The Medical Model in Mental Health: An Explanation and Evaluation / Edition 1

by Ahmed Samei Huda

Overview

Many published books that comment on the medical model have been written by doctors, who assume that readers have the same knowledge of medicine, or by those who have attempted to discredit and attack the medical practice. Both types of book have tended to present diagnostic categories in medicine as universally scientifically valid examples of clear-cut diseases easily distinguished from each other and from health; with a fixed prognosis; and with a well-understood aetiology leading to disease-reversing treatments. These are contrasted with psychiatric diagnoses and treatments, which are described as unclear and inadequate in comparison.

The Medical Model in Mental Health: An Explanation and Evaluation explores the overlap between the usefulness of diagnostic constructs (which enable prognosis and treatment decisions) and the therapeutic effectiveness of psychiatry compared with general medicine. The book explains the medical model and how it applies in mental health, assuming little knowledge or experience of medicine, and defends psychiatry as a medical practice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780198807254
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	07/16/2019
Pages:	410
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.10(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Ahmed Samei Huda, Consultant Psychiatrist, Pennine Care NHS Foundation Trust, Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, UK

Dr Ahmed Samei Huda works as a Consultant Psychiatrist specializing in early intervention in psychosis in the Greater Manchester area. He has worked as a consultant psychiatrist since 2002, including about a year in Australia, and has focused on clinical work rather than academic research. This is his first published book. It was written because he felt the issues it addresses are often not addressed from the point of view of a clinician who has a good knowledge of how psychiatry compares to the rest of medicine.

Table of Contents

PrefaceAcknowledgements1. Explanation of basic concepts of medical terminology2. The role of diagnosis in medical practice and society3. The nature of diagnostic constructs4. The clinical picture, creating diagnostic constructs and causation5. Multidisciplinary working, evidence, treatment and decision making in medicine6. Criticism of psychiatric diagnosis7. Criticism of psychiatric treatment8. Reliability of diagnosis9. Spectrums with health10. Variability of clinical picture11. Spectrums of conditions12. Biological factors and health13. Social factors and health14. Clinical utility of diagnosis15. Treatments in psychiatry compared to general medicine16. Final conclusionsReferencesBibliographyIndex

Editorial Reviews

Reviewer: Aaron Plattner, MD (Network180 )
Description: The author explains the medical model and how this approach to patient care applies to the treatment of mental health issues.
Purpose: The author correctly identifies the seeming gap between the medical model and its application to patients with general medical and surgical concerns compared to how to approach a psychiatric patient. Readers will come away from this book with an understanding that this apparent gap is more insignificant than one might assume, as the author appropriately demonstrates how the medical model is used in the practice of psychiatry. This book meets the author's objectives of illustrating how psychiatry truly fits under the larger umbrella of medicine.
Audience: The book is "essential reading for both medical and non-medical mental health professionals, academics, patients, and their families acting as a guide to the concepts, influence, role and effectiveness of the medical model." While certainly anyone in this broadly identified group could benefit from this book because of how it carefully explains complicated material, it is nonetheless a topic that many nonmedical people probably do not consider in their interactions with mental health providers. Those who deliver care to the mentally ill would get the most benefit from this book by examining how they can approach their patients in the light of the medical model so that they can make appropriate adjustments to provide better treatment.
Features: The 16 chapters build upon each other and should be read in order. The author lays the foundation for the medical model, illustrates the strengths and weaknesses of psychiatry in using the medical model while still articulating that the medical model is necessary for psychiatry and vice versa, and provides a final conclusion. The book ends with references and an index.
Assessment: This truly is a unique book that has no comparisons. As I read it, I found myself going back to my first year of medical school when I was taught the basics of approaching a patient. This book served as a refresher course of sorts. Although the presentations do not focus on reexamining basic foundational practices, upon reading this book, I felt that a greater emphasis on reexamining how we approach patients should be considered. I benefitted from this book, but I do not think that the benefits will be immediately or even clearly observable; rather the benefits will be in a thousand smaller interactions with patients as I reconsider how I approach them. Those interested in this book should understand that they can't just read it, they need to slowly study it to get the most from it.

Doody's Review Service

"The book reads like a young man's quest to find the truth. For a nerdy psychiatrist, this book brings more anticipation and excitement than any Star Wars movie ... I am eagerly anticipating the sequel[.]" — Shuichi Suetani, Australasian Psychiatry

"This truly is a unique book that has no comparisons.... Those interested in this book should understand that they can't just read it, they need to slowly study it to get the most from it." — Aaron Plattner, MD, Doodys

"In response to growing library of books and papers that critique psychiatry as a medical approach to mental health problems, Samei Huda, a consultant psychiatrist, has written a comprehensive retort. ... the book is richly detailed and closely argued, providing a valuable (and as far as I know unique) trove of data on comparative treatment efficacy, social and biological risk factors and many other issues." — Huw Green, Discursive of Tunbridge Wells

"Huda's book provides a cutting edge, state-of-the-art summary and evaluation of diagnostic reliability and outcome data that will help patients and researchers alike interpret new studies, as Huda provides an excellent reference point for assessing the magnitude of effects. Dr. Huda's work is a breath of fresh air in what can seem like the social media disinformation whirlpool." — Daniel Winarick, Psychology Today

From the Publisher