Tag Archives: mental health
Depression 'over-diagnosed' with drugs
Dished out to patients who are simply sad or unable to sleep, warns expert
- Chris Dowrick claims half of patients labelled depressed were misdiagnosed
- Liverpool University professor calls on diagnosis guidelines to be tightened
- Patients ‘becoming reliant on drugs they don’t need’
- Mental health charities reject research – and say more people are being diagnosed due to pressure from debt and unemployment
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Millions of patients are being wrongly diagnosed with depression when they are simply sad, according to a new report
Million of patients are being wrongly diagnosed with depression when they are simply sad, according to a new report.
Anti-depressants are being dished out to people grieving loved ones, suffering sexual problems or even unable to sleep, claims a newly-published scientific paper published by academics at Liverpool Unversity.
The number of people diagnosed with mental illnesses like depression has doubled since 2002. It is believed more than five million people are now labelled depressed or suffering anxiety in the UK.
Liverpool University’s Professor of Primary Medical Care, Chris Dowrick, claims in a new report that up to half of these patients have been misdiagnosed.
Writing in the British Medical Journal, the academic, who also works as a GP, said: ‘Over-diagnosis is now more common than under diagnosis.’
Increase in funding for Norfolk’s mental health services ruled out
The GPs in charge of NHS purse strings have ruled out any significant increase in funding for mental health services, despite calls for more investment in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Adam Gretton, Health correspondent
Saturday, December 28, 2013
11:04 AM
Health spending plans have been a target for public protests during 2013.
The organising committee of a campaign to defend mental health services has pledged to lobby clinical commissioning groups (CCGs), and the acting chief executive of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust (NSFT) has also called for more funding in recent weeks.
However, the five CCGs that cover Norfolk and Waveney have scuppered any hopes of a major increase in funding for mental health services at a time of increased demand.
Christmas is a normal working day for us
Real people – whose time with their family is often postponed.
5:00pm Saturday 21st December 2013 in Local News By Ian Weinfass
Christmas is a normal working day for us
WHILE most of us are watching the Queen’s Speech, the Doctor Who Christmas special or tucking into our turkey but for some, it is a normal working day.
We all take it for granted that help is available for us 24 hours a days seven days a week, even on December 25.
But behind the uniform of these dedicated people, there are real people – whose time with their family is often postponed.
