The Mental Health Epidemic: Advancements in Physical Medicine vs. Psychotherapy Over The Last 100 Years

Over the last 100 years, revolutionary discoveries have been made in medicine that have transformed science and our everyday lives.

The development of CT and MRI scanning completely revolutionized how diseases such as cancer are detected and how treatments are planned. The first clinical whole-body MRI scan was conducted in 1980. The quality of medical care has never been better and is constantly improving with new inventions and treatments being developed. With new vaccines, pharmaceuticals, surgical breakthroughs, and many other developments, patient outcomes and quality of life have drastically improved.

However, psychological care has not improved nearly as much in the past 50 years. Psychotherapy involves talking to clients who might be experiencing mental illness. Although about 21% of U.S. adults have experienced mental illness, psychotherapy treatments have not seen any substantial improvements since 1970. Therapists tend to get stuck in clinical relationships where they feel as though they are just going through the motions, session after session. Most therapists keep “progress notes’’ instead of tracking outcomes, reducing a clinical process to an archaic practice. Although session notes can record improvement, the overall practice and…