We would like to point out something quite obvious regarding this latest psychiatric evaluation tool;  Psychiatrists are forever claiming that mental “disorders” are on par with real physical illness—That ADHD, Bipolar Disorder,  Obsessive Compulsive disorder and the myriad of DSM diagnoses are the same as real medical conditions like cancer or diabetes.  Well,  try and imagine a doctor diagnosing a patient with cancer via a videotaped interview.  Or diabetes.     Yet the “mental illness is the same as physical illness” is the PR line used by psycho/pharma to obtain billions in government funding.     And that’s why mandating mental health parity (equal insurance coverage for mental disorders as that which is covered for real physical illness/disease)  is a joke.  Its not about parity for people with “mental illness” its about a blank check for Psycho/Pharma to bill insurance.

PhysOrg.com
August 6, 2010

Psychiatrists can accurately assess a patient’s mental health by viewing videotaped interviews that are sent to them for consultation and treatment recommendations, according to a new study by researchers at the UC Davis School of Medicine.

The approach, called asynchronous telepsychiatry, uses store-and-forward technology, in which medical information is retrieved, stored and transmitted for later review using e-mail or Web applications. It has been used extensively for specialties like dermatology, with photos of skin conditions sent to dermatologists, or x-rays sent to radiologists for assessment.

However, the current study is the first to examine store-and-forward technology for psychiatry, said Peter Yellowlees, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences and the study’s lead author. “A Feasibility Study of the Use of Asynchronous Telepsychiatry for Psychiatric Consultations” is published in the August issue of the journal Psychiatric Services.

“We’ve demonstrated that this approach is feasible and very efficient,” said Yellowlees, who is an internationally recognized expert in telepsychiatry. “Using store-and-forward technology allows us to provide opinions to primary-care doctors much more quickly than would usually be the case.”

The researchers conducted the study to determine the effectiveness of asynchronous telepsychiatry for patients in Tulare County, a rural county in California’s San Joaquin Valley. Sixty male and female patients between the ages of 27 and 64 who had mostly mild-to-moderate mental-health disorders were included in the study.

Researcher Alberto Odor, associate adjunct professor of anesthesiology and pain medicine, conducted 20- to 30-minute structured videotaped interviews at a community-based primary-care clinic. The videos were then uploaded to UC Davis’ specially designed Web-based telepsychiatry consultation record. Yellowlees and Donald Hilty, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, reviewed the videotapes and provided psychiatric evaluations to the patients’ community-based primary-care physicians.

Fifty-one percent of patients received diagnoses of mood disorders, 19 percent received diagnoses of substance use disorders, 32 percent received diagnoses of anxiety disorders and 5 percent received other diagnoses — including kleptomania, schizophrenia and parasomnia. Five patients also were diagnosed with disorders such as borderline personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder or personality disorder. Some of the individuals had multiple diagnoses.

Read entire article:  http://www.physorg.com/news200305373.html