This commentary focuses principally on the semantics of using the term ‘mental health’ rather than ‘mental illness’ and the effect this has in creating a paradigm shift in psychiatry in relation to other medical specialties. The consequences, intended or unintended, are demonstrated and the relationship between ethics and economics in mental health is discussed. The view that economic evaluation is methodologically unsound in ‘mental health’, that it is a special case because of its complexity, does not acknowledge the significant paradigm shift that has occurred. Casual acceptance of the term ‘mental health’ in a serious economic debate about resources for people with mental illnesses is worrying and further diminishes the medical specialty of psychiatry that deals with mental diseases.