Undergraduate / Admission Essay - Subject of importance to me (Diseases Du Jour) [4]

Topic E: REQUIRED
Choose an issue of importance to you--the issue could be personal, school related, local, political, or international in scope--and write an essay in which you explain the significance of that issue to yourself your family, your community, or your generation.

Due: march 1!
rec: no more than 120 eighty-character lines of text.

Diseases du jour arise every decade or so, creating a difficult situation for those that truly have the disease. In some cases, entrance in the DSM does not even necessarily mean that it is a true disorder, but rather that it can be reimbursed by insurance companies, thereupon bringing financial benefit to those running a treatment center. Additionally, one must not overlook the side agreements the experts make. If one person decides to support the others disorder, that support must then be reciprocated when needed. With these sort of side deals, it is no surprise that the DSM has increased in size to 297 disorders in a massive 886 pages. The repercussions of hysterical reactions to disorders du jour are long lasting; we may not fully realize the damages we have imposed on patients until it is too late: Sometimes people are falsely accused of horrifying acts; due to broad definitions in the DSM, we see attention-seekers taking advantage of treatment centers; as long as the questionnaire about bipolar disorder or depression that you can find inside popular magazines is filled out, it seems like many doctors are eager to prescribe medication without fully getting to know the patient.

In 1973, dissociative identity disorder-then known as multiple personality disorder-emerged as a popular illness to be diagnosed with after the publication of a book devoted to the case of a young woman named "Sybil," who had developed sixteen personalities in order to cope with severe abuse. According to Dr. Herbert Spiegel, an expert in hypnosis who was conducting experiments on a separate matter with her, Sybil's therapist, Dr. Cornelia Wilbur, was helping her give names, or "personalities," to certain perspectives or memories. It seemed she felt an obligation to become another personality when she was with Dr. Wilbur. Dr. Spiegel argued that Sybil was a "wonderful hysterical patient with role confusion." As is the case with many popularized disorders, the therapist, in pursuit of a diagnosis, imposes their hypothesis on the patient by manipulating how they ask questions. In an attempt to please the doctor, the patient then responds according to their suggestions. The epidemic has more or less subsided, but as Dr. Paul McHugh of Johns Hopkins explains, it is a "textbook case of an alleged disorder whose identification is based entirely on appearances and then sustained as valid by its listing in the DSM." After the book on Sybil was published, there was an outpour of people claiming they too had multiple personalities and had repressed their memories of various abuses. Innocent people were mistakenly charged and many families were torn apart.

Post-traumatic stress disorder appeared in the DSM-III in the late 1970's after psychiatrists in the Veterans Administration pushed for the admission of a condition that embodied the feelings veterans had after returning home. They argued that if not treated, veterans could develop chronic illnesses due to the stress of combat. This could perhaps explain the variety of other problems such as homelessness, family problems, and drug issues veterans face. Once the disorder appeared in the DSM, a large number of patients flowed in. This meant steady work for the doctors during the end of the war and veterans enjoyed the perks of the sick-the makings of an easily exploitable situation, especially because of the increasingly broad diagnostic features. Studies from the Yale-affiliated VA hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, have shown that even after long-term medical treatment and therapy of PTSD symptoms, the relationship and drug problems remained the same or even became worse.

A Columbia University study led by Dr. Mark Olfson found that from 1994 to 2003, doctors visits resulting in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder increased from 20,000 children to 800,000; most of those in the study took at least two drugs. They have also found that nearly all who are labeled such, do not develop mania, but rather have a higher chance of becoming depressed. According to Dr. Olfson, the "striking increases in this short a time" leads one to question the validity of the diagnoses. The drug companies are pushing their products on a new, young demographic by placing ads in magazines and television with oversimplified questions, sponsoring psychiatric conferences, or even sponsoring psychiatrists themselves. Doctors should not be so eager to give out medications to children as if they were jelly beans.

I'm unsure about the conclusion..should i put the part where i list my complaints of the intro into the conclusion?..does the rest sound okay?

Do you think I should put quotes in all of the paragraphs to make them balanced or does it not matter?