I predict that every life problem will eventually be labelled a "disease."
I wrote a piece on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder earlier this week, in which I suggested that some new diagnoses are being invented in psychiatry more for insurance and pursuit-of-disability reasons than because new diseases are being discovered.
Perhaps the trend began in the 1970s, when addictions were declared diseases rather than very bad habits, for the purpose of obtaining insurance reimbursement for addiction rehab. Then "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome" came along around the same time as "Sleep Disorders." Currently, we even have a diagnosis called "nicotine addiction," but I'm not sure whether we have "sex addiction" yet. "Morbid obesity" is surely a disease diagnosis nowadays, but I don't know whether being a fat slob is a diagnosis yet.
We should no longer term such labels "disease diagnoses": We should just call them "Insurance-Codable Conditions (ICC)." For example, pregnancy is not a disease, and to term it a "diagnosis" is odd. Best just to term it an ICC.
To support my view, we have two stories this week:
AMA to vote on whether video game addiction is a disease. They vote on whether something is a disease?
Disability for heavy metal addiction in Sweden.
See what I mean?
If medicine ever becomes politicized in the US, watch for an explosion of wacky ICCs. I have a few suggestions: Anger Disorder, Television Addiction Disorder, Unhappiness Disorder, Geriatric Disorder, Politics Addiction Disorder, Shopping Disorder, Hates-To-Go-Shopping Disorder, Can't Stand my Spouse Disorder, Carbon Abuse Disorder, and Ordinary Imperfect Person Disorder. Almost forgot an important one - Conservative-Thinking Disorder: the Libs will want to lock me away for that one.
Photo: Dr. Emil Kraepelin, the father of Psychiatric diagnosis
