reaction.”

However, the editorial article in the medical journal says: “Grief is not an illness; it is more usefully thought of as part of being human and a normal response to death of a loved one.

“For those who are grieving, doctors would do better to offer time, compassion, remembrance, and empathy, than pills.”

Dr Astrid James, deputy editor of The Lancet, said it seemed “far too early” to classify someone as mentally ill two weeks after the death of a loved one. We need to be careful not to overmedicalise experiences that are part of normal living, and to make sure we allow people to grieve rather than try and suppress it or treat it.”

Professor Sue Bailey, President of the Royal College of Psychiatrists, said: “The publication of DSM-5 will not directly affect diagnosis of mental illness in our health service.”