Quote by Catrin Elizabeth Street-Mattox

“There is a clear difference between the objectivity and subjectivity of the physical diagnostic criteria, such as that used for Parkinson’s, and the symptomatic diagnostic criteria used for mental disorders in the DSM. Brain diseases, like Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s, Frontotemporal lobe degeneration, Prion disease, Lewy Body dementia, and many others mentioned in the DSM-V, are diagnosed through objective physical tests, such as MRI scans, detection of misfolded proteins or identification of certain genes. These tests, and therefore the diagnoses of these disorders are objective; the MRI scan either does or does not show a physical indicator of biological dysfunction, misfolded proteins and particular genes are either biologically present or not. In this way, the diagnoses of such brain dysfunctions are objective, they either exist as a matter of fact or they do not. The need for these tests might be brought about because a service user is experiencing symptoms such as ‘postural rigidity’ or ‘tremors’, but these symptoms are not enough alone for a diagnosis of physical brain dysfunction, objective tests must be carried out. In contrast, the diagnosis of mental disorders rests on clusters of symptoms alone. If we are assessing whether someone is displaying ‘childlike silliness’ or ‘excessive emotionality’, we have no objective tests to aid us, our assessment is made solely on our subjective interpretation of the service user.”

Quote by Catrin Elizabeth Street-Mattox