The Doctor's Educational Blues

The Doctor's Educational Blues

Helpful pamphlets
Come in the mail

Primary care
Diagnosis and treatment
For bipolar disorder
Is particularly popular
Right now

An article or journal
Arrives nearly every day

I read one
Sponsored by a helpful
Grant from Astra-Zenica

They happen to make
A drug
FDA approved
For treatment

The pamphlet says
1 percent
of the population
Is bipolar
Using the DSM IV criteria
For diagnosis
(Developed by psychiatrists
Experts in mental health)

But it says
If we use a broader definition
Than the DSM IV criteria
Then 2-8% of the population
Is bipolar

They have a questionnaire
For me to use
On patients
To diagnose
This disorder

They fail to mention
If they used the strict
DSM IV criteria
Or the looser criteria
To make the questionnaire

I can see that Astra-Zenica
Will sell more drugs
If we loosen up the diagnosis

I sit and wonder
How helpful it is
To change the diagnosis
And put more people
On medicine

Helpful to Astra-Zenica
No doubt

The pamphlet has a chart
Showing the range of feeling
Normal to manic

Normal is listed as
Happy and joyous

I sit and wonder
How many of us
Would feel that we are normal
Looking at that chart

Not me


5/19/06