The psychiatric profession has been the subject of "vitriolic attack", with practitioners particularly demonised for their attitude to treatment, Prof Patricia Casey said yesterday.
Speaking at the launch of Depression Awareness Week Nationwide (DAWN), Dr Casey, professor of psychiatry at UCD and the Mater Hospital, said: "We (psychiatrists) are stereotyped as filling people with drugs, as not talking to our patients and of not seeking to improve the services that our patients so desperately require."
Emphasising that she was not an apologist for poor standards of care, she added: "In stigmatising the speciality of psychiatry one stigmatises people for seeking appropriate help, and receiving treatment for what is potentially a fatal disorder.
"Those who suffer with depressive illness are unlikely to come forward for any kind of treatment if they feel stigmatised by their condition."
She described recent European research which identified depression as the most important factor associated with suicide. At 14 per cent, the Republic had the highest prevalence of depression of six European countries studied.
Pointing out that antidepressant drugs were not an appropriate intervention for people who are lonely or have chronic social problems, Prof Casey said she believed the opposite. "Psychiatrists have to be careful not to extend the boundaries of depression too far in that anyone who complains of low mood is given a mood-altering drug."
Prof Casey told the meeting, organised by the patient advocacy group AWARE, that the way in which suicide was reported in the media could trigger a domino effect in some vulnerable people.
By reporting suicide in a glorified way, "there is a danger that it will not be connected to its very close association with mental illness, usually depressive illness."
Depression Awareness Week runs from yesterday to September 13th. For further details contact AWARE at (01) 6617211.