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Erica Smith

Professor De Gruy

ENG.1201

November 11, 2021

Literature Review: Is Mental Illness Over Diagnosed during these Unprecedented Times?

Even before the pandemic, mental health was a stigma. Anxiety is high because the

unknown is constant. As I collected my evidence, many others are asking the question, “Is

mental illness over diagnosed during these unprecedented times?” Thus, it gave me the topic

with many sources, from CNN, UpToDate articles, research websites, and psychiatry books.

CNN reported by Katti Gray, discussed the topic of mental illness during the Covid-19

pandemic. CNN is a reliable, well-known news station. The topic of over diagnosing mental

illness during the pandemic.

“Critics say many factors have contributed to the "over-medicalizing" and over-diagnosis of mental illness.” [Figure 1]

The news article describes a day in the life of an American women named Kelli who

suffered a stillbirth at childbirth. “Kelli Montgomery chose rigorous exercise, yoga and
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meditation over the antidepressants and sleeping pills that her physicians immediately

suggested.” [1] Medication is usually the first step, with managing depression and stress shown

in the first paragraphs on the website. This also demonstrates the realness of mental illness. Dr.

Carl Bell stated 1 in 5 people have a psychological disorder. “All the good epidemiological

studies unfortunately show that one in five people have a psychological disorder. … They’re

prevalent, they’re just all over the place, and that’s very disturbing to some people,” said Dr. Carl

Bell, a Chicago psychiatrist and University of Illinois School of Medicine director of public

health and community psychiatry.” [11]

The next cited source is Psychiatr Psychol Law. 2018; 25(2): 325–327, published online

May 15, 2018. Joel Paris is a Canadian Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University. This is

reviewed by Ian Freckleton. This shows Joel Paris’s research on the opinions of mental illness, he

authored many books. This is a credible book demonstrating overdiagnosis in psychiatry. Paris

said, “Diagnoses are made rapidly – and often inaccurately. Instead of listening, and asking about

current circumstances, psychiatrists focus on a checklist of symptoms, a kind of parody of the criteria

listed in the DSM manual. Based on the answers to these questions, prescriptions will be written for

almost every problem – and ‘adjusted’ every time a patient comes in feeling distressed.” [325]

This has the authority of Transitional Psychiatry, the website is referenced to Xuerong

Liu, Mengyin Zhu, Rong Zhang, Jingxuan Zhang, Chenyan Zhang, Peiwei Liu, Zhengzhi Feng

& Zhiyi Chen. All credible sources are referenced. Accuracy is correct due to the publisher, and

the references which are reliable. This is to persuade the culture during this pandemic, that

mental illness is at an all-time high. This shows the effects of Covid-19 across the world. There

is evidence and statistics to help me draft my research paper.

The next source shows the worldwide effects of Covid-19. This is written by Larissa LC

Louie, Wai-Chi Chan, and Calvin PW Cheng, Department of Psychiatry, The University of Hong
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Kong, Hong Kong. In the introduction, the authors stated, “During a pandemic, people may

exhibit traumatic stress symptoms such as having nightmares and intrusive thoughts.7 Higher

stress scores from life events along with higher psychological distress are predictors of suicidal

risk, and level of stress has a moderate association with suicidal ideation.”[2] This article focuses

on the pandemic and the relation to suicidal ideation, and intrusive thoughts. These people who

suffer from these defects need to be mentally treated.

The UpToDate website has a lot of current accurate information for COVID-19, this

could help me stay up to date with the latest while researching. This shows that Covid-19 can

lead to psychiatric illness, itself. Murray B Stein, the author of the article, shows the impact of

the pandemic on mental health from health care workers to the general population. Studies show

high alert numbers, and symptoms of depression, anxiety, insomnia, and traumatic distress.

“Consistent with these results is the finding from an online survey of Canadian health care

workers (n >500, 90 percent female) in April 2020, which reported that 47 percent needed

psychological support [9].” Reported by author Murray B Stein.

In conclusion, this is noteworthy research to do answer my question. It is 50/50 in over

diagnosing mental illness. Mental illness is now real, more than ever. The way we treat mental

illness research still needs to be conducted. Many studies which are shown in my research are on

track to figure out the right key to the mental illness madness. Instead of shoving pills down

throats. This is an interesting topic, and these are interesting findings.

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Works Cited

CNN, Katti Gray and Special to. “Are We Over-Diagnosing Mental Illness?”

CNN, 16 Mar. 2013, www.cnn.com/2013/03/16/health/mental-illness-

overdiagnosis/index.html. Accessed 5 Nov. 2021.

Freckelton, Ian. “Overdiagnosis in Psychiatry: How Modern Psychiatry Lost Its

Way While Creating a Diagnosis for Almost All of Life’s Misfortunes, by Paris Joel.”

Psychiatry, Psychology, and Law, vol. 25, no. 2, 15 May 2018, pp. 325–327,

www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6818431/,

10.1080/13218719.2018.1463588.

Liu, Xuerong, et al. “Public Mental Health Problems during COVID-19

Pandemic: A Large-Scale Meta-Analysis of the Evidence.” Translational Psychiatry,

vol. 11, no. 1, June 2021, 10.1038/s41398-021-01501-9.

Louie, L. L. C., Chan, W. C., & Cheng, C. P. W. (2021). Suicidal Risk in Older Patients

with Depression During COVID-19 Pandemic: a Case-Control Study. East Asian Archives of

Psychiatry, 31(1), 3–8. https://doi.org/10.12809/eaap2055

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“UpToDate.” Www.uptodate.com, www.uptodate.com/contents/covid-

19-psychiatric-illness. https://www.uptodate.com/contents/covid-19-

psychiatric-illness?search=covid-19-psychiatric-

illness.&source=search_result&selectedTitle=1~150&usage_type=default&dis

play_rank=1 Accessed 5 Nov. 2021.