Dr. Jeffery A. Lieberman makes a forceful argument for mental-health parity, “Go for parity now in mental health” (Commentary, May 9). At one time I strongly supported such sentiments but now am no longer so sure. Dr. Lieberman concludes, “The time is now; there’s no rational reason to wait.” Well perhaps there is, or at least not to rush so quickly.

The problem is that while the practice of medicine and mental-health treatment is considered both an art and a science, the actual real, verifiable science in mental health lags far behind that of medicine. What little science or research exists in mental health is as often as not disregarded by a significant number of practitioners whose training in research and science may leave much to be desired. This lack of scientific grounding can be found across mental-health disciplines.

Despite efforts to standardize the diagnosis of mental illness through the Diagnostic & Statistical Manual (DSM), getting mental-health professionals to agree on a diagnosis is often far more difficult than in medicine. And there are many mental-health professionals who say that diagnosis is meaningless anyway and will simply concoct any diagnosis as a means to get insurance companies to pay. That is fraud, of course, but detection is difficult.

For the above reasons it may well be time to wait or at least put some severe restrictions on parity and limit it to only those situations that approach the rigors of medical science. To do less, I fear, will simply create a drain on our resources for health care that we can ill afford at this time.

JOHN A. RIOLO

Barrington