BSc Mental Health Critical Review Assignment 2023

Running head: BSC MENTAL HEALTH CRITICAL REVIEW ASSIGNMENT
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BSc Mental Health Critical Review Assignment
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

BSC MENTAL HEALTH CRITICAL REVIEW ASSIGNMENT
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“Psychiatric Diagnostic Classification Systems Lead To Suboptimal Outcomes for
Patients”
Introduction
Psychiatric diagnostic classification systems have proved to be useful over the past years
to offer universal guidance for mental health care provision. However, current studies have
found that the application of such systems leads to suboptimal outcomes for patients. The content
of this paper, therefore, evaluates the provided video and argues in support of the statement
based on various justifiable claims. Some of the points discussed in the paper is lack of
comprehensive evaluation of the patient cases by clinicians a window which is created by the
classification checklist, failure of the systems to present specific treatment approaches against
the mental disease within the checklist as well as the fact that these systems do not allow doctors
to conduct accurate diagnosis based on the scientific medical knowledge but rather evaluates
patients narratives based on the Psychiatric diagnostic classification systems checklist and simple
clinical observation. Also, the paper has discussed the over-diagnosis and misdiagnosis effect,
which is evident from the provided case video.
To begin with, I have picked the supportive stand is due to the over diagnosis and
misdiagnoses effect of mental patients based on psychiatric diagnosis classification systems
(Huys, Maia & Frank, 2016). The psychiatric diagnosis classification systems such as
Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders have been found by various scholars to
have an effect of over diagnosis and misdiagnosis. Misdiagnosis and over diagnosis as a risk

BSC MENTAL HEALTH CRITICAL REVIEW ASSIGNMENT
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occur when psychiatrist label people as mentally ill simply because they have significant
behaviors that are considered abnormal. Notably, when a patient is over diagnosed or
misdiagnosed, the patient will be treated for a wring disease which he or she may not be having
leading to suboptimal results. This is because no matter what type of medication you take for a
misleading diagnosis, there will be no recovery. Viewing this from a real-life perspective, many
mental doctors have often misdiagnosed childhood attention disorders (Keeley et.al 2016).
Moreover, taking the case of Rachael a mental health patient in the video for instance, as a result
of the DSM, the psychiatrist labeled her to be having three types of mental disorders and placed
her on a number of medications (Mendham & Farnham, 2017). However, according to her
testimony, the psychiatrists over-diagnosed her condition, and she did not recover after taking all
the medication due to misdiagnosis. Rachael sorted for alternative treatment which shows her
recover from most the episodes (Bentall, 1992).
Secondly, psychiatric diagnosis classification systems such as the DSM-5 lacks
evaluation validity and accurate understanding of the mental patient leading to suboptimal results
(Deacon, 2013). According to a healthcare diagnosis guide, a medical diagnosis is only valid and
reliable when it is the precise understanding of what the client is going through or conditions.
Conversely, psychiatric diagnosis classification systems such as Diagnostic and Statistical
Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) and the International Classification for Diseases (ICD) have
a set of diagnoses which are notably none objective to medical conditions (Parnas, 2015). The
psychiatric classification systems are instead dependant and amount to what patients report as

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their behaviors as well as the behaviors which clinicians observe and affirm not to conform to the
normal behaviors.
To this manner, psychiatric diagnoses simply rely on clinical observation and diagnosis
which in most cases may be psychologically biased as some doctors may manipulate the
diagnosis to fit their narratives in to the checklist or what is in the system ending up treating a
mental patient for a wrong disease leading to no recovery and suboptimal treatment results
(Wieland & Zitman, 2016). However, it is evident that social environment and cultural formation
around an individual have an effect and shapes how mental disorders are shaped. Thus in the
perspective of scientific philosophy and metaphysics, mental disorders should be viewed in the
perspective of constructivism. Therefore, clinicians should have an extensive view before
labelling a mentally ill patient and putting them into medications based on the psychiatric
diagnosis system checklists (Vassos, Agerbo, Mors & Pedersen, 2016).
Thirdly, psychiatric diagnosis systems oversimplify the nature of the mental illness,
leading to suboptimal treatment results due to its clinical diagnosis of nature. Critical evaluation
of the DSM, for instance, shows the omission of the vast continuum of individual human
behavior which results in the risk of losing taking into account unique human psychological
elements during treatment. In as much as psychiatric diagnosis systems simplify the clinicians'
work and offer guidance through the checklist, the system does not factor in theories of matter,
individual emotions, social and environmental interaction, and human consciousness (Lingiardi
et.al 2015). According to psychiatrists such as Doctor Melvin Grey, psychiatrist classification
should integrate emotional dimensions in order to attain optimal results while treating a mentally