Tiny survey/research question if anyone feels like helping
POSTED BY: PhoenixRose
UPDATED: Tuesday, October 4, 2011 01:37
VIEWED: 5670
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Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
So tell us, Rose; we gave you our answers, what's it about? I'm dying to know
I'm writing a paper about health care coverage as it applies to mental illness. Medication is covered, but adequate office visits for proper diagnosis through observation are not, for example. Part of my hypothesis is that the stigma attached to mental illness, arising in part from a majority view that it is severe and always permanent, gives the insurance companies an excuse to not cover certain treatments. After all, if "mentally ill" means that someone will be locked up and a ward of the state, why should there be much coverage? Conversely, if the condition is not severe, they're "all in your head" and the cognitive treatments aren't covered.
I asked here and a couple other sites I'm a member of, and I definitely got more answers having to do with the severe/dangerous disorders and institutions/asylums than with things like social anxiety or low-grade depression, which more people suffer.
What reason had proved best ceased to look absurd to the eye, which shows how idle it is to think anything ridiculous except what is wrong.
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Quote:
Boy oh boy oh BOY, am I with you on that one!
Medication is covered, but adequate office visits for proper diagnosis through observation are not
There was a study where X number of p-docs saw X number of patients for half an hour. They diagnosed most of them depressive, few of them bipolar. Then they rotated everyone and the p-docs saw other patients for an hour and a half. They diagnosed FAR more of them bipolar. Given bipolars generally only seek help when in the depressive state (as I did), and the difficulty of correctly diagnosing any mental illness, it was another example of how our medical system doesn't work, not giving p-docs enough time to better diagnose conditions. Since there's not yet any scientific test for mental illnesses WIDELY AVAILABLE (there ARE tests now, but expensive and still only in trials), it's so vital that people get a chance at as correct a dx as possible. And given I've LONG been a strong proponent of therapy (in conjunction with meds, if necessary, and with self-education, ABSOLUTELY!), I'm really with you on that one, fer shore!
Good luck!
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off 
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"Mental Illness", (as its pimped today) kind of makes me sick.
Some days you might feel sad. - It doesn't mean you are "depressed".
Some days you might be angry. - It doesn't mean you are on the verge of a "violent episode".
Some days you might not be paying attention. - It doesn't mean you have "ADD".
Some days you may have drank too much coffee. - It doesn't mean you have "restless leg syndrome".
In my years on the earth I've learned a bunch of different things. One of them being this:
There is no pill (or pills) that will make your life perfect, or you perfectly happy. And even if there was such a magical thing, would you really want to take it?
"Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies"
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Quote:
Originally posted by Niki2:
Since there's not yet any scientific test for mental illnesses WIDELY AVAILABLE (there ARE tests now, but expensive and still only in trials), it's so vital that people get a chance at as correct a dx as possible.
I concur. Though I also think that a basic test on neurotransmitter levels (tests which are not expensive nor in trials) should be run before anything is prescribed. After all, if the problem lies with epinephrine levels, you don't want to be messing with serotonin now do you? Symptoms might look similar coming from different levels being off.
But that's a different paper for another day.
What reason had proved best ceased to look absurd to the eye, which shows how idle it is to think anything ridiculous except what is wrong.
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Well said, Wulf. The DSM-IV, which is referred to as the "psychiatrists bible" is very clear about it, but that doesn't seem to translate to most people. They are very strict that there is no diagnosis unless whatever it is "causes serious impediment to functioning", but people don't seem to get that--even many p-docs!
Rose, oh, boy, again, you got it! Then, too, I was dx'd long ago and put on medication for thyroid problems, but it wasn't until I was properly dx'd bipolar that I learned hypo- or hyper-thyroid conditions virtually always go hand in hand with bipolarity! So much is missed on both sides of diagnosis.
Hippie Operative Nikovich Nikita Nicovna Talibani,
Contracted Agent of Veritas Oilspillus, code name “Nike”,
signing off
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Frem and Wulf, I totally agree that over labeling is a problem, especially with kids. The key is that the differences are impacting daily functioning, but a lot of clinicians seem to over look that as Niki said. I don't believe in saying someone has a disorder unless they actually have it. Don't get me started on that one. Some people may have slight tendencies towards something, but unless it is pervasive it shouldn't be diagnosed and labeled.
Niki, I'm having a hard time tonight too, not the same you are, but still, luh suh.
Phoenix a chara, I agree that more definitive tests would be really helpful and it bothers me that more pdocs don't take that stuff seriously. The key is to figure out what exactly is lacking or overabundant, and work on getting those balances right and stable and to be in a way where the person can do as well as possible.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya
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Ah yes, the old "checklist diagnosis" I hate so much, often complicated by docs taking parents/teachers and so on at their word despite them offering biased or incorrect information for their own reasons, on top of a certain "push" by Big Pharma to get their products in use - which to my mind is downright negligence if not malpractice.
It takes a minimum of ninety minutes in a controlled environment to properly diagnose a behavioral disorder, and anything less is just a halfass guess - but when medical coverage doesn't extend to that, it just makes this all the worse.
Plenty of source documentation for that kinda thing is available if you know where to look.
-Frem
I do not serve the Blind God.
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Yeah, I think that for a first time diagnosis they should see the person a few times before deciding on a definitive one, especially with kids. But people don't view things my way.
"A completely coherant River means writers don't deliver" KatTaya
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Very interesting. Another interesting aspect to that is misdiagnosis. I've encountered more than a few Asperger cases where I do not believe the child really has Aspergers, but they need the diagnosis for insurance to provide coverage for behavioral therapy. I didn't like the dishonesty, but I was told our behavioral therapy program helps the children cope with their issues and the Autism or Asperger diagnosis is just necessary for some families to get the funding.
I don't want to hijack the thread so I'll keep this short, but because I've learned of more and more of these less than ethical practices in the company I worked for (and didn't exactly hide my disapproval) I am no longer working for said company. I had already decided I wanted to leave but was hoping to give them the finger and leave once I found another job. Oh well... perhaps this will be a blessing in disguise.
But anyway, back to your topic, I wonder how rampant fraud of that nature is when it comes to health care coverage. It's not necessarily evil because it was meant to help these children, but I am still uncomfortable with that manner of dishonesty. I worry that kind of dishonesty is part of what's wrong with many a government funded program.
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"... I wonder how rampant fraud of that nature is when it comes to health care coverage ..."
Well - it depends on which country you're in. If you're in the US where coverage is spotty even if available at all, and where constitutional issues keep the mentally ill wandering the streets, some might find any dodge used to get therapy for someone who needs it is a good thing.
Remember when teachers, public employees, Planned Parenthood, NPR and PBS crashed the stock market, wiped out half of our 401Ks, took trillions in taxpayer funded bailouts, spilled oil in the Gulf of Mexico, gave themselves billions in bonuses, and paid no taxes?
Yeah, me neither....
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