DSM: "Bible" or a "true" Apocrypha?

1. Our position and reasons to be skeptical with all the hoopla
2. The history of DSM-ETC
4. Understanding DSM-IV
5. Criticisms of DSM
6. The Mental Status Examination (MSE)
7. Bibliography

The first two weeks of the month of February were abuzz with the news — carefully rehearsed and timely released by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) — that advanced "beta" copies of the forthcoming final edition of DSM-V were up for sales and evaluation.

In preparation for their most recent "Big Bang" the APA offers a website where the various proposed new diagnostic categories, being considered for inclusion on DSM-V, are listed for review, suggestions and/or comments.

Apocrypha

The following is what you will find if you visit this site:  www.dsm5.org.

Proposed Draft Revisions to DSM Disorders and Criteria 

The draft disorders and disorder criteria that have been proposed by the DSM-5 Work Groups can be found on these pages.  Use the links below to read about proposed changes to the disorders that interest you.  Please note that the proposed criteria listed here are not final.  These are initial drafts of the recommendations that have been made to date by the DSM-5 Work Groups.  Viewers will be able to submit comments until April 20, 2010. After that time, this site will be available for viewing only.

Structural, Cross-Cutting, and General Classification Issues for DSM-5

Disorders Usually First Diagnosed in Infancy, Childhood, or Adolescence

Delirium, Dementia, Amnestic, and Other Cognitive Disorders

Mental Disorders Due to a General Medical Condition Not Elsewhere Classified

Substance-Related Disorders

Schizophrenia and Other Psychotic Disorders

Mood Disorders

Anxiety Disorders

Somatoform Disorders

Factitious Disorders

Dissociative Disorders

Sexual and Gender Identity Disorders

Eating Disorders

Sleep Disorders

Impulse-Control Disorders Not Elsewhere Classified

Adjustment Disorders

Personality Disorders

Other Conditions that May Be the Focus of Clinical Attention

The important thing at this point is that numerous clinicians have begun capitalizing in the pre-sales "fever" for this manual, having published numerous books that portend an enormous success for this so-called "Bible" of the psychiatrists.

Redoubtable "bible"

Our position and reasons to be skeptical with all the hoopla

Over the years we have leveled criticisms to all the previous DSM-ETC manuals, aiming our attacks specifically at the most current, DSM-IV, which under the direction of Robert Spitzer became a forerunner of the future bulky manual, whose dimensions will expand, no doubt, to meet the requirement of the moment.

The history of DSM-ETC

As an idea, DSM-I was published for the first time in 1952, sponsored by the APA.

It consisted of an adaptation of a previous classification adopted in 1918 by the US Census Bureau for its internal use, for the use of the government psychiatric hospitals and for its application to the branches of the military medical services.

DSM-I then, only had 130 pages, and 106 diagnostic categories.

DSM-II made its debut in 1968, with 182 listed diagnostic categories in 134 pages.

Up until then, both manuals revealed the hegemony of the hold that at that at the time, psychoanalysis had on American psychiatry.

In both manuals symptoms did not receive special attention as part of specific disorders, being considered as mere faulty adaptations to the demands and realities of everyday living.

These flawed adaptations were distinguished among them in terms of severity, establishing progressive gradations in a continuum from mild neurotic symptoms to psychosis at the end of the line.

In other words, mental illnesses were one and the same in a matter of gradations.

Despite the inclusion of biological and psychological elements, the schema proposed by DSM resulted in a model that failed to delineate with any precision the differences that exist between abnormality and normalcy.