This week, the American Psychiatric Association released the fifth edition of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual, known as the DSM-V. Known as psychiatry’s bible, the DSM provides mental health professionals with descriptions and diagnostic criteria for every recognized mental disorder.
The DSM has a storied past — the first edition of the Manual, published in 1952, categorized homosexuality as a mental disorder — and criticism continues to this day. Dr. Allen Frances, author of “Saving Normal” and “The Essentials of Psychiatric Diagnosis,” chaired the DSM IV Task Force. He says that “the DSM is enormously useful if it stays within its competence,” but, particularly with the DSM V, he’s concerned about “a loosening of the diagnostic criteria” in mental health care.
“Even worse is the way the criteria are misapplied,” he says, “largely because of the drug company advertising and also because diagnoses are made much too quickly.”