Below, our Letter to the Editor, The Times in response to Matthew Parris’s article “Mental health industry is cheating the public, August 19th; letter August 20th
Sir, We write as a group of consultant psychiatrists in response to Matthew Parris’s article (“Mental health industry is cheating the public”, Aug 19; letters, Aug 20). There is a significant difference between those who are unfortunate enough to have severe mental illness and the examples given of individuals with some of the milder forms of neurodevelopmental differences. We know that specific medications, acting on specific neurotransmitter systems, can have therapeutic effects important for individuals and society. Our neuroscience knowledge in psychiatry remains far from complete but so is the knowledge of detailed mechanisms in much of medicine.
Measurement is also central in less severe mental ill health. For example, the “increasing access to psychological therapies” national programme was established with the help of Professor Lord Layard precisely with the intention of helping those with conditions such as depression and anxiety to recover and return to the workforce. Mandated and successful measurement systems within the national network of services demonstrate the effectiveness and value of these clinics.
Mental illness is already stigmatised and it is unhelpful for Parris to state, wrongly, that some people suffering from these conditions are choosing not to work. Far from being non-scientific, mental health is a pioneering branch of medicine in relation to measurement, clinical trials and the demonstration of what works.
Signed by Professor Isobel Heyman, UCL; Professor Tamsin Ford, Cambridge University; Professor Louise Howard, KCI; Professor Wendy Burn, Chester University; Professor Henrietta Bowden-Jones, Cambridge University