Consumerism for neurobiological disorders. An assessment

Consumerism is a growing phenomenon in U.S. health care, yet its exercise is still inhibited by powerful forces within the medical community. Despite the neuroscientific framework that stresses the commonalities between mental and physical illness, consumerism is even more problematic and difficult in mental health care than in other areas of health care. People with severe mental illness and their advocates must contend with limited public understanding of neurobiological disorders, poor definitions of effective treatment, and a paucity of outcome data, especially from prospective randomized and long-term studies. The only clear way for consumerism to grow in mental health care is for its advocates to align themselves with the neuroscientific revolution and to demand that effective and equitable treatment programs be created based on the documented evidence of the physical nature of neurobiological disorders.