No Test Required

Another interesting point that Mr. Jeff Griffin makes in the interview I mentioned yesterday is that psychiatrists do not have to use any objective medical tests in order to make a diagnosis or prescribe a medication.

Some tests have been developed, and are even used in clinic and in research. All these tests consist of questions and answers. They are not, strictly speaking, objective. What they provide is a quantative scale. The result of such a test is usually a number, that the researchers can compare with other numbers received from other research. Yet, this number still depends on the subject's ability to understand the question, willingness to answer it truthfully, as well as the interviewer's manner of gathering the information.

So, these tests are subjective, if convenient for comparative measuring. Yet, even they are not required in clinical practice. A subjective judgment of a psychiatrist alone is still enough to detain someone in a psychiatric hospital, label him with a diagnosis and give him medications agains his will. Strange as it is, this is the law.