Mental Health Parity

Interesting article in the New York Times this weekend. Click here to read it.  It is fascinating to me that there are still people in the world who value physical illness differently than mental illness.  Why?  We can't prevent a heart attack by "force of will".  Why do we insist that, if the brain goes haywire, it is fixable with just a bit more attention to detail.  Why is a feeling of soreness in the throat more valid than the a feeling of hopelessness?  What can we be exhausted from the flu but not post-partum depression.  I know that those of you in practice know what I am talking about.  

My favorite line is "anything that would not turn up in an autopsy, as in depression or agoraphobia, cannot be equated with physical illness".  Much of what we do won't show up on an autopsy!  Heart arrythymias, seizures, even a potassium chloride overdose won't show up on autopsy.   These false dichotomies have got to go.