By Nick Mcdermott

PUBLISHED: 18:20 EST, 12 May 2013 | UPDATED: 05:02 EST, 13 May 2013

Treating mental health problems such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder in the same way as illnesses is unhelpful, leading psychologists claim.

Even labelling the conditions is counterproductive they say, adding there is no evidence that a ‘breakdown’ or ‘severe emotional distress’ is the same as an illness with genetic or biological causes.

Instead, they feel the focus needs to be shifted towards dealing with the cause of the mental distress, in order to offer individuals ‘the right kind of help to recover’.

Unhelpful: There is no evidence that a 'breakdown' or 'severe emotional distress' is the same as an illness with biological causes.

The calls for a different approach to mental health has been rejected by many psychiatrists, who believe medication is the best way of tackling such issues.

It comes shortly before the release of the latest edition of American Psychiatry Association’s Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

It classifies many emotional and behavioural problems - including temper tantrums and excess worrying about personal health - as illnesses, suggesting they are treatable by doctors using drugs.

But in a statement set to be released today the British Psychological Society’s division of clinical psychology has called for a change.

Dr Lucy Johnstone, a consultant clinical psychologist who helped draw up the statement, argues there is no scientific basis for treating ‘emotional distress’ as a physical sickness.

She said: ‘No one is denying that people suffer very extreme forms of distress. What we are saying, and in fact what some of the world’s most senior psychiatrists are saying, is that there is no evidence that this kind of breakdown is best understood as an illness, with genetic or biochemical causes.

‘On the other hand, we do have an overwhelming amount of evidence that even severe psychiatric breakdown is the end result of a complex mix of social and psychological circumstances - in other words, things that have happened to you. ‘ She said the new approach must regard mental distress as ‘people with problems, not patients with illnesses’.

‘People break down for reasons in their lives, and unless we can understand those reasons we will not be able to offer them the right kind of help to recover,’ she said.

‘Obviously our brains and bodies are involved in mental distress. The question is, is there evidence that distress is mainly caused by changes in our bodies and brains? There is no evidence to support this - as senior psychiatrists themselves are admitting.’ But the DCPs views have proven controversial within the medical community.

Professor Sir Simon Wessely, a member of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and chair of psychological medicine at King’s College London, said a classification system for mental disorder was necessary.

Writing in the Observer, he said: ‘A classification system is like a map. And just as any map is only provisional, ready to be changed as the landscape changes, so does classification.’

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