According to the APA, intermittent explosive disorder is characterized by angry aggressive outbursts that occur in response to relatively minor provocation. This particular label has an interesting history in successive editions of the DSM. DSM I (1952) Intermittent explosive disorder does not appear as such in the first edition of DSM, but the general concept… Continue Reading
Justina Pelletier: The Case Continues
On March 25, Joseph Johnston, Juvenile Court Justice in Boston, Massachusetts, issued a disposition order in the case: Care and protection of Justina Pelletier. The background to the case is well-known. Justina is 15 years old. Judge Johnston did not return Justina to the care of her parents, but instead granted permanent custody to the… Continue Reading
DSM-5: Dimensionality: Conflicts of Interest
In DSM-5 – Dimensional Diagnoses – More Conflicts of Interest? which I posted on December 23, 2013, I drew attention to the fact that David Kupfer, MD, in his position as head of the DSM-5 Task Force, was vigorously promoting a dimensional model of assessment while at the same time was positioning himself to benefit… Continue Reading
Evaluating DSM-5: A Debate at Harvard
There’s a debate on this topic scheduled for 12:00 p.m., March 11, 2014, at Wasserstein Hall, Cambridge, Massachusetts. The event is free, and open to the public. The debate is sponsored by the Petrie-Flom Center For Health Law Policy, Biotechnology, and Bioethics at Harvard Law School. This is the same group that produced the recent… Continue Reading
Affluenza: A New Mental Illness?
A short editorial piece by James Bradshaw in the current issue (Jan/Feb) of the National Psychologist discusses the trial of a 16-year-old male who killed four people and severely injured two others while driving under the influence of Valium (diazepam) and alcohol. He had stolen the alcohol from a store earlier, and his blood alcohol… Continue Reading
A Compelling Critique of Psychiatric ‘Diagnosis’
I have just read a very interesting and insightful article on this topic. It’s called After DSM-5: A Critical Mental Health Research Agenda for the 21st Century. It was written by Jeffrey Lacasse, PhD, and is a guest editorial published in Research on Social Work Practice. Here are some quotes: “At times, it has seemed… Continue Reading
DSM-5 – Dimensional Diagnoses – More Conflicts of Interest?
BACKGROUND On November 20, JAMA Psychiatry (formerly Archives of General Psychiatry) published an interesting letter. It was headed: Failure to Report Financial Disclosure Information, and was signed by Robert D. Gibbons PhD, David J Weiss PhD, Paul A. Pilkonis PhD, Ellen Frank, PhD , and David J. Kupfer MD. The letter is an apology for… Continue Reading
The Allen Frances – Lucy Johnstone Debate
On October 28, Allen Frances, MD, Chairperson of the DSM-IV task force, published an article on Psychology Today. It is titled Does It Make Sense To Scrap Psychiatric Diagnosis? and is essentially a response to the British Psychological Society’s Division of Clinical Psychology’s (DCP) call to abandon the medical model in situations where it is… Continue Reading
DSM-5: How to Salvage a Shipwreck
DSM-5 was published on May 18, 2013, amidst great criticism. The fundamental criticism was, and is, that the problems listed in the manual are not illnesses in any ordinary sense of the term. Other critics focused on the pathologizing of normality, the expansion of the diagnostic net by the lowering of thresholds, and the lack… Continue Reading
Psychiatry Still Doesn’t Get It
BACKGROUND On 3-4 June, the Institute of Psychiatry in London hosted an international conference to mark the publication of DSM-5. On June 10, Sir Simon Wessely, a department head at the Institute, published a paper called DSM-5 at the IoP. The paper is a summary of the conference proceedings, and also, in many respects, a… Continue Reading
Autism Prevalence Increase Questioned
BACKGROUND A couple of days ago (June 12) I posted Autism Prevalence Increasing. The article drew attention to a post by Kelly Brogan, MD, called See No Evil, Hear No Evil which had appeared on Mad in America on June 9. Dr. Brogan’s article had cited an alarming increase in the incidence of autism over… Continue Reading
Autism Prevalence Increasing
On two occasions in the past week or so, I have been involved in discussions on the increasing prevalence of autism. In the more recent of these, the individual with whom I was talking expressed the concern that the recent DSM enlargement of autism disorder to autism spectrum disorder might be an APA-pharma designed artifact… Continue Reading
Psychiatry Is Not Based On Science
On May 27, David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, wrote a piece on psychiatry called Heroes of Uncertainty. It’s an interesting and somewhat contradictory article. Here are some quotes: “As the handbook’s [DSM-5] many critics have noted, psychiatrists use terms like ‘mental disorder’ and ‘normal behavior,’ but there is no agreement on what these… Continue Reading
An Attempt to Defend DSM-5
BACKGROUND On 19 April, The Conversation ran an article titled Mental disorders: debunking some myths of the DSM-5, by Perminder Sachdev, MD. Dr. Sachdev is a psychiatrist, and was a member of the DSM-5’s Neurocognitive Disorders Work Group. He works at the School of Psychiatry, University of New South Wales, Australia. (Thanks to Dave Traxson… Continue Reading
The Psychiatric Side-shuffle Continues
Joel Paris, MD, is an eminent psychiatrist, and is also a Professor of Psychiatry at McGill University in Montréal. He has recently written a very timely book titled: The Intelligent Clinician’s Guide to the DSM-5, published by Oxford University Press. I have placed an order for this book through our local inter-library loan system, and… Continue Reading
The Empire Still Fighting Back: Dr. Lieberman
Jeffrey Lieberman, MD, is president-elect of the APA, and is scheduled to take over the reins from Dr. Dilip Jeste this month. Never in its history has the APA been subject to such scrutiny or criticism from such diverse sources, and one might reasonably have expected Dr. Lieberman to open on a conciliatory note, promising… Continue Reading
Live Video Chat: DSM-5
Today I received the following email from Emily Underwood, a reporter with Science Magazine. I am a reporter with Science magazine — after reading your Twitter feed and blog I thought you might be interested in a live video chat I’m hosting this week on the controversy surrounding the DSM V. My guests are Allen Frances of Duke… Continue Reading
DSM-5 Still Under Fire
Mental Health Europe (MHE) is a non-governmental organization “… committed to the promotion of positive mental health and well-being, the prevention of mental health problems, the improvement of care, advocacy for social inclusion and the protection of the human rights of (ex)users of mental health services and their families and carers.” It is composed of… Continue Reading
The Problem with DSM
There’s an interesting article in the NY Times Sunday review. You can see it here. It was written by Sally Satel MD, a psychiatrist, currently a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. The article is called: “Why the Fuss Over the DSM-5?” Dr. Satel’s central point is that psychiatrists only treat symptoms anyway and… Continue Reading
Separation Anxiety Disorder: Now Also for Adults
BACKGROUND The “diagnosis” of separation anxiety disorder has been around since DSM-III. In DSM-IV it is defined as “…excessive anxiety concerning separation from the home or from those to whom the person is attached.” (DSM-IV-TR p 121). The APA’s prevalence estimate is 4%. This “diagnosis” is listed under the heading: “Other Disorders of Infancy, Childhood,… Continue Reading
Psychiatry is a Lost Cause
It is easy to vilify psychiatrists. Their spurious conceptual framework, toxic “treatments’ and blatantly corrupt links to pharma make them easy targets. Their destructive activities, to which they resolutely cling, invite criticism which they steadfastly ignore. Any thoughts that perhaps they had seen the errors of their ways have been dashed by the soon-to-be published… Continue Reading
The Bereavement Exclusion and DSM-5
In DSM-IV, a “diagnosis” of major depressive disorder is based on the presence of a major depressive episode. A major depressive episode, in turn, is defined by the presence of five or more items from the following list during a two-week period: (1) depressed mood most of the day, nearly every day, as indicated by… Continue Reading
Another Blood Test for Depression
Today, courtesy of Talla Trialogue on Twitter, I have read an article by Shari Roan called Blood Test for Depression Proves It’s Not All In Your Head. You can see it here. The article appears to be an interview with Lonna Williams, the CEO of Ridge Diagnostics. This company is reportedly introducing a blood test… Continue Reading
Psychiatric Spin
BACKGROUND A couple of weeks ago (March 23), the New York Times did a feature on “Defining Mental Illness.” They invited Ronald Pies, MD (a psychiatry professor at SUNY Upstate Medical University and Tufts University) to submit a brief paper on this topic. Various people with opposing views were allowed to respond, and finally Dr…. Continue Reading
Somatic Symptom Disorder in DSM-5: You’re Crazy to Worry about Your Health
In DSM-IV, there is a category called Somatoform Disorders, the common feature of which is a preoccupation with “… physical symptoms that suggest a general medical condition …and are not fully explained by a general medical condition…” Four of the “diagnoses” in this category will be retired in DSM-5 and will be replaced by a… Continue Reading