Government might follow US in its plan to screen population for mental health problems, according to psychiatrist

June 21, 2004

The government might follow the example of plans in the United States and screen the UK population for mental health problems, according to a psychiatrist.

President George Bush established the "New Freedom Commission on Mental Health" in 2002 to conduct a "comprehensive study of the United States mental health service delivery system."

The commission reported last year that "despite their prevalence, mental disorders often go undiagnosed" and recommended comprehensive mental health screening for "consumers of all ages," including preschool children. Critics fear the initiative is nothing more than drug firms "fishing for customers".

Dr Prem Kunjukrishnan, a psychiatrist at Dewsbury & District Hospital, has now raised the spectre of a similar screening policy being carried out in the UK.

"On this side of the Atlantic, the powers that be in the Department of Health will, undoubtedly, watch with interest what unfolds as this gets underway." he wrote at the website of the British Medical Journal.

"As is the case with much that happens in the UK, we can anticipate a similar policy announcement under a different guise in the future."

Health minisiters have, however, never given any indication that they harbour plans to carry out such a mass screening. Any such policy would be hugely controversial.

According to the New Freedom Commission "each year, young children are expelled from preschools and childcare facilities for severely disruptive behaviours and emotional disorders."

Schools, wrote the commission, are in a "key position" to screen the 52 million students and 6 million adults who work at the schools.

But plans for a screening policy have been heavily criticised in the US. Robert Whitaker, journalist and author of Mad in America, told bmj.com that while increased screening "may seem defensible," it could also be seen as drugs firms "fishing for customers," and that exorbitant spending on new drugs "robs from other forms of care such as job training and shelter programmes."

Bmj.com has also drawn attention to the pharmaceutical firms' links with the Bush administration.

See full bmj.com article

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