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Stigmatisation: classifying drug and alcohol misuse as mental illness

Department of Psychology, The University of Strathclyde, Graham Hills Building, 40 George Street, Glasgow GI IQE

EDITED BY MATTHEW HOTOPF

Crisp et al's (2000) article aims "to determine opinions of the British adult population concerning those with mental illnesses as baseline data for a campaign to combat stigmatisation". Specifically, the authors go on to list the disorders investigated: severe depression, panic attacks, schizophrenia, dementia, eating disorders, alcoholism and drug addiction.

I was surprised by the way in which alcoholism and drug addiction were grouped under the label of mental illness as if this was a commonly accepted truth within the scientific community.

The literature on drug and alcohol use and addiction suggests that these phenomena have to be seen as a complex interaction between a variety of factors, including psychosocial ones (McMurran, 1994). Similarly, views on drug use (and also mental illness) may change over time and are also the result of socio-political and historical contexts (Foucault, 1967; Levine, 1979). Treating drug and alcohol addiction as mental illness is an indication of the way mental illnesses are currently defined by the American Psychiatric Association (Cooksey & Brown, 1998) and should perhaps not be accepted all too readily as truth.

I recognise the psychiatric community's need to categorise mental illnesses. However, by classifying drug and alcohol users as suffering from mental illness, a position for which no evidence is given, this research, however well intended, may be stigmatising in itself.

REFERENCES

Cooksey, E. C. & Brown, P. (1998) Spinning on its axes: DSM and the social construction of psychiatric diagnosis. International Journal of Health Services, 28, 525-554.

Crisp, A. H., Gelder, M. G., Rix, S., et al (2000) Stigmatisation of people with mental illnesses. British Journal of Psychiatry, 177, 4-7.[Abstract/Free Full Text]

Foucault, M. (1967) Madness and Civilisation: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason. London: Tavistock.

Levine, H. G. (1979) The discovery of addiction: changing conceptions of habitual drunkenness in America. Journal of Studies on Alcohol, 15, 493-506.

McMurran, M. (1994) The Psychology of Addiction. London: Taylor and Francis.

This Article Submit an eLetter Alert me when this article is cited Alert me when eLetters are posted Alert me if a correction is posted Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via CrossRef Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Heim, D. Search for Related Content PubMed Articles by Heim, D.