Abstract

ZANELLA, Michele; LUZ, Heloísa Helena Venturi; BENETTI, Idonézia Collodel  and  ROBERTI JUNIOR, João Paulo. Medicalization and mental health: Alternative strategies. Revista Portuguesa de Enfermagem de Saúde Mental [online]. 2016, n.15, pp.53-62. ISSN 1647-2160.  https://doi.org/10.19131/rpesm.0132.

INTRODUCTION: Regulation of behavior, based on drug prescriptions, has been an indiscriminately used resource. An epidemic of diagnoses, prioritizing and delegating responsibility to the neurobiology of child and adult misfits, has despised psychological, historical and social aspects. AIM: To discuss alternatives to the prevailing biomedical model and indiscriminate medicalization of children and adults, problematizing and suggesting possible strategies to be used in Mental Health and Psychosocial Care offered in the Brazilian Public Health Network. METHODS: It is an expository-argumentative and discursive work, which explores a specific theme, based on the Scientific Reading Method that relies on the syncretic, analytical and synthetic visions. CONCLUSIONS: All health professionals should feel capable of providing care in mental health field, beyond the pharmacological treatment, since in most cases what the patient expects is empathy and honest listening. And if, in fact, many of the diagnoses are not clinically valid, because they are a socially constructed form of medicalizing the "undesirable" behaviors; therefore, their removal from DSM is not only logical, but also ethical and necessary.

Keywords : Medicalization; Social support; Mental health; Mental health services.

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