Psychiatry Manual Drafters Back Down on Diagnoses
Source: New York Times
In a rare step, doctors on a panel revising psychiatrys influential diagnostic manual have backed away from two controversial proposals that would have expanded the number of people identified as having psychotic or depressive disorders.
The doctors dropped two diagnoses that they ultimately concluded were not supported by the evidence: attenuated psychosis syndrome, proposed to identify people at risk of developing psychosis, and mixed anxiety depressive disorder, a hybrid of the two mood problems.
They also tweaked their proposed definition of depression to allay fears that the normal sadness people experience after the loss of a loved one, a job or a marriage would not be mistaken for a mental disorder.
But the panel, appointed by the American Psychiatric Association to complete the fifth edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, or D.S.M., did not retreat from another widely criticized proposal, to streamline the definition of autism. Predictions by some experts that the new definition will sharply reduce the number of people given a diagnosis are off base, panel members said, citing evidence from a newly completed study.
Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/09/health/dsm-panel-backs-down-on-diagnoses.html
Rhiannon12866
(205,202 posts)I was a psych major, remember the big changes in DSM IV, so I'm quite interested...
BlueIris
(29,135 posts)I was writing a long paper on mental health and public policy at the time, and remember reading about the response from media, politicians, clinicians. Lots of controversy. One person said the increase in number of diagnoses for the 4th edition "risk(ed) defining us all as mentally ill."
I doubt the people writing 'V' want to deal with a similar uproar this time around.
Gman
(24,780 posts)But to not classify symptoms as a disorder if they're not supported by evidence, regardless of opinions of anecdotal evidence.
Vinca
(50,261 posts)HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)This fight has more faces to consider than a personal identity disorder.
The public is truly scared of mental illness. Possibly, because they might get dx'd and then be handed back a fearsome load of the discrimination and disdain routinely heaped onto the mentally ill.