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People may be getting more willing to report pain.1 Similarly, people seem to be getting more depressed with evidence of an increasing rate of depression in cohorts born after the Second World war and an increase in the rates of depression for all ages between 1960 and 1975.2 These secular trends have implications for understanding the aetiology of mental health problems. The dominant biological understanding of mental health problems has implications for psychiatry as well as for those with back pain whose problems taken to the extreme are seen exclusively in terms of spinal disease and injury. The conclusion seems to be that society has a pathogenic effect.3
By the way I have had problems with lower back pain in the past.
1. Croft P. Is life becoming more of a pain? BMJ 2000;320:1552-3
2. Klerman GL, Weissman MM. Increasing rates of depression. JAMA 1989;261:2229-35
3. Gijswijt-hofstra M & Porter R (eds) Cultures of psychiatry and mental health care in post-war Britain and Netherlands. 1998, Amsterdam, Wellcome Institute
Competing interests:
No competing interests
11 June 2000
D B Double
Consultant Psychiatrist
Norfolk Mental Health Care NHS Trust, 80 St Stephens Road, Norwich NR1 3RE
Re: Is life becoming more of a pain?
People may be getting more willing to report pain.1 Similarly, people seem to be getting more depressed with evidence of an increasing rate of depression in cohorts born after the Second World war and an increase in the rates of depression for all ages between 1960 and 1975.2 These secular trends have implications for understanding the aetiology of mental health problems. The dominant biological understanding of mental health problems has implications for psychiatry as well as for those with back pain whose problems taken to the extreme are seen exclusively in terms of spinal disease and injury. The conclusion seems to be that society has a pathogenic effect.3
By the way I have had problems with lower back pain in the past.
1. Croft P. Is life becoming more of a pain? BMJ 2000;320:1552-3
2. Klerman GL, Weissman MM. Increasing rates of depression. JAMA 1989;261:2229-35
3. Gijswijt-hofstra M & Porter R (eds) Cultures of psychiatry and mental health care in post-war Britain and Netherlands. 1998, Amsterdam, Wellcome Institute
Competing interests: No competing interests