Introduction
The history of medicine has had a clear need of for the categorization of mental disorders. There has however until recently been disagreements on the disorders that ought to be included in the categories and the optimal method for their organization. This has seen the development of the Diagnostic Statistical Manual-5 which will have changes from the Diagnostic Statistical Manual-4. Aragona M. (2009).
The changes in the new DSM-5 have been agreed upon and made for over a decade and will incorporate widening of what has previously been considered as a fact of life with relation to bad feelings and mild sadness. Such kind of feelings will now be termed as psychiatric illnesses and will require an individual to seek medical attention. The yet to be released new edition of the DSM has been developed with the intention of codifying and labeling all human afflictions as those that require medical attention including insurance coverage for such woes.
Process of developing the new DSM-5
The revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of mental disorders was initiated by Steven Hyman who was the then director of the National Institute of Mental Health, Steven M. the then director of the American Psychiatric Association and David J. the then chair of the American Psychiatric Association Committee on Psychiatric Diagnosis and Assessment. This process began in the year 1999. It was under the joint sponsorship of APA and NIMF that the research planning conference was commenced for the purposes of setting the research priorities. The conference had many participants some of which included experts in cognitive and behavioral science, molecular genetics among many others.
In the year 2000, Darrel A. started serving as the research director for the APA that is after being recruited from the NIMH. He was given the role of coordinating the development of DSM-5. The same year saw more conferences being held for the purposes of setting the DSM research agenda, proposing planning for the work groups’ membership and also to have the first face to face meetings. It was determined by leaders from the World Psychiatric Association, World Health Organization and the APA that there needed to be more research planning and information for various specific diagnostic areas. In the year 2002 the American Psychiatric Institute for Research and Education under the director Darrel A. and principals investigator Regier applied for a grant from the NIMH so as to be able to implement a series of research planning conferences that would have their aim on the scientific evidence for revisions of specific diagnostic areas. Michael B. (2002).
The steering committee which comprised of representatives from APIRE, three NIH institutes and the WHO had thirteen conferences held from the year 2004-2008. In each conference that was held, the participants composed papers that addressed specific diagnostic questions. The review of literature, the papers composed by the participants and the conference proceedings formed the basis for the development of the topic research agenda. The results of eleven conferences that were held were then published in peer-reviewed journals and the American Psychiatric Publishing. In the year 2006 a task force was formed that had the responsibility of overseeing the development of the DSM-5. Members of the task force were nominated and they included chairs of the diagnostic work groups.
For potential conflicts of interest all the work group members were reviewed and were approved by the APA board and were later announced in the year 2008. The work groups since late 2007 have held regular meetings for the purposes of reviewing the strengths and weaknesses of DSM-5. This then saw the development of research questions and hypotheses which was then followed by thorough investigations of literature reviews and the analysis of existing data. After conducting comprehensive reviews of scientific advancements, clinical expertise and targeted research analysis, the work groups have formulated a draft of DSM-5 diagnostic criteria. The final approved DSM-5 diagnostic criterion is expected to be released in May 2013.
New diagnostic category
One of the new diagnostic category in DSM-5 is elimination of the current substance abuse and dependence category to be replaced with new category ‘addiction and related disorders’. The new inclusions in the category will include substance use disorders where each drug will be identified in its own category. The elimination of the category of dependence is aimed at better differentiating between the compulsive drug seeking behavior of addiction and usual reactions to tolerance and withdrawal. This is usually experienced by some patients when they are using prescribed medications that have an effect on their central nervous system.
Controversy of the new DSM-5
The new DSM- 5 has been faced with controversy with even some of the experts in that field disagreeing with it. There are claims from experts that the new DSM-5 would lead to the development of newly misidentified false positive ‘patients’ in their millions. This would result to numerous incidences of overtreatment with provisions of medications that would be unnecessary, expensive and that would have a negative impact on the consumers. Frances (2009).
Reference:
Aragona M. (2009) The concept of mental disorder and the DSM-V; Dialogues in philosophy, mental and neural sciences. 2: 1-14.
Michael B. (2002) ‘A research agenda for DSM-V: summary of the DSM-V preplanning white papers, DSM-V prelude project: New York.
Frances, Allen (2009). A warning sign on the road to DSM-V : Beware of its unintended consequences. Psychiatric Times.
