Disease Mongering

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Cover picture of an anthology on the subject

Disease Mongering (German term disease invention , a special form of pathologization ) is a political catchphrase that describes the inadmissible assignment of normal life courses or individual (supposed) "defects" such as baldness in men to diseases in need of therapy . In the English-speaking world, it is one of the common words used in antipsychiatry .

In a broader sense, a disease is misdiagnosed which (at least so far) is only a non-pathological variant of the health. For example, if there is a slight change in mood or a normal emotional reaction, a bipolar disorder is assumed, if children are particularly lively or are burdened by family conflicts, an attention deficit / hyperactivity disorder, and if they are slightly overweight, a disorder ( obesity ).

Disease mongering is also used by Scientology , among others, when it rejects biopsychology in particular .

Origin of the term and economic meaning

The term was used as a book title by Lynn Payer in 1992 and introduced in the British Medical Journal by journalist Ray Moynihan , general practitioner Iona Heath and pharmacologist David Henry . The psychiatrist David Healy deals with disease mongering in the field of psychotropic drugs . In Germany, the phenomenon is reflected in the book The Disease Inventors by Jörg Blech . As a specific example, he cites u. a. the so-called Sissi syndrome .

From disease mongering now all professions, pharmaceutical and benefit medical device companies , hospitals , wellness - and health establishments, university institutes, scientists and researchers, testing labs, book authors and publishers, etc. In the criticism is in this context, especially the pharmaceutical industry , the new disease terms impressed Expands existing terms or dramatizes certain defects or symptoms in order to open up new sales markets.

In the book Hypochondria Can Be Fatal by John Naish , the following "diseases" and "syndromes" are named as examples of disease mongering : dishcloth syndrome, disco finger syndrome, golf ball liver, fairground stroke and credit card scias.

In their study, Steven Woloshin and Lisa M. Schwartz examined a collection of news and press releases about a new drug for Restless Legs Syndrome and suggested that this could serve as an example of disease mongering. RLS does exist as a disease, but the vast majority of those affected do not require treatment. As a result of the increased attention, RLS diagnoses and treatments could be started more frequently, in the opinion of the authors even in patients who had previously not assessed the symptoms as a disease.

Disease mongering also occurs in psychiatry , for example with William Sears , who claims to have observed a “shutdown syndrome” in children who have been subjected to sleep training . In popular scientific advice literature for women who suffer from the fact that their sexual partner does not want to commit themselves to a firm bond, descriptions of the symptom picture of a narcissistic bond-phobic disorder are circulating , which also does not appear in the medical classification systems DSM-5 and ICD-10 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A collection of articles on disease mongering. PLoS Medicine. 2006 ( Memento of the original from June 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / collections.plos.org
  2. ↑ Fred Baughman : The Rise and Fall of ADD / ADHD . ICSPP. September 25, 2000. Archived from the original on February 18, 2007. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved June 3, 2007. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / icspp.org
  3. ↑ Healy D: The latest mania: selling bipolar disorder Archived from the original on October 11, 2008. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: PLoS Med. . 3, No. 4, 2006, p. E185. doi : 10.1371 / journal.pmed.0030185 . PMID 16597178 . PMC 1434505 (free full text). @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / medicine.plosjournals.org
  4. ↑ The Gravity of Weight The daunting science of weight control , by Sylvia R. Karasu, The Medicalization of Weight: Are We "Disease Mongering?", March 29, 2013 Psychology Today
  5. ↑ Stephen Barlas and Psychiatric Times staff: Psychiatric Profession Current Target of Citizens Commission on Human Rights . CCHR . April 16, 2006. Retrieved June 3, 2007.
  6. ^ R. Moynihan et al .: Selling sickness: the pharmaceutical industry and disease mongering. In: BMJ , 324/2002, pp. 886-91.
  7. ↑ Deutschlandradio: Vom Spüllappensyndrom, Discofinger and other dangerous diseases , from December 13, 2005
  8. ↑ Süddeutsche Zeitung: Diseases fair
  9. ↑ Steven Woloshin, Lisa M. Schwartz: Giving Legs to Restless Legs: A Case Study of How the Media Helps Make People Sick ( Memento of the original from May 1, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked . Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / medicine.plosjournals.org
  10. ^ Bill Sears, Martha Sears: The Attachment Parenting Book. A Commonsense Guide to Understanding and Nurturing Your Baby , Little, Brown and Company, New York, Boston, 2001, ISBN 0-316-77809-5 , pp. 122f, 126f

literature

  • Jörg Blech: The inventors of the disease. How we are made into patients. Fischer, Frankfurt 2004, ISBN 3-10-004410-X
  • Peter Conrad: The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 2007
  • David Healy: The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder. In: PLoS Med , 3/2006, e185
  • Lynn Payer: Disease-Mongers. How Doctors, Drug Companies and Insurers Are Making You Feel Sick. John Wiley, New York 1992, ISBN 0-471-54385-3
  • Jürgen Windeler: Disease Mongering - importance for care.
  • Howard Wolinsky: Disease mongering and drug marketing. In: EMBO reports , 6/2005, pp. 612–4.
  • Werner Bartens: It doesn't take much to be sick. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung No. 162 of July 16, 2011, p. V2 / 1.