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Controversy and Diagnosis: The new DSM
The revised Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders is scheduled for publication and release. The new DSM has been plagued with controversy in the formulation of several diagnoses and several committee members have resigned in protest during the process of revising this “psychiatric disease bible”. Changes to the diagnoses of: depression; compulsive over-eating; hoarding; autism and bi-polar disease in children have been central to the arguments and concerns. Are we over-medicalizing certain problems like grief or eating too much? Are the restricted diagnostic criteria for autism going to prevent young people who need education and support services to participate in school, vocational and community living programs?
In my training we had the DSM II, a vastly smaller and less strictly defined manual for psychiatric diagnosis. We appreciated the greater specificity and more scientific approach of the subsequent editions, but now many of us are wondering how the latest edition will impact or who it will effect.
Click here to read the New York Times view of the revised DSM:
Tag lines: depression, bipolar disease, autism, compulsive over-eating, mental health treatment, DSM
