The DSM-5 was in development for more than 10 years. Its official release was announced in May, 2013 at the American Psychiatric Association’s annual meeting in San Francisco, California. New diagnoses have been added and others have been amended or combined. Some proposed criteria considered for inclusion stirred up so much public and professional ire they were eventually eliminated from the final draft. […]
The DSM-5 will take its official introductory bow at the American Psychiatric Association annual meeting in San Francisco later this month. With all of the controversy surrounding it and the utter folly of what it will include, I got to asking myself: Why do I need it? Well, the answer is I don’t and I’m not at all sure that you do either. Here’s why: My practice is doing just fine, and many of the new diagnostic codes – completely [...]
Well, the Board of Trustees of the American Psychiatric Association has done it – they’ve signed off on a DSM-5 containing changes that are fraught with flaws, replete with overkill and scientifically weak. My advice to clinicians is this: If you have any intention of attending a DSM-5 workshop (or maybe you already have), you should challenge the presenter to address the changes that make absolutely no sense and that will likely lead to considerable over-diagnosis and indiscriminate medication use. [...]
