QUALITY QUOTES QUESTION VALIDITY OF BIOMEDICAL PARADIGM - SELECTED COMMENTS from the expert panels at the two events hosted by the Division of Educational and Child Psychology of the BPS - MORE TO FOLLOW:

"We need to step out of the shadows of biomedical reductionism into the daylight of scientific humanism."

THESE QUOTES WERE FROM THE SPEAKERS NAMED BELOW BUT THEY MAY NOT BE 100% ACCURATE AT THIS STAGE NOR CAN THEY ALL BE ATTRIBUTED TO THE SPEAKER ORIGINALLY.  I AM CONFIDENT I HAVE TRIED TO COMMUNICATE THE FULL INTENT OF THE SPEAKER AND WILL ENDEAVOUR TO REVISE THEM AS MORE INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE. D.T. 1-07-13

"If  DSM continues to trend in the direction it is at the moment then the pool of 'normal' will become a puddle."(to be attributed)

"If we introduce a new disorder we must control it's application or 1% of the population will soon become 5% of the population."

"Kids are now being targetted with the full force the pharmaceutical companies can muster as the adult and speciality markets are fully saturated."

"For the first time in American history there are more deaths from legally prescribed drugs than there are from illegal street drugs." 

"There have been 3 false epidemics in the last 20 years - ADHD, ASD and Juvenile Bipolar Disorder."

"If there is to be a meaningful change we will have to shame the drug companies like we did for the tobacco industry with the harmful effects of smoking." 

"We all need to apply the principles of 'watchful waiting' as often with support problems rectify themselves naturally." 

Professor Allen Frances

"The medicalisation of social problems especially childhood has gone too far."

"There are not mental illnesses that can be diagnosed BUT peoples' problems that need solving creatively by all involved." 

"We do desperately need a paradigm shift as the current consensus of beliefs in social explanations of human behaviour are not supported by the biomedical  paradigm."

"Nothing can be more slightly defined than the line between sanity and insanity." (historical to be attributed)

" If all the passionate, angry and vain people were locked up who would hold the keys to the asylum?" ( historical to be attributed)

"If schizophrenia is made up of a 1,000 different things then why do we only have one label?" 

"It's not what's wrong with you that matters BUT what has happened to you as a human being." (Jacqui Dillon)

"Distress is a complex response to a complex situation."  

"Instead of understanding distress, behaviours will be medicalised. We need to stand back and understand people better."

Professor Peter Kinderman 

"The biggest problem with psychotropic drugs for children is that they can set up a life long dependency - the idea that you need a drug to make you normal is profoundly disempowering as you are growing up."

"The idea that a psychoactive drug  has a paradoxical effect is a myth. They do though have different effects due to dosage etc."

"The therapeutic effects of a drug are due to the side effects of the psychoactive drug and their toxicity."

"Early intervention movements in schizophrenia and other conditions usually result in significantly higher levels of medication being prescribed." (A 7 fold increase in the one Australian study cited)

Dr Joanna Moncrieff 

"I am a traditional psychiatrist who believes the current paradigm is flawed." 

"The current paradigm for organisisng services is doing more harm than good."

"We will not find a biomarker for a single mental illness in the next 100 years." 

"Ontologically you can not define diabetes by a person's behaviour nor can you define ADHD by behaviours alone." 

"Until the biological basis of a mental health issue is found searching for the brain parts involved is futile." (to be attributed)

The new biomedical cycle of life is BIRTH - RITALIN - PROZAC - VIAGRA - DEATH. (Slide to be attributed)

Professor Sami Timimi 

"It costs more to train a drugs rep for a pharmaceutical company than it does to train a child psychiatrist - and the investment is well worth it for the pharmaceutical industry."

Professor Peter Tyrer