DSM-5 or DSM-V is the planned fifth edition of the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It is due for publication in May 2013. It is likely to affect all of us one way or another.
Please read the latest article by Allen Frances in Psychology Today. Jan 16th 2013. here It is titled – Bad News: DSM 5 Refuses to Correct Somatic Symptom Disorder – Medical illness will be mislabeled mental disorder.
Allen Frances, M.D., was chair of the DSM-IV Task Force and of the department of psychiatry at Duke University School of Medicine, Durham, NC. USA. He is currently professor emeritus at Duke.
He starts- “Many of you will have read a previous blog prepared by Suzy Chapman and me that contained alarming information about the new DSM 5 diagnosis ‘Somatic Symptom Disorder.’ SSD is defined so over inclusively by DSM 5 that it will mislabel 1 in 6 people with cancer and heart disease; 1 in 4 with irritable bowel and fibromyalgia; and 1 in 14 who are not even medically ill.”
He goes on to say later “We have failed and DSM 5 has failed us. For reasons that I can’t begin to fathom, DSM 5 has decided to proceed on its mindless and irresponsible course. The sad result will be the mislabeling of potentially millions of people with a fake mental disorder that is unsupported by science and flies in the face of common sense.”
It is important as many people as possible read this article and if possible write informed comments, to show how much concern there is about these changes. So please ask others to read this article too.