A recent Finnish study shows that people are commonly given misleading information about depression. According to the researchers, the inaccurate information makes it harder for people to understand the causes of their distress. Most psychiatric diagnoses are purely descriptive.
For example, a diagnosis of depression is only a description of the various psychological symptoms - not the cause. Yet depression is often talked about as a disorder that causes low mood and other symptoms. Researchers describe this as a form of circular reasoning, which means that psychiatric diagnoses are frequently talked about circularly, as if they described the causes for symptoms.
This makes it difficult for people to understand their distress. Depression should be considered as a diagnosis similar to a headache. Both are medical diagnoses, but neither explains what causes the symptoms.
Like a headache, depression is a description of a problem that can have many different causes. A diagnosis of depression does not explain the cause of depressed mood any more than a diagnosis of headaches explains the cause of pain in the head." Jani Kajanoja, postdoctoral researcher and medical doctor specializing in psychiatry , University of Turku in Finland This misconception is also perpetuated by mental health professionals, shows a recent study by the University of Turku and the University of the Arts Helsinki.
In the study, the researchers analyzed publicly available information on depression provided b.