On the DSM-5 25 Oct 2012
Often referred to as the bible of psychiatry, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Psychiatry (DSM) will be published in its fifth edition in May next year, once again transforming the way in which mental illness is defined. In this series of five short essays Paul Fitzgerald takes a closer look into the DSM providing a basic introduction to some of the issues.
Psychiatric research indicates that things are more complicated than the manual leads us to believe. In reality, many diagnostic categories overlap. Over the years, many new diagnostic categories have been proposed. As a consequence, many individuals now fit several diagnostic labels. Should their different disorders all be treated separately, or at the same time?
- Part 1: Explainer: what is the DSM and how are mental disorders diagnosed?
- Part 2: Forget talking, just fill a script: how modern psychiatry lost its mind
- Part 3: Strange or just plain weird? Cultural variation in mental illness
- Part 4: Don’t pull your hair out over trichotillomania
- Part 5: When stuff gets in the way of life: hoarding and the DSM-5
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